Chris Ruane
Main Page: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)Department Debates - View all Chris Ruane's debates with the HM Treasury
(12 years ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Albert Owen
My hon. Friend is absolutely right. The people who have contacted me on this issue are not natural Labour supporters, but business entrepreneurs. The Government have said on numerous occasions that they want to encourage aspiration and to help entrepreneurs and those who want to take risks in business. Those are the very people who will be damaged by this proposal.
Chris Ruane (Vale of Clwyd) (Lab)
Does my hon. Friend agree that the problem relates not only to static caravans, but to mobile caravans? A company called Fifth Wheel in my constituency has just invested £1 million in the manufacture of mobile caravans. It has won 10 awards from the Caravan Club of Great Britain in the past 10 years and two awards from the Daily Post. Its legs have been knocked from underneath it by a tax that has been foisted on it without any consultation.
Albert Owen
I am grateful to my hon. Friend for making that point. I am referring specifically to static caravans, but he is right to say that this important industry includes mobile caravans.
A business that employs many hundreds of people across the United Kingdom, including in my constituency, wrote to me to say that 60% of its turnover comes from the sale of caravans. The proposal will be a huge knock to such companies.
Because of the time, I shall keep my remarks brief, but I want to raise one issue that has also been referred to by the hon. Member for St Ives (Andrew George). It will predominantly be the young people who work in this industry who will lose their jobs as a consequence of the proposal. Young people face many pressures in rural areas, especially in finding work and finding a home. Many people get a mobile home in such areas because they aspire to have a second home. They then rent it out to other people when they are not using it, which contributes to the local economy. However, in deprived areas where property prices are low, those people may transfer—because they want to come to beautiful places such as the Isle of Anglesey—