Jobs and Business

Debate between Chuka Umunna and Sharon Hodgson

Friday 10th May 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Umunna]

It is funny that the hon. Gentleman should bring that up, as I was just coming on to it.

Finally, on tax and other incentives for business, we have been arguing for months for a national insurance break for micro-businesses taking on extra workers. The full scale of the failure of the Government’s initial national insurance holiday scheme was laid out for all to see by the accountants UHY Hacker Young last week when they disclosed that the scheme, which the Chancellor said would benefit over 400,000 small businesses, reached a new low in December last year, attracting only 400 applications. I thus say to the hon. Gentleman that I really hope that the National Insurance Contributions Bill in this year’s Queen’s Speech, which introduces the employment allowance—no doubt there is more detail in the paper the hon. Gentleman has with him—will prove far more successful than the Government’s scheme to date. [Interruption.] I am asked whether I support it, but I have just said that I hope the scheme proves to be far more successful than the lamentable failure of the Government’s scheme to date.

Before I finish, I want to deal with the Government’s consumer rights Bill. As I said, empowering the consumer is an important part of ensuring healthy and efficient functioning markets. The Government have included a consumer rights Bill in the Queen’s Speech. We are told that it consolidates consumer rights legislation in one place, bringing together eight pieces of legislation and covering goods, services, digital content and unfair contract terms. I agree that consumers need more clarity on their rights, but from what we have seen so far, the Government’s proposals appear to fall short of the action that we have called for to help families, to ensure a fair deal on energy prices and to tackle high rail fares, for example.

I think that the Government’s changes in this area have been muddled, as we have seen this week. First, the Government were going to abolish Consumer Focus, but now we learn that they are going to keep it in a slightly watered down form, and it will now be called Consumer Futures. It seems that it will be doing a similar job, but who knows what landscape we will be left with.

As part of our policy review, which was led by consumer champion, Ed Mayo last year, we have been planning to bolster collective action and to empower consumers so that they can club together more easily to seek redress. As the consumer rights Bill makes progress, we will press Ministers for a strong, accessible collective redress mechanism—one that mirrors the Portuguese and Australian models, which remove the legal excesses. It will not be a US-style class action, where litigation is dominant. We will address the matter in more detail when the Bill begins its passage through the House.

So there we have it: after three wasted years, we have yet another wasted chance to bring change to this country—change that it desperately needs.

[Mrs Sharon Hodgson (Washington and Sunderland West) (Lab)]

I listened with interest to what my hon. Friend said about the consumer rights Bill, to which I hope to contribute. Does he agree that this might provide a fantastic opportunity to address the disgraceful practices of the secondary ticketing market, which has now become industrialised ticket touting? Does he agree that we have a great opportunity to put fans first?

[Mr Umunna]

I completely agree with my hon. Friend, who has done fantastic work in this area. We will scrutinise the Bill closely and if it does not contain provisions to address secondary ticketing, we will table amendments to bring about much-needed change on this issue, which my hon. Friend has championed for a long time.

Despite the difficult economic climate, I do not doubt for one moment our businesses’ ability to overcome the hurdles in front of us. I see dynamism and innovation as I go around the country meeting so many of our entrepreneurs, which I have found to be an inspiration. I wish only that we had a Government equal to the task of helping those entrepreneurs to go on and thrive. It is clear from the Queen’s Speech that this Government are out of steam, and that until we have a general election and the chance of a Labour Government, we shall not see the kind of government that I think our businesses want and need.