Budget Resolutions

Debate between Daisy Cooper and Victoria Collins

Tuesday 3rd November 2026 Commons Chamber

[Victoria Collins (Harpenden and Berkhamsted) (LD)]

Britain needed a much bolder Budget for growth—one for families and businesses, and to boost our economy.

For families, heating—or even cooling—our homes, getting around and feeding the family are all costs that continue to rise. The energy price cap is set to rise again in January, and 1.4 million low-income households in higher council tax bands will miss out under this Budget. However, our Lib Dem essential energy guarantee would take £100 off the average bill for everyone, paid for by clawing back excess profits made by monopoly energy operators. We would also cut rail fares by 10%, bus fares to £1 and fuel duty by 10p, paid for by the Treasury’s fuel price windfall.

For most businesses, rent, rates, energy and hiring costs are going up. At DJ’s Play Zone in my local area, Mark says that his rates bill has gone up by 52%, from £21,000 to £32,000 a year, on top of the national insurance jobs tax and rising wages. He is running a small business in a big building, so small business relief never reaches him. The Chancellor’s new £18,000 threshold changes nothing for him and many other businesses that slip under the net.

[Daisy Cooper]

My hon. Friend mentions the example of an indoor play centre where the business rates are going up. Is she concerned, as I am, that this winter those increases will simply price children out of play altogether?

[Victoria Collins]

Absolutely. That is why we need wholesale reform, looking at how we are supporting the businesses that need it and at the broken business rates system.

Charlotte from Berkhamsted Bookshop tells me that the average independent bookshop will need to sell over 1,000 more books a year just to cover rising costs. Christopher, who runs a small martial arts academy in Tring, tells me that rising rent and service charges threaten his future, with almost no protection for small commercial tenants. Liberal Democrats have repeatedly called for more to be done to help our local businesses, including replacing business rates with a commercial landowner levy and cutting VAT on hospitality by 5p.

National Insurance Contributions (Secondary Class 1 Contributions) Bill

Debate between Daisy Cooper and Victoria Collins

Consideration of Lords amendments
Wednesday 19th March 2025 Commons Chamber

[Daisy Cooper]

I agree wholeheartedly with my hon. Friend. One of the main problems with this particular measure is that it is so self-defeating. It is effectively robbing Peter to pay Paul. I have said it once and I will say it again: this jobs tax is damaging to growth, and self-defeating for our health and care services. We Liberal Democrats have opposed it, and throughout the debate on the Bill we have suggested alternative ways—fairer ways—in which the Government could raise the same amount of revenue. We have also asked the Government, if they are indeed pursuing this measure, at the very least to exempt health and care providers.

The Government will not get hospitals out of a financial hole by taxing the GPs, dentists, pharmacies and care providers who prevent people from needing to go to hospital in the first place. The Government will not alleviate the pressure on hospitals by taxing hospices, which will now be forced to withdraw services from people who are trying to die with independence and dignity in a setting of their choosing, rather than in a cramped hospital corridor or a sterile ward. The Government will not keep people out of hospitals by levying a tax on the very health and care charities that provide vital services for those who are vulnerable—warm spaces, friendship for the isolated, financial advice, welfare support and social care. The Minister said that extra money would go into social care, but we know that the money allocated to it in the Budget is dwarfed by the increase in national insurance contributions. We cannot save the NHS unless we fix social care.

[Victoria Collins (Harpenden and Berkhamsted) (LD)]

There are many similar examples, but Quantum Care in Hertfordshire, a not-for-profit social care business, says that its costs will rise by £1.7 million in national insurance contributions alone, which will also have an impact on council and social services. That is certainly not solving our health and social care problem.