Oral Answers to Questions

Damian Hinds Excerpts

Tuesday 27th October 2015 Commons Chamber

[Neil Carmichael (Stroud) (Con)]

12. What steps he is taking to tackle the productivity gap.

[The Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury (Damian Hinds)]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right to highlight the importance of increased productivity, which, along with growing employment, will drive growth, raise living standards and ensure a better quality of life for our citizens. Our productivity plan set out a range of reforms designed to make sure that the UK remains a dynamic, open and enterprising economy, supported by long-term public and private investment in infrastructure, skills and science.

[Neil Carmichael]

Does the Minister agree that the recent report by the Governor of the Bank of England highlighting Britain’s membership of the European Union in positive and authoritative terms suggests that if we make sure that we do get productivity right and do protect our financial services, the prospects for our economy will be very good, both dynamically and in terms of growth?

[Damian Hinds]

As my right hon. Friend the Chancellor has noted, the best outcome for the UK economy is that we achieve major economic reform of the EU. We want the UK to play a leading role in creating a dynamic, competitive and outward-focused Europe, delivering prosperity and security for every country in the EU, particularly by accelerating the integration of the single market.

[Derek Twigg (Halton) (Lab)]

One important factor in increasing productivity is ensuring that companies are able to invest in new plant and machinery. Is the Minister convinced that banks are doing all they can to lend to companies to ensure that they can make such investment to improve productivity?

[Damian Hinds]

The hon. Gentleman is right to identify the importance of private investment. It is one reason why we have brought in the highest ever permanent level of the annual investment allowance, and of course banks play a crucial role in identifying those opportunities.

[Suella Fernandes (Fareham) (Con)]

Does the Minister agree that raising productivity is the route to raising living standards for everybody, and that this Government’s commitment to cutting corporation tax, our historically high investment in infrastructure and the planning reforms will all contribute to achieving that aim?

[Damian Hinds]

I agree with all that. It is rising productivity that underpins rising real wages and therefore improving living standards.

[Seema Malhotra (Feltham and Heston) (Lab/Co-op)]

Mr Speaker,

“We don’t export enough; we don’t train enough; we don’t save enough; we don’t invest enough; we don’t manufacture enough; we certainly don’t build enough, and far too much of the economic activity in our nation is concentrated here in the centre of London.”

The Chancellor may recognise his own words from his Mansion House speech in July. Why was he so damning of his own record?

[Damian Hinds]

My right hon. Friend the Chancellor has been absolutely consistent in identifying the need to rebalance the economy and export more. I am afraid that this country’s productivity gap has existed for a very long time—I am not even going to try to pin the blame entirely on the previous Labour Government; it has existed for longer than that. We need to fill that gap and address the shortcomings that our economy has had over a long period. The productivity plan that this Government are bringing in is doing just that.

[Seema Malhotra]

I thank the Minister for his answer. The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development has said that his productivity plan is “fatally undermined” by insufficient measures to improve the skills of the workforce. Could that be just one reason why the UK’s productivity gap compared with other G7 countries has widened to the largest on record since 1991?

[Damian Hinds]

The hon. Lady is right to identify the importance of skills, and that is why human development is absolutely at the heart of the productivity plan. The apprenticeship levy is a really important structural reform to help the delivery of 3 million apprenticeships. Then there is the network of institutes of technology and all the excellent work being done in the Department for Education, working on basic skills, including English and maths, which we know are vital and of such high value in the marketplace to both employers and employees.

[Caroline Ansell (Eastbourne) (Con)]

13. What plans he has to raise the personal allowance during this Parliament.