Middle East: Economic Update

Dan Carden Excerpts

Tuesday 24th March 2026 Commons Chamber

[Rachel Reeves]

It is because of those concerns and not wanting to put any upward pressure on borrowing costs or inflation that we are looking at what targeted support can be offered, rather than the blanket support we saw the previous time energy bills went up. The Bank of England offered its assessment on the potential impacts on inflation, but as the Governor of the Bank of England has also said, the upward pressure on inflation because of the conflict in the middle east is tempered somewhat by the action that I took in my Budget last year, which reduces inflation by between 0.4 and 0.5 percentage points, taking off some of that upward pressure on inflation.

[Dan Carden (Liverpool Walton) (Lab)]

I thank the Chancellor for her statement. May I ask her to do something for a specific group of people? Constituents who have to rent their home in the private rented market, especially those in more deprived communities like mine, will see their energy bills go up, but their biggest outgoing each month will still be their rent, which all too often is exploitative in areas like mine. We had rent controls in this country from the first world war up until the dying days of Margaret Thatcher’s Government. What can she do, thinking outside the box, to tackle this issue?

[Rachel Reeves]

I recognise that in my hon. Friend’s constituency, like in mine and many others, more people are in private rented accommodation than own their own home. One reason for introducing the Renters Rights Act 2025, which was opposed by the Conservative party, is to give people greater certainty, to enable them to challenge increases in their rents, and to give them greater rights over eviction, which was done to help his and all of our constituents.