Finance (No. 4) Bill

David Mowat Excerpts

Thursday 19th April 2012 Commons Chamber

[Dr Whiteford]

The hon. Member for Leeds West pointed out that nobody on an income of more than £25,500 a year will be affected by this measure. Frankly, with average earnings above that, I do think that most of those pensioners are living in what most people would consider to be quite modest circumstances, particularly when, as I have already argued, they have to pay much greater heating costs. Their lifestyles are not without particular burdens that they have to bear, and they do not have a chance to improve them.

[David Mowat (Warrington South) (Con)]

rose—

[Dr Whiteford]

I shall not take another intervention; I am trying to conclude my remarks.

The Government had a chance to regain the confidence of pensioners after a long hiatus and much erosion of the position of pensioners over a number of decades, but they have squandered that opportunity. They are sneaking through these proposals in the fine print, claiming that they are for simplification. That undermines whatever confidence pensioners had left in them. On the streets of my constituency, people have been angry to see that what has been given with one hand as a modest increase in the state pension has been taken away from their occupational pension with the other hand.

We are leaving pensioners without any real incentive to save. We are not going to tackle the challenges of our changing demographics with that kind of attitude because people will question whether it is worth their while putting money aside for their retirement. I do not think that is a way forward, and I hope the Government will step back from this very regressive measure.

--- Later in debate ---

The Wirral has a high proportion of older people, but some parts of the country, such as parts of London, have high levels of worklessness and a high proportion of younger people who have lost out as a result of the removal of the education maintenance allowance and other changes. That means that particular localities are having money taken out of their economies from different directions as a result of Government policy. We cannot shy away from looking at the impact that that has on the possibility of developing those areas. When any company seeking to invest looks at whether it should put money into the Wirral or any other area, it will first do the postcode analysis of the resources that local people have, so it makes it harder and harder to get investment when the Government, by different means over time, seem to be taking money out of particular localities.

[David Mowat]

The hon. Lady is making a powerful point about the cumulative impact of policies on particular regions of the country. Her constituency is close to mine. Will she concede that in the last year of the previous Government the north-south divide, measured in terms of gross value added per head, reached its maximum level in the past 20 years? That is something we have to fix in this Parliament, not continue.

[Alison McGovern]

I am so pleased that the hon. Gentleman chose to mention the north-south divide, because it gives me the opportunity to discuss a concept that trips off the tongue so easily but is actually extremely unhelpful in tackling the kind of local economic development that I am asking Treasury Ministers to consider when making decisions. He will know as well as I do that although the north-west, which we both represent, has significant deprivation, it also has some pretty wealthy areas—the Chancellor himself has the honour of representing one such area. The north-south divide, as a concept, masks a whole lot of other inequalities. Again, I mention the inequalities in London. It cannot be said that there is a simple, straightforward north-south divide in this country affecting every locality in the same way; we should have a much more fine-grained analysis. There are places in the north that are extremely successful and places in the south that really need help.

Before I try the patience of the Chair any further, I will return to the importance of age-related allowances.

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[Graham Evans]

My hon. Friend makes a good point, which the Prime Minister made yesterday at the Dispatch Box.

[David Mowat]

A number of Labour Members have mentioned bravery in respect of Government Members and some Budget measures. I was not a Member of the House before the last election, but perhaps Opposition Members who were could tell us whether they lobbied the Chancellor for a 45% or a 50% tax rate during the 12 years of the Labour Government, in which the disparity between rich and poor in this country rose to the highest level ever.

[Graham Evans]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for making that point on the disparity between rich and poor under the Labour Government.

I accept the point made by the hon. Member for Stretford and Urmston (Kate Green), but bringing the UK’s top rate of tax in line with other international competitors such as Italy, France and Germany, and cutting corporation tax to the lowest level in the G7, will send out a powerful message that enterprise and aspiration are valued in this country. In the spirit of the Leader of the Opposition’s recent Occupy-style hyperbole, I want the 1% to come and occupy and therefore pay tax and create jobs in the UK.