Oral Answers to Questions

David Wright Excerpts

Monday 3rd November 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Harper]

My hon. Friend makes a good point. I look at the performance of both providers, Atos and Capita, and he is right—where we see good practice and particular things that work with one, we want to make sure we share that information with the other. Having the two is helpful for the Department in assessing their performance.

[David Wright (Telford) (Lab)]

I support the point made by the hon. Member for Chippenham (Duncan Hames). Why are some of my constituents from Telford awaiting a PIP assessment being told that they will have to go to Stoke-on-Trent? It is an 80-mile round trip. One of the journey recommendations provided to one of my constituents involved sitting on a railway platform overnight waiting for a train. This is a disgrace. When is the Minister going to sort it out?

[Mr Harper]

Under the guidance that we give assessment providers for journey times, no one should have to travel for more than 90 minutes on public transport to go to an assessment, so if that was what the hon. Gentleman’s constituent was told, that was clearly a mistake. Ninety minutes is the maximum time people are supposed to have to travel by public transport, and for no longer.

Oral Answers to Questions

David Wright Excerpts

Monday 23rd June 2014 Commons Chamber

[Steve Webb]

My hon. Friend has made repeated representations about the broad rental market area for his constituency. We have used targeted funding to provide additional local housing allowance rates in areas of pressure, so although the general increase in the LHA rate is 1%, four of the five LHA rates for Cambridge, including that for shared accommodation, increased this April by 4%.

[David Wright (Telford) (Lab)]

What specific meetings has the Minister had with his colleagues in government with responsibility for housing to discuss schemes such as foyer projects, which link training initiatives with housing and support for young people?

[Steve Webb]

The hon. Gentleman raises the valuable work of foyer projects. My noble Friend Lord Freud, the Minister for welfare reform, leads on housing benefit for the Department, and I will ensure that he is aware of those projects, if he has not already held specific meetings about them. If the hon. Gentleman would like to give us further details, we will be happy to look at them.

amendment of the law

David Wright Excerpts

Tuesday 25th March 2014 Commons Chamber

[The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Mr Iain Duncan Smith)]

Last week the Chancellor presented his Budget, reiterating this Government’s commitment to a long-term economic plan. [Interruption.] I will say that again—a long-term economic plan, something that Labour does not have or is in search of, I am not sure. We are restoring the public finances and supporting businesses while providing security and stability for Britain’s families. I must say that today’s other news that inflation is down to 1.7% is very good news for hard-working families.

Following Labour’s great recession, which, I remind the House, wiped out 7.2% of our economy, worth £112 billion or £3,000 for every household in the country—it is still in denial—last week we learned that our economic recovery is now established and taking hold faster than originally forecast.

[David Wright (Telford) (Lab)]

Will the right hon. Gentleman give way?

[Mr Duncan Smith]

I will give way, but many Members want to speak, so first I want to make a little progress.

A year ago, the Office for Budget Responsibility predicted that growth in 2014 would be 1.8%. Now, the forecast is 2.7%, the biggest upward revision between Budgets for at least three decades. The deficit has fallen by a third in three years, and is forecast to halve by next year. By 2018-19, the OBR expects the public finances to move into surplus by some £4.8 billion for the first time in 18 years. Before that, in 2017-18, the fiscal mandate will be met a year early. Employment has been revised up and unemployment revised down in every year of the forecast.

[David Wright]

The right hon. Gentleman was talking earlier about the process under the previous Government, and he claimed that it was Labour’s recession. When he was leader of the Conservative party was there any point at which he did not agree with the spending plans of the then Chancellor of the Exchequer?

[Mr Duncan Smith]

I remind the hon. Gentleman that when one goes into government one is responsible for what happens. I know it is hard to take, but I have always believed that one wants to go into government to take responsibility for all the things that take place while one is government. He may not want to know it, but the reality is that the Labour was in government, the recession was very hard, and people have suffered.

There is still more to do—we have not done enough—if we are to secure Britain’s future. That is why the Budget set out further investment to ensure a resilient economy that delivers the promise for business that it can compete with the best in the world, and hope for families—this is important—about their prospects now, and for their children’s futures. From next week, corporation tax will be down to 21% from the 28% inherited from Labour, and will be down again to 20% next year—the joint lowest in the G20—making it competitive to invest in Britain, which is good for jobs and good for young people.

That will be matched by the best export finance, doubling direct lending to £3 billion and the investment allowance to £500,000, so that British business can take advantage of the best opportunities at home and abroad. Again, that is good for investment and good for growing jobs.

We are cutting tax not just for business but for Britain’s hard-working people, ensuring all can share in the benefits of Britain’s growth. By raising the personal allowance threshold to £10,500 next year, we are taking some 3 million of the lowest paid out of tax altogether and ensuring 25 million people pay less.

As a result of those changes since 2010, the typical taxpayer is £800 better off—something that Labour’s simple measure of real earnings fails to recognise. Similarly, through new child care support, we are helping families overcome prohibitive costs and ensuring that more parents find that it pays to get a job. Under universal credit, we have already invested £200 million to remove the 16-hour rule, so that 100,000 families in mini-jobs or part-time work receive help for the first time. Now, we are going further still, increasing child care support from 70% to 85% of costs so that work pays more for half a million families.

It pays to work, and now, finally, it pays to save, reversing the damaging trend whereby for too long Britain has borrowed too much and saved too little. The radical changes to retirement saving announced in the Budget are possible only because of the significant pensions reforms the Government have already delivered: a triple lock on the state pension; auto-enrolment to make saving the norm, helping up to 9 million save in a workplace pension—over 3 million are already saving, and I give due credit to the Minister of State, my hon. Friend the Member for Thornbury and Yate (Steve Webb) for that—and, vitally, the single-tier pension, for which I again give credit to my hon. Friend, set above the level of the means test, so that those who have contributed for 35 years have a secure basic income, without having to resort to additional state support in later life.

--- Later in debate ---

[David Wright (Telford) (Lab)]

I enjoyed the speech of the hon. Member for Penrith and The Border (Rory Stewart). He focused on issues relating to older people, and I think that many of the points he made were welcome. No doubt we shall have opportunities to explore them over the coming months and years. However, I have to dispute, for reasons that I shall explain shortly, his opening remark that the Budget had focused on young people.

As we know, this year’s Budget followed a huge global financial crisis and several years of flatlining in our economy. The growth that we are now seeing is very welcome, but I think we must acknowledge that, outside the M25 collar around London, it is quite patchy. In many areas, local communities are struggling to secure balanced growth in their economies, and it is undeniable that many people are experiencing a cost of living crisis. In Telford, which has a history of low wages, a history of temporary working and a history of agency working, people are still struggling to make ends meet. There has been some growth in the banking sector—the food banking sector, that is. More people are having to resort to the food bank in Telford, for a variety of reasons. I pay tribute to the volunteers who work at the food bank. I also say “Well done” to the local authority for funding it, and for recognising its contribution.

[Andrew Griffiths]

I understand the point that the hon. Gentleman is making—I too represent a northern, or midlands, constituency—but does he not welcome the fact that unemployment in his constituency has decreased by 25.6%?

[David Wright]

I intend to talk about unemployment, and about youth unemployment in particular. I know that the hon. Gentleman represents a northern seat, although I do not know how much further north it is than mine, if at all. Let me add that I enjoyed his comments about the brewing industry. I welcomed the Chancellor’s policy announcements about the industry, which I think were very positive, and, as a supporter of CAMRA, I agreed with much of what the hon. Gentleman had to say.

[Andrew Griffiths]

Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

--- Later in debate ---

[David Wright]

I want to develop my argument before I give way again.

Telford has a particularly good and proactive Labour council, which is driving forward investment projects that will have a very positive effect on our local community. Hundreds of millions of pounds have been invested in the Southwater scheme in the town centre as a result of a partnership between the public and private sectors. That is what a proactive Labour council can do to deliver jobs and investment in the community.

Let me now say a little about what was in the Budget, what was not in it, and what could have been in it. I think that we can give a cautious welcome to what the Government have said about pensions reform, but I also think that the devil will be in the detail. A number of Members have referred to the mis-selling scandals that have taken place over the past few decades. There are significant problems involving fees, and we shall need to look at the regulatory regime more broadly in relation to the pensions market and the pensions sector. I assume that a Bill will be announced in the Queen’s Speech.

There are serious issues to consider in respect of how the pensions sector sits alongside social care, and how we should fund social care in the long term. I am not making a party point. If we are to reform the pensions structure and change the way in which people receive resources and assets, there are serious questions to be asked about the echoes of that when it comes to how we should pay for longer-term care for the people who will need it as our population ages.

[Mark Tami (Alyn and Deeside) (Lab)]

Does my hon. Friend not think that it would have been better for the Government to explore some of those issues before announcing a policy that had clearly had not been fully thought through?

[David Wright]

I agree. I think that the Government could have made an announcement much earlier. They could have conducted a consultation exercise across the pensions sector, and we could then have reached a consensus in the House. The Chancellor is clearly attempting to use this issue as a political tool. We need to have a long-term debate, because these matters will affect our constituents in the very long term. I do trust people with their pension pots; I do trust people to make the right decisions. The people I do not particularly trust are those in the financial sector who will be coming up with new products to sell to people as the pension environment changes. That worries me, and we must think very carefully about how we regulate that sector.

The welfare cap is another issue that came up in the Budget. I do not have a problem with the welfare cap in principle as long as it acknowledges the prevailing economic circumstances that people face in local communities. A blanket cap that does not acknowledge changes in the economy or what is happening in the wider economy just will not work.

I also welcome the development on ISAs. The raising of the threshold to £15,000 is a good thing and gives a positive message about savings, but I have to say that the Conservative party seems to be living in a different world from me. Not many people in Telford can afford to invest £15,000 a year in an ISA, and I cannot think of many couples who can invest double the amount.

[Mr Raab]

Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

[David Wright]

No, I will not.

For many people in Telford £15,000 will be an annual income on a part-time job. People will struggle to be able to invest the kind of money the Conservative party clearly thinks they have got swilling around in their coffers, but never mind; they can go and enjoy themselves at the bingo.

Immediately after the Budget, I took part in a Federation of Small Businesses event—a phone-in debate and panel discussion at a hotel in Telford. I have to say that the small business community, and certainly the people I spoke to in the phone-in, were quite disappointed. They were concerned that there had not been more movement on business rates and that a lot of the initiatives the Chancellor was talking about were targeted at larger businesses. They felt they were getting a bit of a raw deal and they were being ignored. My view has always been that in our modern economy the strength of our future economy and of our nation will depend very much on the success of small and medium-sized enterprises. We must, therefore, think much more about support for small businesses.

There were two glaring omissions from the Budget, the first of which relates to young people. Unemployment rates among young people in Telford and Wrekin remain stubbornly high and hundreds more young people are underemployed. The Chancellor spent little time in his speech talking about young people, but it should have been his top priority. It is for us in Telford. The local authority is investing £1.3 million specifically to target youth unemployment, and the job junction initiative is helping people in towns across the borough, providing support for them to get back into work. We also have other partners, such as Telford college of arts and technology, which have programmes targeted at getting young people who have found formal education difficult back into education and into securing skills and training. I recently had the pleasure of opening a campus facility for the college in Dawley.

The other omission from the Budget was any discussion of the need for a significant increase in the provision of social sector housing units for rent. Understandably, we all want to talk about affordable housing for sale in this country, but we face a real dilemma in that we do not have enough properties for rent in the social housing sector. The next Labour Government must have an enormous drive to build more social housing, to ensure that we deal with what is one of the biggest issues for my constituents.

Oral Answers to Questions

David Wright Excerpts

Monday 20th May 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Duncan Smith]

Yes; this is an intriguing figure. As we have succeeded in enabling people who, when the last Government left office, were inactive but of working age to find employment, the total number of people without jobs has fallen by 380,000 since 2010. That fall has been driven by a fall in the rate of inactivity that was left by the last Government. As a result, the number of people receiving incapacity benefit and a number of other benefits—including lone parents—is at its lowest for some two decades.

[David Wright (Telford) (Lab)]

Unemployment, including youth unemployment, is stubbornly high in Telford. Does the Secretary of State still talk to the Chancellor of the Exchequer or indeed the Prime Minister, because there was nothing in the Budget about youth unemployment, and there was nothing about it in the Queen’s Speech? Is he talking to them at all?

[Mr Duncan Smith]

I talk to them regularly, and they talk to me. What I tell them constantly is that the figure for youth unemployment is lower than the figure that we inherited. We have also introduced the Youth Contract, which provides us with extra money so that we can give many people below the age of 24 a real chance to benefit from work experience programmes and apprenticeships. Many more people will go into apprenticeships under this Government than ever went into them under the last Government.

Housing Benefit (Under-occupancy Penalty)

David Wright Excerpts

Wednesday 27th February 2013 Commons Chamber

[Dr Whiteford]

The policy is not only counter-productive; it is just not thought through.

[David Wright (Telford) (Lab)]

The hon. Lady is making a really good speech and she has support from across the Opposition Benches. In my view, the policy is thought through. However, it is not about fitting people in according to their housing needs or about under-occupation; it is about cutting people’s benefits by ensuring that people pay the difference. The Government know that people will have to pay the difference because they cannot move.

[Dr Whiteford]

The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right.

It is helpful to return to the point made by my hon. Friend the Member for Angus (Mr Weir) about homes that have been adapted. We estimate that at least 16,000 homes in Scotland that are affected by the bedroom tax have been adapted. We are told by the Government repeatedly that an extra £50 million in discretionary housing payment has been allocated to local authorities to plug the shortfall in rent so that those in adapted homes do not have to move.

Let us do the sums. The additional discretionary housing payment amounts to only 6% of the total shortfall across the UK. In Scotland, it amounts to a paltry 4% of the shortfall. That means that even if Scotland’s entire discretionary housing allocation—not just the extra bit, but the entire allocation—was focused solely on those disabled people living in adapted homes, it would not cover the gap in tenants’ incomes left by the bedroom tax. This is a shameless attempt to penalise physically disabled people. They are being asked to carry the can for this dog’s breakfast of a policy.

Oral Answers to Questions

David Wright Excerpts

Monday 28th January 2013 Commons Chamber

[Steve Webb]

My hon. Friend is right that ensuring that we make the best use of the scarce resource that is the social housing stock does involve people moving to smaller accommodation later on in life—although not pensioners, who we have exempted. Many of the best housing associations and councils are managing their housing stock better in response to this change.

[David Wright (Telford) (Lab)]

The bedroom tax will have an impact on thousands of people in Telford. Many might want to move to smaller accommodation, but it is not available and the Government know it is not available. The policy is designed to penalise people—it is nothing to do with the housing market.

[Steve Webb]

There is a danger that this is viewed in a very static way. Many of the best housing associations are looking at groups of constituents, some of whom are over-occupying and are overcrowded, and are moving people around to create space. In the longer term, we need a housing stock that better meets the needs of people on the waiting list, and it is time that successive Governments addressed that.

Oral Answers to Questions

David Wright Excerpts

Monday 5th November 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Duncan Smith]

It would be pretty negligible because it is paid to everybody, and it would therefore be impossible to figure it out. Across the board in the Department for Work and Pensions, we are beginning to see a downward pressure on fraud and error. My hon. Friend will be pleased to see that over the next few years we will be saving considerable amounts of money.

[David Wright (Telford) (Lab)]

How many people who have been medically retired from their jobs with severe conditions are being put through the work capability assessment and having their benefits attacked?

[Mr Hoban]

I do not have the precise figures to hand, but I will look into them and write to the hon. Gentleman. It is important to remember—I think there is agreement on both sides of the House about this—that working helps many people’s medical conditions; there is very strong evidence to support that. That is at the heart of the work capability assessment that Labour introduced when in government, and we are trying to sort out the problems with it.

Living Standards (Telford)

David Wright Excerpts

Wednesday 2nd November 2011 Westminster Hall

[David Wright (Telford) (Lab)]

It is a great pleasure to see you in the Chair, Mr Robertson, on a fine morning in Westminster. Having said that it is a fine morning in Westminster, it is a difficult time for families in Telford, who are struggling with higher food prices and energy bills, and who are worried about their jobs and their children’s futures. People in Telford are experiencing a significant squeeze on their living standards as a result of the global economic crisis and the deficit reduction strategy being pursued by the coalition Government. The global financial crisis has hit every country. The downturn was not created in Britain; it was caused by the irresponsible actions of the banks, which pushed up deficits in every major country. Every country, therefore, faces the challenge of getting its deficit down. The question is how quickly that should be done, and how to ensure that economic recovery is not choked off, which would make things worse.

I will return to that theme later, but I want to focus specifically on Telford and the situation that my constituents find themselves in. There is a very worrying trend in the number of people out of work and claiming jobseeker’s allowance in Telford. As of September this year, 2,929 are in that position. That is an 85.1% increase on the same period in 2006, with a 6% rise since last year. Some 345 people have been claiming for 12 months or more; that is 5% of 16 to 64-year-olds, and 6.6% of the economically active population. More than 1,000 people aged 24 and under claimed jobseeker’s allowance in September. A third of the total number of people unemployed are young people. More than three people— 3.4 people, in fact—are chasing every vacancy that is notified to Jobcentre Plus. The actual figure is probably higher than that, as companies tell me that they get hundreds of applications for every job that they advertise. I visit companies in my constituency, and they always get a flood of applications when they advertise a post.

Telford has a large number of public sector jobs, and some of the biggest private sector employers are reliant on public sector contracts. Uncertainty over job cuts and low growth in the economy generally—in fact, a virtual flatlining of growth—has left people worried about their future. In turn, that has a number of consequences, such as a sapping of confidence in the local housing market. A report published yesterday by the Home Builders Federation shows that in 2000, house prices in Telford and Wrekin stood at 3.41 times average earnings. In 2010, that had risen to 6.1 times average earnings. Lower-quartile house prices—the properties most likely to be bought by first-time buyers—have risen from £42,750 in 2000 to £107,500 in 2010. People are struggling to secure mortgages, and entry into the market is very difficult for first-time buyers. There is a burgeoning private rental market in Telford. Every week, when I pick up the Telford Journal, there are significant numbers of properties up for private rent—a clear sign that the sales sector of the local housing market is struggling, and that there is a lack of confidence.

That is the backdrop to an intense squeeze on living standards for those who are in work. We all know that inflation is high, with the retail prices index at 5.6%—the highest annual rate since 1991. The Government seem to be largely ignoring that fact. They are keen to downplay the importance of inflation in the economic landscape, like someone who thinks that if they cover their eyes the problem will just go away. For those on low and fixed incomes, including pensioners, inflation is a hammer blow, particularly when interest rates on savings are not keeping pace with inflation. Meanwhile, wages are being squeezed. Indeed, the Governor of the Bank of England has said that real wages this year are likely to be no higher than they were in 2005. This is the first time since the 1920s that wages have fallen over a six-year period.

Food prices are on the rise, and the big six energy companies have announced sharp rises in prices. Families now face average bills of more than £1,200 a year for gas and electricity. Across the west midlands, approximately one household in four lives in fuel poverty, spending more than 10% of its income on fuel costs. I regularly see constituents in Telford who complain bitterly about fuel prices. Households in poor-quality housing face even higher energy costs. We need a major review of how the energy market operates, and we need to bring greater competition into the market. Privatisation effectively created a six-company cartel for energy, with the big providers dominating the scene. We need to diversify that market if we can, or at least do what the Prime Minister suggested—I support him on this—and ensure better information on bills, so that people can compare prices against those of other providers. That is crucial. We need energy companies to invest more, and to try to bring down prices.

I mentioned the number of young people claiming JSA in Telford. The next generation has seen the future jobs fund and the education maintenance allowance scrapped. Alongside that, two thirds of universities plan to charge the new £9,000 tuition fee, and average fees will be more than £8,000. Clearly, the situation is very difficult for young people who are looking to get into employment, training or education. We need a massive drive to get young people into education, training or work. Our activity needs to be focused on the needs of young people in towns such as Telford.

[Mark Pritchard (The Wrekin) (Con)]

Does the hon. Gentleman accept that one of the ways that standards of living can be improved for the constituents of Telford and The Wrekin is by ensuring that public finances are managed well, both nationally and locally? Given that Telford and Wrekin borough council has a new Labour administration, does he support my call for a council tax freeze in the coming years to help those who are struggling to make ends meet?

[David Wright]

Clearly, the council will have to look at its budget very carefully. It will have a number of pressures in the next year or so. We will have to consider the Government’s funding proposals for the local authority. Clearly, the council will look at its budget-setting. Its difficulty is that massive cuts are in place, and they are affecting the poorest people in our community. The answer to the hon. Gentleman is that we will have to wait and see. At the moment, I do not know what the council’s position will be on council tax.

On household incomes, the Government’s decisions on VAT rub salt in the wounds of every family in Telford. The latest report from the Office for National Statistics states:

“The poorest fifth of households in the UK spent a higher proportion of their expenditure on goods and services that attracted Value Added Tax (VAT) in 2009/10 than in 1986…Poorer households in 1986 spent a smaller proportion of their expenditure, than poorer households in 2009/10, on discretionary items which attracted VAT…the data shows the poorest fifth of households in the UK pay more in VAT as a percentage of their disposable income than the richest fifth.”

VAT is hitting the poorest people in our community the most. We need a quick rethink on our VAT strategy. We need to ensure that we support households that find it very difficult to make ends meet.

I mentioned pensioners earlier, and I wanted to say that many of them in Telford tell me how important the winter fuel allowance and free local bus travel are. The yearly tax-free payment to help people pay for their heating in winter was worth £250 for over-60s and £400 for over-80s. I was extremely disappointed that the coalition decided that the payment will revert to £200 and £300 for the two age groups in the winter of 2011-12. I urge the Government to think again in their pre-Budget report.

I do not claim that Telford has problems that have emerged only in the past 18 months—frankly, that would be ridiculous. Telford and Wrekin has higher than average levels of multiple deprivation, especially in wards in the south of the town, and we have a significant number of children living in poverty. The End Child Poverty campaign group, which fights to give poor families a voice, estimates that 30% of children in the Telford constituency were living in poverty in mid-2010, compared with 23.1% in England as a whole; in some wards, the figure was approaching more than double that. Children are classified as being in poverty if they live in families in receipt of out-of-work benefits, or in receipt of in-work tax credits, and with a reported income of less than 60% of median income. Telford and Wrekin’s NHS trust states that 9,305 children are living in poverty in the borough.

Those problems have no quick fix. I am proud of the work of the previous Government, who introduced tax credits and a range of benefits to support children. Sure Start children’s centres have been a major success in the town, and the Building Schools for the Future programme promised the opportunity for every child to enjoy state-of-the-art learning facilities. Locally, that policy was supported on both sides of the council chamber, I am pleased to say, but we must still do more to support families.

People in Telford regularly raise the issue of the cost of child care and the continuing inflexibility of the labour market, and we need to do much more work on those policy areas, but the key to improving living standards in the town is to secure growth in the economy and attract more high-paid work. That approach helps people who are struggling and who are having their living standards squeezed, and supports business.

Immediate action should include the following five points—they will not come as too much of a surprise to you, Mr Robertson. First, a £2 billion tax on bank bonuses could fund 100,000 jobs for young people and build 25,000 affordable homes. Secondly, long-term investment projects, such as new school buildings, should be brought forward—we have done well in Telford with that kind of approach. Thirdly, the VAT rise should be temporarily reversed, which would give a £450 boost for families with children. Fourthly, there ought to be a one-year cut in VAT to 5% on home improvements and repairs, to help small businesses. Fifthly, there ought to be a tax break for every small firm that takes on extra workers. In short, in Telford we need Labour’s five-point plan for growth.