Oral Answers to Questions
Diana Johnson Excerpts(12 years ago)
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Mr Gauke
I can assure my hon. Friend that we will listen carefully and sympathetically to the arguments that are put to us. He, indeed, has already made strong representations on this point, and we have of course extended the consultation period to 18 May, as the Chief Secretary to the Treasury pointed out earlier.
Diana Johnson (Kingston upon Hull North) (Lab)
Can the Minister explain to my constituents why VAT on ski lifts in the Chief Secretary to the Treasury’s constituency is being reduced, but in my constituency thousands of people are going to lose their jobs with the implementation of the Government’s plans to increase VAT on static caravans?
Mr Gauke
VAT is chargeable on mobile caravans, camper vans, narrowboats, beach huts and tents, and we are seeking greater consistency in the area.
With regard to ski lifts and other forms of cable-based transport, there is a reduced rate in France, Germany, Austria and Italy, and most areas of public transport are zero-rated.
Finance (No. 4) Bill
Diana Johnson Excerpts(12 years ago)
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Alan Johnson
My hon. Friend raises a crucial point. I say the following to those on the Treasury Bench: this was meant to be a Budget for manufacturing; it was meant to be a Budget for growth in the British economy; it was meant to be a Budget that ended some of the anomalies in the north-south divide.
How can we go ahead with this measure, given that hon. Members in all parts of the House know the effect it will have on jobs and British manufacturing, and know that the savings of about £40 million to £45 million set out in the Treasury’s own document will be far exceeded by the costs in unemployment, waste and redundancies throughout the country? How can the Treasury possibly decide, after 40 years of looking at this, that this is the year in which it needs to put the price of caravans up? Again, its own figures show that that will lead to a 30% reduction in demand, although the National Caravan Council says that the real figure will be more like 75% or 80%. I believe Treasury officials now understand that their own analysis was deeply flawed.
Diana Johnson (Kingston upon Hull North) (Lab)
As a Hull MP, I wish to stress that we are facing job losses in so many private sector businesses, from BAE Systems, Comet and P&O to many others across the city. It sounds as if we may end up with thousands more job losses as a result of this measure, and we really cannot afford to see that happen in our city.
Alan Johnson
My hon. Friend is right because, on the Treasury’s assessment, more than 1,000 jobs are going to be lost. Some 90% of this manufacturing industry is based in east Yorkshire. I say to those on the Treasury Bench that this is not an industry that has asked for help from the Government—indeed, in 2008-09, it had to pull itself up by its bootstraps. Having done that, this is not a question of its asking the Government for any help; it is about asking the Treasury and the Government not to inflict on that industry a possible death blow to a great British manufacturing success story.
Mr David Davis (Haltemprice and Howden) (Con)
I want to associate myself with the comments made by my right hon. Friend the Member for East Yorkshire (Mr Knight), by my hon. Friend the Member for Beverley and Holderness (Mr Stuart), and by my right hon. Friend the Member for Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle (Alan Johnson); I embarrass him again by calling him that. The proposal for VAT on static caravans will have a seriously deleterious effect on all of east Yorkshire, including Hull, dramatically cutting employment in the area at a time when we are trying to encourage growth and to balance the books. This proposal will do neither; in fact, it will reverse both.
This is a Finance Bill; the aim is to raise money. The latest estimates of the employment impact of this measure are that it will result in 4,000 to 7,500 job losses, of which 1,500 to 2,000 will be in the vicinity of our constituencies. The effect of that in financial terms is pretty straightforward to calculate. The Government estimate that they will raise £30 million to £40 million in VAT from this change. They will lose between £32 million and £65 million in lost national insurance, lost inland revenue, and extra welfare costs. It will therefore do the opposite of what the Budget is attempting to do. When I put that point to the Treasury, people said to me: “We don’t calculate things in that way.” That might sound silly, but there is a substantive point behind it—as I am sure that the shadow Chancellor, who is smiling, will know. Usually when one introduces a tax change that leads to job losses, people will, in due course, find another job. In east Yorkshire, two of the three Hull seats have dramatically high unemployment levels already, and the ratio of jobs available to unemployed people seeking them is one of the highest in the country. As a result, the resulting unemployment will not be short term but is likely to last for more than five years. We should calculate the effects of the proposal in this way because, for the foreseeable future, it will cost more than it will raise.
Diana Johnson
The right hon. Gentleman is making an excellent speech. Has he seen today’s report that 43 people in my constituency are chasing every vacancy? I set that figure alongside the comments that he is making.
Mr Davis
The hon. Lady makes a powerful point that I am not unfamiliar with. We have all been in similar battles over job losses at BAE in Brough and, in my constituency, job losses to the tune of 1,700 have been announced in the past six months.
This proposal does not stand up, on the Government’s own criteria. Accordingly, I support new clause 6 and will vote for it when it is put to the test.
Finance (No. 4) Bill
Diana Johnson Excerpts(12 years ago)
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Rachel Reeves
In the US there is much more generous tax relief for legacies, for example, so it is a very different tax system. In many ways it is more generous than the system in this country. What I would like to see is policy being made in the proper way, which is by consulting the people who will be affected by it—consulting the charities, which stand to lose tens and perhaps hundreds of millions of pounds and which do such good work. Like the Red Cross, they say that their ability to do their work will be hampered by the changes in tax relief. That consultation should have happened before, rather than after, the Government’s policies were announced and the financial changes to Treasury revenues were introduced.
Calling people who give to charities tax dodgers, as this Government imply, and referring to charities as dodgy, when those charities include Macmillan, Red Cross, UNICEF and Oxfam, is unhelpful. If the Government truly want to increase giving, the language should be tempered and people who try to do the right thing and support worthwhile causes should be encouraged, not insulted, for what they do.
Because the Government have been so keen to gloss over the real revenue-raising measures in the Bill, it is right that we take time this week to examine and evaluate them. This week Labour will give Members an opportunity to debate and vote on specific aspects of the Budget. We will give Members an opportunity to explore the effects of extending VAT, as has been mentioned by hon. Members this afternoon, and putting VAT up to 20% on the price of haircuts, hot snacks, and caravan holidays, although not on the price of ski lifts. VAT has been increased on the regular purchases of millions of ordinary families and is a heavy blow to many small businesses, manufacturers, retail employers and churches caught out by these changes.
Diana Johnson (Kingston upon Hull North) (Lab)
My hon. Friend mentioned the lack of consultation with business. Businesses want to plan and are trying to grow, but the sudden imposition of VAT on the caravan manufacturing industry is causing real problems and potentially the loss of thousands of jobs.
Rachel Reeves
My hon. Friend speaks from her knowledge of her constituency in Hull and of the East Riding of Yorkshire, which will be particularly affected by changes to the caravan tax.
I was in Leicester on Thursday last week with my hon. Friend the Member for Leicester South (Jonathan Ashworth), speaking to small businesses which will be affected by the changes to VAT on hot snacks. Many businesses are worried, about both the additional tax they will have to pay and the additional bureaucracy of form-filling. As hon. Members said, it is not at all clear at which point VAT will stop being charged. What temperature does the food have to be, or by how much must it have cooled down before the tax rate goes to 0% from 20%?
We will also have a chance this week to debate and vote on important tax simplification measures. Given the generous decision of the Chancellor to simplify the tax arrangements of 4.4 million pensioners, I am surprised that they are not more grateful. That tax simplification will cost pensioners £83 a year on average and will cost hundreds of thousands of people who are coming up for retirement next year up to £322 a year.
The Chief Secretary referred to the Office of Tax Simplification. Its tax director has registered his concern about the changes to the tax allowance for pensioners and has said that the Government’s claim that they were only following its recommendations
“was not 100 per cent accurate”.
Meanwhile, Age UK was moved to write to the Chancellor about the change to tax allowances for pensioners. It stated:
“Age UK supports the OTS review of pensioner taxation and was very pleased to have been invited to be represented on the consultative committee. However given the OTS was set up with the aim of providing”
the Chancellor
“with independent expert advice on simplification we are very surprised and disappointed that”
he has
“announced a change to simplify the system without waiting for that advice.”
Contrary to coalition spin, this tax simplification will hit not those with big pension pots, but people with personal or occupational pensions that pay around £5,000 a year. It will hit people who worked in ordinary jobs for modest salaries, and who made sacrifices during their working lives to put away just enough to give themselves a small pension, which means that they do not need to depend on means-tested benefits in retirement. It is simply not true that they have been insulated from the effects of the current economic climate and other changes to taxation. Pensioners have been hit hard by VAT, quantitative easing, cuts to services that they rely on—not least the national health service—and massive increases in the heating and electricity bills for their homes. Older people deserve better than this mean-minded, penny-pinching measure. If Government Members agree, they will have a chance to vote down the granny tax later this week.
It tells people all they need to know about this Government’s priorities and the balance of power in the coalition that when the Deputy Prime Minister said that he would agree to cut the 50p rate if it was paid for by a mansion tax and the Opposition said that we would support a mansion tax if it was used to relieve the pressure on ordinary hard-working families, the Chancellor forgot the mansion tax, cut the 50p rate anyway and paid for it with a raid on pensioners’ incomes and a raid on charities.
Finally, we will offer the Chancellor a last chance to make good the great omission of the Bill—its failure to offer a shred of hope to the 1 million young people who are desperate to find work and its failure to do anything about the fact that long-term youth unemployment has more than doubled in the past year. Our amendment will open the way for the funding of a guaranteed job for every young person who is out of work for more than a year—a job that they would have to take up. That is the kind of measure that our country is crying out for. It would change the lives of thousands of young people and transform the prospects for our economy. It could easily be funded by raising new resources from the banking sector, which still squanders billions on bonuses while doing little to support British businesses and families. We will therefore offer Members a chance to vote for the reinstatement of the tax on bank bonuses to fund the creation of 100,000 new jobs for young people and the construction of 25,000 new affordable homes.
Mr Howarth
The hon. Lady makes an effective point. I am tempted to enter into a debate about what has happened to the pub industry over the last decade, but I doubt whether that would be in order. I will say, however, that people’s habits have changed, including in respect of the places they go to for entertainment. That is particularly the case for young people. Many of them no longer go to pubs for entertainment. Some of the new places they go to serve alcohol, but others do not. More is going on here than the hon. Lady suggests, therefore. She is right, however, that some young people buy alcohol from supermarkets and drink it at home, so that they are already half-filled up, as it were, when they later go out to a nightclub. One of the reasons they do so is that the drink prices in nightclubs are so expensive. I hasten to add, however, that I am not an expert on young people’s drinking habits.
Mr Howarth
I fear that I am at risk of straying into a separate debate, but I shall give way.
Diana Johnson
Minimum alcohol pricing alone is not a magic bullet. A range of other policies must be pursued, too, including making personal, social, health and economic education mandatory in schools so that young people learn about what happens to them if they drink too much.
Mr Howarth
I am sure my hon. Friend is right, and, as I have said, I have an open mind on the subject.
I fear, however, that if the alcohol products that young people take home to drink before going to a nightclub—or wherever—are no longer available to buy in supermarkets or other licensed retail establishments, there will be an increase in the sale of illegal products on the streets, and that is also a fear that I have in respect of minimum unit pricing. We have already seen this happening to some extent in respect of tobacco products. Also, such products that are illegally imported and then sold on the streets are not subject to quality controls.
If we do not get the education messages mentioned by my hon. Friend the Member for Kingston upon Hull North (Diana Johnson) right, young people will drink anyway, but they will not be able to afford the products on offer in supermarkets and other licensed retail establishments. Instead, they will buy products off the back of a white van outside the park on a Friday night. That is a big fear of mine, and I have yet to hear a satisfactory response to it.
I fear that the overall impact of this Bill will be far worse on the people of Knowsley than on the people of the Cities of London and Westminster. I hope the Government give more thought to the effect these measures will have on poorer pensioners, people on low incomes and those struggling to bring up children on a relatively low income. They are important members of our society. If we do not offer them the right level of support, I fear for the future.
Diana Johnson (Kingston upon Hull North) (Lab)
It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Gainsborough (Mr Leigh), who made a valiant effort to persuade the House that the proposal for a flat tax was something on which the left and the right could agree. It will be interesting to see how Ministers respond to the challenges with which he presented them.
I intend to concentrate on an issue that greatly concerns my constituents and local businesses. I have already raised it in the House several times, and on the day of the Budget, when I was flicking through the accompanying documents, I saw the announcement that VAT would be levied on static caravans. I have noted what the Treasury has said about the effect, and the more I have looked into it over the past couple of weeks, the worse it has appeared to be for my constituents and local businesses. The VAT on static caravans policy is part of the muddled approach that runs through the Budget. The Government are giving mixed messages: they say they want growth, yet they introduce policies that impede growth. There are also many unintended consequences that Ministers and civil servants have not properly thought through, and that is particularly true of the VAT on static caravans policy.
The caravan tax announcement came completely out of the blue. It is currently subject to a belated consultation that will end very shortly, on 4 May. My understanding is that it is to be implemented in October. The effects of this proposal must be properly scrutinised and debated fully. I am therefore disappointed that the consultation period is so brief.
My Front-Bench colleagues have tabled an amendment to the proposed tax, which I hope will be selected during our deliberations on the Bill. In common with many Members on both sides of the House, I oppose the Government’s proposals on this issue. The caravan tax was not leaked in the announcements before the Budget at the end of March. Like the granny tax, it was news that was kept back, but which has subsequently caused a lot of problems for the Government.
The confusion over the caravan tax is similar to that over the pasty tax. It is also similar to the confusion over the charity tax measures. Before the election, the Government talked a lot about wanting to encourage charitable giving, and there are provisions in the Finance Bill to offset charitable giving against inheritance tax. However, the proposals to limit tax relief on charitable giving that were also announced in the Budget and that are contained in the Finance Bill appear to contradict those earlier statements.
First, I want to outline some of the arguments in respect of imposing VAT on caravans. I listened with great interest to what the Chief Secretary said in his opening remarks about simplifying tax regimes and ironing out anomalies. We all support that, of course, but we must ensure that there is proper and full consultation in advance of any changes being implemented. My main concern is the effect on the ability of businesses to plan accurately for the future and decide what they need to do—what investments they need to make, and how many employees they need in their company. Investors need confidence, but a key point that comes up time and again is that companies do not currently have the required levels of confidence for the economy to grow.
Recently, the Government have made similar mistakes that have dented business confidence, such as the solar power feed-in tariff debacle. As a result of that mistake, we in Hull have already seen Carillion restructure. We will lose jobs, and Hull cannot afford to lose any jobs.
The caravan industry has spent three years working hard to recover from the problems resulting from the 2008-09 global downturn, when Hull lost more than 1,500 jobs in the industry. Now we have this hammer blow set for October, when thousands more in the caravan sector may lose their jobs. If tax changes are to be made, it would be sensible to give greater warning and to give the industry time to adapt. Instead, the Government appear to be kicking people when they are down, just as the caravan industry was getting back on its feet. Most particularly, this is happening in Yorkshire, and it will have an effect on the entire region. Ministers talk a lot about the need to rebalance the economy in respect of the public and the private sectors and the south-east and the rest of the country, yet this measure will have a disproportionately negative impact on the north and Yorkshire.
Secondly, these changes will not do much to simplify the system. Indeed, we could end up with more anomalies being created, as with the pasty tax. The taxing of sales of static caravans was considered at length and rejected when VAT was first introduced in the UK in 1973. There has not been a proper opportunity to review that decision and to investigate whether the situation has changed in the intervening years.
Thirdly, what if the changes damage businesses and cost private sector jobs, which are supposed to be powering recovery, growth and deficit reduction? Over 90% of the UK’s caravan firms are in east Yorkshire, and they still employ some 6,000 people despite the contraction in the 2008 global downturn. The industry supports a further 15,000 to 20,000 jobs through its supply chain. The Treasury forecasts that the caravan tax will cause a 30% cut in demand. According to the industry, that will result in up to 3,000 jobs being lost from caravan firms and their supply chain.
The situation could get even worse. We are currently facing almost 900 jobs going at BAE Systems in Brough, and our area already has high levels of unemployment. We have already seen jobs go at Warmsure, too, and at Comet and P&O in Hull, and many jobs are going in the public services as well.
My constituency of Kingston upon Hull North and the neighbouring constituency of Kingston upon Hull East are already in the UK top 10 for having the most jobseekers chasing each job. The number of NEETs—those not in education, employment or training—is soaring as the quality and quantity of jobs, apprenticeships and training opportunities have declined. In my constituency, unemployment now stands at about 13% for those aged between 16 and 64.
The next few years already looked like being tough for jobs in Hull, but by introducing this measure, the Government are making the situation much worse. The Government’s “rebalancing” rhetoric that we hear so much does not hold water.
Fourthly, what if the economic damage caused by the caravan tax leads to the Treasury losing revenue overall? The Treasury’s own impact assessment shows that the tax will lead to a 30% cut in demand for static caravans. Consequent job losses on the scale predicted by the industry will result in tax revenue being lost and welfare costs increasing. As the right hon. Member for Haltemprice and Howden (Mr Davis) said in this House on 26 March, the Chancellor’s own Red Book states that the total annual revenue raised from this measure will be £40 million, but the cost in unemployment from losing 30% of business, as forecast by the Treasury, will be up to £45 million. The caravan tax would therefore actually lose revenue overall. That is a crazy policy. That point was brushed aside by the Chief Secretary to the Treasury in his winding-up speech on the Budget.
The justification for cutting the 50p rate of tax was that it does not raise much money, but according to the Treasury’s own figures the caravan tax will lose revenue overall. The Government also cut corporation tax on the basis that that is good for jobs and growth. By the same logic, how can the caravan tax be good for jobs and growth in my constituency and the wider region?
I realise that the Chancellor is as likely to have had a caravan holiday recently as he is to have eaten a pasty or played bingo, but there is no excuse for introducing a damaging tax that will cost thousands of private sector jobs in the caravan industry and its suppliers, especially as the private sector is precisely where Ministers claim our growth will come from. This measure will lose the Treasury revenue, harm the aspirations of many people saving up for a holiday home, and damage the wider UK holiday industry.
Fifthly, is the caravan tax fair? Given that the Budget did not put VAT on the second homes of the wealthy and did not contain a mansion tax, how is it fair to tax the second homes of those who are not so wealthy and often save for many years to be able to buy a static caravan to use on their weekends and holidays? The Chancellor’s rhetoric is that he is trying to build a tiger economy, but it seems more like just a fat cat economy.
Along with my hon. Friend the Member for Blackpool South (Mr Marsden), I visited Willerby Holiday Homes Ltd in east Hull on 26 March to hear its serious concerns about this measure. I have also received a letter, dated today, expressing concerns about what will happen to its 820 workers, 100 of whom are young workers under the age of 25. On 5 April, along with the hon. Member for Beverley and Holderness (Mr Stuart), the right hon. Member for Haltemprice and Howden, the hon. Member for Brigg and Goole (Andrew Percy) and my hon. Friend the Member for Kingston upon Hull East (Karl Turner), I met representatives of caravan firms in the Hull and East Riding area, and the information we received about the damage that this tax could do was devastating. Some 44 employees of Normandy Holiday Homes in my constituency have written to me saying:
“We are concerned that the proposed VAT increase on caravan holiday homes that was announced in the Budget last month will have a detrimental effect on the business. We have already had a number of short time working weeks in this tax year and we are concerned that if the level of orders falls, the company may be forced to make people redundant or cease trading.”
In addition, I have received letters from people involved in the supply chain to the caravan industry, one of which came from six workers at 3Core group, which supplies Normandy Holiday Homes. The letter said that the caravan tax would have a “detrimental” impact on them, too. In addition to letters from caravan firms and their direct suppliers, I, like other right hon. and hon. Members, have received an e-mail from May Reader of Heathland Beach holiday park in Norfolk. She says:
“We, as a family, have been running our Holiday Park for 40 years and I personally am Chairman of our local Conservative Association and I am very distressed that it is a Conservative Government that is about to ruin a lifetime’s work.”
That shows the negative impact that the caravan tax would have on the UK holiday and tourism industry, at a time when, as many hon. Members have said, there is a push to get people to holiday in this country and there is a vogue for staycations.
To be fair, some Conservative Members are joining Labour Members in opposing this particular tax; I know that the right hon. Member for Haltemprice and Howden and the hon. Member for Beverley and Holderness are planning to meet the Chancellor on Wednesday. It is being reported on the wires that the Prime Minister is willing to think again on the charity relief tax plan, so I hope that he is also willing to think again about the caravan tax. I am also interested to learn what the response will be from the Liberal Democrat Business Secretary, to whom the National Caravan Council wrote about this issue on 12 April. So far we have seen the Liberal Democrats, yet again, defending the Treasury view to the hilt.
In conclusion, my constituents just want the chance to work, to trade, to earn a living and to spend money locally in east Yorkshire. That is all those workers and business people want. They are not asking for a state subsidy. They are just asking for their industry to be allowed to carry on trading without being seriously harmed by this new tax. That is in the regional interest and in the national interest, and I hope that the Minister will think again. As I said at the start of my speech, Labour has tabled amendments on this issue and I hope that we will have a chance to stop the caravan tax on Wednesday through the amendment to the Finance Bill tabled by my hon. Friend the Member for Pontypridd (Owen Smith), the shadow Exchequer Secretary. If the Chancellor does not change his mind, I ask hon. Members to back this amendment. Let us kill this caravan tax before it kills thousands more jobs in Hull and the East Riding of Yorkshire.
Budget Leak Inquiry
Diana Johnson Excerpts(12 years, 1 month ago)
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Urgent Questions are proposed each morning by backbench MPs, and up to two may be selected each day by the Speaker. Chosen Urgent Questions are announced 30 minutes before Parliament sits each day.
Each Urgent Question requires a Government Minister to give a response on the debate topic.
This information is provided by Parallel Parliament and does not comprise part of the offical record
Diana Johnson (Kingston upon Hull North) (Lab)
The Liberal Democrats were briefing extensively in the past few days, and I just wonder whether the Minister would like to investigate why they seem to have preferential access to information before Parliament does.
Amendment of the Law
Diana Johnson Excerpts(12 years, 1 month ago)
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Stephen Mosley
It is funny that my hon. Friend should say that, because our group’s second recommendation was that the Government should increase investment in ICT in schools. I was pleased to hear the Chancellor highlight the importance of education in building our skills base, because if any industry hopes to compete and thrive, the fundamental basis is the skills base of the domestic work force. My right hon. Friend the Education Secretary recently announced a shake-up in the way that computing is taught in schools. That follows calls from industry and academia, who suggest that ICT in schools is too focused on the use of specific software packages, and not focused on the underlying technologies or on learning the computer programming skills that will help to encourage young people to develop their own products and be on the cutting edge.
Rebalancing the curriculum is a vital step, but there also needs to be greater emphasis on the quality of ICT teaching in schools, along with a concerted effort to champion future careers in the sector. I have already outlined the huge significance of IT for the wider UK economy, yet since 2002 there has been a 33% reduction in applications for computing degree courses. More must be done to encourage our young people into an ICT career if we are to reap all the potential benefits to our economy.
Diana Johnson (Kingston upon Hull North) (Lab)
Does the hon. Gentleman share my disappointment that the Education Secretary has not included ICT as one of the core subjects in the English baccalaureate, and therefore as one of the key areas that our young people need to study?
Stephen Mosley
The English baccalaureate covers the key core skills we want people to learn. ICT is an important skill, but I do not think it should be included in the baccalaureate, which covers maths, English, basic sciences—the basics. IT is a highly skilled area. Some people might be suited to study it, but others might not. Those who have an aptitude for it should pursue it and achieve.
Thirdly, it is imperative that the UK trains and retains world-class individuals. Over the past decade, the UK has become a receiver of technology developed abroad, which has slowed down the development of technology in the UK. The overriding message coming from industry is that the single most important criterion when deciding where to make new investment is whether the skills to support the investment are available in that location. We have the broad skills base in this country to push on and achieve great things, but without the right commitment and investment—such as in ICT apprenticeships—the UK risks being left behind by our global competitors.
Fourthly, we need a strategy to encourage the take-up of new technology by small and medium-sized enterprises, and to encourage their growth and development. Specifically, it was recommended that the Government can assist by encouraging venture capital investment for the longer term. We have a huge wealth of talent in the UK but, in order for our entrepreneurs to grow their ideas into successful long-term businesses, they often have to sell their ideas and businesses abroad. A prime example of that is the once globally dominant UK computer games industry, which is now mainly foreign-owned and seeing future investment disappearing offshore. I was therefore extremely pleased to hear that the Chancellor will focus on that industry. If we want our smaller businesses to flourish, we should be encouraging investment to help nurture existing small businesses to become medium-sized businesses, and medium-sized businesses to become large ones.
I pay tribute to the Government for their catapult centre programme. We in the UK have always been on the cutting edge of technology, but our inability to transfer intellectual advances to market has often proved to be a stumbling block. The new catapult centres will help to commercialise the results of research in technology areas where there is potential for multi-billion pound global markets, including the digital economy. That is to be wholeheartedly welcomed.
Finally, the Treasury must emphasise and reiterate the importance of technology to the economy and commit to the long-term opportunities that the sector has to offer. We in the UK are attracting world leaders in new and emerging technologies to our shores. We have the skills base, the flexibility and the economic foundations to encourage more companies to invest here. The Government must champion the technology sector more vigorously if we are to harness its great potential to act as the catalyst for long-term growth in the United Kingdom. I am delighted that, as spelled out in the Budget, the Chancellor and the Government are now grasping that opportunity.
Diana Johnson (Kingston upon Hull North) (Lab)
As usual, the hon. Members who speak later in the debate will have the advantage of having been able to study the Budget more as it starts to unravel. I will make some initial comments about what is clear so far from the Chancellor’s speech. I think that it is hugely discourteous to the House of Commons that almost everything that was announced in the Budget has appeared in the papers and on other media in the past few days.
Unfortunately, I do not believe that this is a Budget for growth in areas such as Hull, which I represent, nor that it is fair for people in my constituency. On 23 June 2010, after the first coalition Budget, I said in the House that
“wealth creation and enterprise will suffer in Yorkshire.”—[Official Report, 23 June 2010; Vol. 512, c. 326.]
It did suffer. On 23 March 2011, after the second coalition Budget, I said:
“this is not a fair Budget; neither is it a Budget for growth.”—[Official Report, 23 March 2011; Vol. 525, c. 1024.]
It was not a Budget for growth. The growth that was starting to return under Labour in 2010 was snuffed out by 2011. We have now had a year of flatlining. In Yorkshire and the Humber, 40,000 private jobs have gone in a year. We are supposed to be gaining private sector jobs, not losing them. Private sector jobs were supposed to replace the public service jobs that are being slashed, to create the growth that is needed to cut the deficit. We all, of course, want to see that.
Just outside Hull, there are 845 long-standing, skilled employees at BAE Systems, working in the strategically vital defence manufacturing industry, who will probably lose their jobs this year because of BAE’s decision. Taxpayers will have to meet costs of up to £100 million because of those redundancies. Those skilled jobs will be exported to countries that have Governments who are willing to nurture their industries for the long term. It is worrying that the defence White Paper, which was produced just a few weeks ago, indicated that the British Government would not necessarily buy defence equipment from British companies, but they certainly want other Governments to buy from British companies. What kind of message does that send out to support exports?
Hull’s future is as a national hub for green technology. Thanks to the local efforts of businesses, councils and others, Siemens will we hope be bringing offshore wind turbine manufacturing to Hull shortly. That would open up a wealth of opportunities for the city and the sub-region. Hull would have been an ideal location for the green investment bank, but unfortunately that has gone to Scotland. In one sense, squandering the chances to attract new jobs in sunrise industries to Hull is more damaging than losing existing local jobs. Recently, 100 jobs were under threat at Warmsure in Hull because of the Government’s decision in the solar feed-in tariff debacle. We know that there is strong overseas competition in renewables. We cannot afford to export jobs in these growth industries. We need to export our products, not our jobs. I was concerned that the Chancellor did not give a clear message today about the Government’s commitment to renewables.
Hidden in the Budget is the announcement that VAT will be charged on caravans. That will have a real impact on the economy in Hull, because we manufacture a great deal of this country’s caravans. I understand that it could reduce demand by almost 30%, which would be another hammer blow.
Mr David Hanson (Delyn) (Lab)
My hon. Friend may not know that only two weeks ago, I opened a new caravan park in my constituency in north Wales with caravans supplied by manufacturers in Hull. The proposed VAT on caravans will have a dramatic impact, and as she has just said, it will reduce demand by 30%. Is it good practice to reduce demand for the manufacturing industry in the UK through a tax that will damage our economy?
Diana Johnson
My right hon. Friend makes a very good point and indicates, again, that this is not a Budget for growth—the very opposite, it seems.
The latest official statistics show that there are 5,447 jobseeker’s allowance claimants in Hull chasing 177 vacancies. That is 30.8 people after each job, which is the 10th worst rate in the country. The overall claimant count across Hull was up by 12.4% in the latest period. Kingston upon Hull North’s long-term youth unemployment among 18 to 24-year-olds has gone up by 155% in the year to February, which is shocking. Hull needs a determined focus on specialist vocational education and training, to equip our youngsters to get the jobs in green industry that could be important to the economy of Hull and the region.
Engineering qualifications are very important, and I was disappointed that the Secretary of State scrapped the diplomas scheme, particularly for engineering diplomas. As I asked the hon. Member for City of Chester (Stephen Mosley), why is information and communications technology not part of the English baccalaureate to show how important ICT skills are for our future?
The Government have talked a lot about rebalancing the economy, but people in the north who are seeking work—the north’s jobless—are being told to move to the south for work, and those in the south who are looking for affordable homes are being told to move to the north. Is that rebalancing the economy? The Government have to think again. They should ensure that there are enough jobs and homes in each region to make the whole country work together effectively.
I wish to focus on some of the key announcements in today’s Budget, starting with the raising of the personal allowance to £9,000 next April. Citizens Advice has already put out a quote on the matter, stating:
“Raising the personal tax allowance is an empty gesture to struggling families on low wages.”
That blows a hole in the argument that the Liberal Democrats try to put forward about the Budget promoting fairness.
Like cuts to income tax rates, raising the personal allowance could be part of a plan to boost demand and growth, provided that it was part of a group of measures such as those outlined in Labour’s five-point plan. In a time of scarcity, the Government’s plan, costing about £3.3 billion, is an inefficient way of helping the poorest in our society. It is clear that middle and upper earners will benefit most from the change. I understand that they will get about an additional £175 each year.
We must consider that against the losses that individuals and families will experience. For instance, the average family is due to lose £530 from 1 April because of the changes to VAT and benefits, including child benefit freezes. This April’s changes to the working tax credit requiring couples working part time to do a 24-hour week rather than a 16-hour week, at a time when a lot of people’s hours are being cut and jobs are disappearing, will affect 212,000 families across the country, including nearly 450 in my constituency. They will lose nearly £4,000 a year, and they are families that are struggling just to get by. What help was announced for those families? There was nothing. If the Government were serious about fairness, they could have done something about that.
Research by the Child Poverty Action Group shows that two thirds of the families who are about to lose tax credits are already in poverty, so I dread to think what will happen to them now. They are punished for doing the right thing and for trying to hold down a job at a time when it is so difficult to get a job or to get further hours of work.
To make matters worse, the coalition is now moving ahead with regional pay in the public sector, with the Liberal Democrats’ support. That is not surprising, because the Liberal Democrats have often advocated a regional minimum wage. Regional pay is more evidence-free policy making by this Government, based on free market dogma. There is no real evidence that national public sector pay crowds out the local private sector. Indeed, public sector workers, living and spending locally, are a vital part of supporting the private sector in Hull’s local economy. We already have London weighting to help workers with the extra costs of living in the south, so there is no reason for different pay rates between the regions.
Local or regional public sector pay could drive down wages in some of the poorest areas, taking billions more out of local economies and accelerating the growing north-south divide. So much for rebalancing the economy.
Andrew Gwynne (Denton and Reddish) (Lab)
My hon. Friend is making a pertinent point, but in some parts of the public sector will not the opposite be the case, so that, for example, hospitals, desperate to recruit the best clinicians, will end up paying more to compete with hospitals in London and the south?
Diana Johnson
Absolutely. My hon. Friend makes an important point. We know that the NHS is in for a torrid time in the months and years ahead, and he has identified another problem that it has to tackle.
The combination of regional pay and the unfairness in the Budget contradicts the coalition’s rhetoric about making work pay and rebalancing the economy, sucking even more money out of areas such as Hull and the north in favour of the wealthier areas, mostly in London and the south-east.
I am also worried that regional pay could mean that some of the brightest and best, for example, teachers—we need the brightest and best teachers in areas such as Hull—will not come to Hull if the pay is not the same as in some other parts of the country.
Let me comment on the Liberal Democrats’ spin to the effect that this is a Robin Hood Budget. It joins the long list of broken Liberal Democrat promises. We had the abolition of tuition fees, which were then tripled, and education maintenance allowance was axed. The Liberal Democrats promised 3,000 more police but we are getting 16,000 fewer. They promised opposition to VAT, but we how have higher VAT. They seem to have dropped the armed forces pay increase and many more of the opportunist promises they made before 2010, when they had full knowledge of the deficit that would face them. The tycoon tax is just the latest Lib Dem slogan. Increased stamp duty is all very well, but it hits only the minority who sell the property in any year. It needs to be matched by a clampdown on general stamp duty avoidance.
The other major announcement is to cut the top rate of tax. [Interruption.] The Liberal Democrats have no defence on that.
Madam Deputy Speaker (Dawn Primarolo)
Order. The right hon. Gentleman will not shout across the Chamber at somebody who is speaking. If he wishes to intervene, he should do it in the normal way. That applies to all hon. Members.
Diana Johnson
The other major announcement is the top rate of income tax reducing from 50p to 45p for those earning more than £150,000. To do that, given the current state of public finances and the economic situation, is simply wrong and unfair. I do not understand why the Liberal Democrats have agreed to that when it will deliver a £40,000 windfall to 14,000 people. That helps the wealthiest, which always seems affordable to the Government. Boardroom pay rose by 49% last year; the bonus season is running riot—we are not all in this together. It is austerity for the many and wealth for the few.
Women in the Church of England
Diana Johnson Excerpts(12 years, 2 months ago)
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Diana Johnson (Kingston upon Hull North) (Lab)
I am delighted to speak under your chairmanship, Mr Chope. First, I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Washington and Sunderland West (Mrs Hodgson) on securing the debate in the first instance. It is an important and timely debate and has attracted a lot of interest. My hon. Friend sends her apologies for being unable to attend, but as someone who has been asking questions of the representative of the Church Commissioners on the Floor of the House of Commons on the issue of women bishops for some time, I am very pleased to be deputising for her today, with Mr Speaker’s permission.
I pay tribute again to the women and men who have been fighting for justice and equality in the Church of England for many years: first with the movement for the ordination of women, and now with the organisation called WATCH—Women and the Church. In particular, I have had a number of dealings with Sally Barnes, who is very involved in WATCH. It is a great pity that we are still having battles in the Church of England about equality in 2012. Many people might be quite shocked to realise that the established Church of this country has been allowed to opt out of equality legislation. It has been able to opt out of its duties under the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 and under the Equality Act 2010. I believe that if we have an established Church of England, that Church should have regard to and follow the laws of the land as well.
It is good that we are having this debate close to international women’s day on 8 March and at a time when we are looking back to the suffragette campaign, which was reaching its peak 100 years ago. The campaign for women bishops follows the campaign for women priests, which reached a successful conclusion in 1992. I have been reflecting on that, because before the legislation was passed, I was involved in the campaign. I was a student and very involved in my chaplaincy. I remember that one morning my dad, who did not share my politics, rang me in a rather irate state. He had opened his morning copy of The Daily Telegraph to find a big picture of the scene outside Church House as the then Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert Runcie, was going into Synod. A group of women was standing there with placards saying “How long?” and “We’re waiting,” and my dad realised that one of them was me. He was quite taken aback that his daughter was in the Telegraph to start with—I did not share its politics; but he then got the picture from the Telegraph and I have it framed in my office as a reminder of one of the things with which I am very proud to have been associated.
The legislation in relation to women priests went through in November 1992, but it specifically said that women could not become bishops. The reform of 1992 has been a huge success. There are now 3,000 women priests. The talents and abilities of both women and men are now being recognised and utilised by the Church. There are four female deans of cathedrals and many others in senior roles. Despite many predictions to the contrary, that has not led to the collapse of the established Church or to any other existential disaster befalling mankind—or even womankind.
The same would be true, I believe, of moving forward to having women bishops. Women priests have entered the mainstream culture of our country, far beyond just spawning “The Vicar of Dibley”. Like many great progressive reforms, it has put new wine into old bottles. I want to celebrate and build on that success. We know that being a bishop is a very difficult job to undertake and the Church needs to choose bishops with a wide range of gifts, skills and experience. It is inconceivable that those gifts and skills and that experience will be found just in the male sex. The Church could benefit greatly from having the opportunity to select from both men and women. That is right and fair.
The argument, the theological debate, about women bishops is as it was for women priests. It concerns the interpretation of women’s role in the great Christian teachings. Those against equality believe that God created the man to lead and that the woman was there to be his helper. Some hold that Eve was created from Adam’s rib. They believe that women should not be in a leadership role over men. Therefore women are somehow seen as secondary to men. Those in favour of women bishops more commonly draw inspiration from the arguments that both men and women were created equal in God’s image.
When I was looking at the arguments, I found a familiar theme about the God-given role of certain individuals or groups. I read carefully the debates on the abolition of the slave trade and I shall explain why. William Wilberforce fought very hard in the House of Commons to champion that cause. The discussion at that time was about how a Christian could defend slavery. There is symmetry with the idea that there are preordained roles that people have to play. It is striking when we look back and then look at the issues of equality and justice that the Church of England should be at the forefront of championing today.
The role of women in the history of Christianity, from the time of Jesus, has often been painted out of the picture, just as happened with black people and the tremendous role that they have played in our history. However, if we look at the Bible, we know that Jesus treated women fairly. He spoke to them as equals, and of course it is always recognised that Mary Magdalene was the first witness to the resurrection. In the early Christian Church, until about 400 AD, female priests and congregation leaders were very common.
Those who draw on the literal interpretation of the Bible apply it word for word to the modern world. That can be dangerous, but they also do it based on a selective interpretation of the text—one that I think is based on worldly interests and prejudice. Whatever happens in the politics and obscure committees of the Church of England, the real world and the United Kingdom have changed enormously, especially during the past century. The real world looks like leaving the Church of England behind. Women are now far more educated, are more likely to have a job outside the home, can vote equally with men and are no longer the property of their fathers and passed to their husbands on marrying.
There is much further to go on equality issues. There is a need for more women in Parliament—as I am sure all hon. Members recognise—in our local authorities, at the Bar and in the boardroom. However, women have broken through as leaders in society. We are no longer there just to make the tea. In 1979, we had the first woman Prime Minister; and Margaret Thatcher duly proved that a woman could do the job of leader in society as badly as any man.
We are looking at a process of change. God was said to have created the earth in seven days. It is taking a great deal longer for the tortuous internal machinery of the Church of England to introduce the simple reform for women bishops. The draft Bishops and Priests (Consecration and Ordination of Women) Measure is currently in its final legislative stages. It was considered at the February General Synod after recent consultation among the 44 dioceses saw 42 come out in favour of women bishops. Only two—London and Chichester—narrowly voted against. Thirty-three voted explicitly against any provisions for those who did not accept women bishops. Nine voted for some provisions.
I want to concentrate on the Manchester motion, as it has become known. Synod debated the motion, which asked the House of Bishops to use its powers to amend the Measure by incorporating co-ordinate jurisdiction—there are a variety of interpretations as to how that would work in practice—in clause 2 and removing the words “by way of delegation”. That was the substance of the Archbishops’ proposed amendment of July 2010, which Synod rejected by a small margin in one house, but this time, after a thorough debate, all three houses of the Synod clearly voted not to ask the bishops to take such a course.
In an earlier debate on the results of the diocesan Synod voting, however, the Archbishop of Canterbury intervened to ask Synod to allow the bishops one last look at the Measure. It was unclear whether he meant he wanted Synod to support the Manchester motion, and members interpreted his words in both directions. Essentially, however, he has paved the way for the bishops to amend the Measure slightly.
Almost all members of Synod, including both archbishops, are convinced that the Measure must be passed in July for the sake of the credibility of the Church of England. An unknown factor is whether there is a sufficient majority in the House of Laity, and in the light of that the Archbishop of Canterbury is keen to see whether there is a way through that will enable more laity to support the Measure, while not alienating those on the pro-women bishop side, who already find the Measure a huge compromise.
A known factor, however, is that if the bishops amend the Measure, shifting it towards the views of opponents, all the indications are that it will lose support in the House of Clergy and will not gain a sufficient majority there in July. It would also be somewhat peculiar if the House of Bishops used its powers to change a draft Measure about its own reform in the face of the overwhelming support given to that Measure by the wider Church membership through diocesan Synod voting.
As I said, the draft Measure goes to the House of Bishops in May, and it can amend the reforms as it sees fit. If it does, that would be unacceptable to WATCH and most senior women, because it would change the episcopacy in ways that would undermine the Church’s integrity and mission, as well as limiting female bishops’ ministry too far.
When I looked at this issue, I was struck by the fact that women have actively engaged with the bishops in the discussions that have been held so far. In June 2008, senior lay and clergywomen attended a meeting of the College of Bishops to discuss proposals for women bishops. Since then, no women have been part of the discussions in the House of Bishops. It is inconceivable to anyone engaged in equality and diversity work in other contexts that the Church would make the decision about consecrating women as bishops without seriously engaging during this last phase with those who will be most directly affected by that decision.
That is where we are at the moment. If the changes the bishops make to the Measure are small, it will come back to General Synod in July for final approval, which will involve further debate and voting. If the changes are major—I have explained how the Measure could be changed in a major way—the whole process will go backwards, with another consultation among the dioceses and more debates and voting.
If we get to the stage of final approval, it will require a two-thirds majority in each house—the House of Bishops, the House of Clergy and the House of Laity. That sounds a bit like Labour’s electoral college for electing leaders, which is complicated and rather challenging, with the constituency Labour parties, unions and MPs all having to have their say. The process around the Measure certainly seems to be more about worldly politics than about the great doctrinal principles that opponents of modernisation argue over.
If the two-thirds majority is achieved, and the interests of the minority who can scupper it are overcome, that is still not the end of the process. The Measure then goes before the Ecclesiastical Committee of Parliament, which can refer it to both Houses of Parliament for a vote. In that respect, the Second Church Estates Commissioner, the hon. Member for Banbury (Tony Baldry), who will be responsible for taking the proposals through the House of Commons, was quoted in July 2010 as saying,
“be under no illusion about one thing. A difficult task could well become impossible if I had to steer through the House of Commons any measure which left a scintilla of a suggestion that woman bishops were in some way to be second class bishops.”
That is a helpful quote.
We now know that only a tiny minority of parishes oppose women bishops. Under the current legislation, only 3% have asked to be looked after by provincial episcopal visitors, commonly known as “flying bishops”, which is quite a challenging idea. The idea of someone swooping in to provide whatever people need sounds like the Church of England’s version of “The Sweeney”—the attitude to women that underlies that certainly belongs more to the world of “Life on Mars” than to 2012.
People who know change is coming are now looking at any way of delaying it. They are looking at whether there can be more restrictions and at possible ways of avoiding change. Obviously, some members of the Church of England—some priests—have accepted the Pope’s invitation to join the Roman Catholic Church.
However, more than enough has been done to cater for those who have rather challenging attitudes, shall we say, to the world we live in and to the commitment the Church of England and Christianity have always shown, and should always show, to equality, justice and fairness. That group perhaps sees the Church as a monument, rather than as the movement it really should be. To bend any further to the opponents of progress would mean stopping change. Indeed, they would like to reverse the progress that has been made so far.
There is an idea that we are moving far too fast. There are those who claim to support the cause of women bishops, but who believe that we should not proceed too far or too fast. With them, the decision always has to be taken in the future, and decisive moves forward always seem to be a few years ahead.
Sir Peter Bottomley (Worthing West) (Con)
As the campaign started in 1909, and we are now in 2012, does the hon. Lady think that even opponents of the change would think that 103 years was going too fast?
Diana Johnson
The hon. Gentleman makes a good point. St Augustine established the Church in England in 597 AD—1,415 years ago. Discussions about women’s ordination have been going on since the Church of England’s Lambeth conference in 1920. The issue of women bishops was first raised in the Church Assembly in 1966. There is, therefore, quite a background to the issue, and no one could say we are rushing into making this change. It has been formally debated in Synod since 2000, so the accusation that we are moving too far and too fast on gender equality really does not hold water.
The Church of England is a broad Church, and we want it to go forward as a broad Church. I certainly want it to be relevant to the society we live in. I want it to promote faith, decency and good work in the wider community. It is obviously important to respect its past, but we should not live in the past; we should look to how the Church can develop and serve the needs of the community now. We need to serve the people of today and tomorrow, but we are perhaps being held back a little by some of yesterday’s people. A broad Church should not be held back by narrow interests, and there is now broad support for the Measure to go through all its stages.
I hope we will see the first woman bishop very soon. I will certainly persist in putting my questions to the Second Church Estates Commissioner, the hon. Member for Banbury, to ensure that progress continues to be made. I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for the work he does; he is a real champion of equality and fairness in the Church.
Tony Baldry
There are of course women bishops elsewhere in the Anglican communion. I am glad to say that some of them were present at the February Synod, and I was very glad to be able to entertain two of them, the Bishop of Rhode Island and the Bishop of Nova Scotia, here in the House while they were at General Synod in February. It was interesting to hear them talk about their experiences as women bishops and how quickly they had become fully recognised in their leadership role as bishops within their own provinces, countries and communities. And why not?
As has been said, we now have women in leadership roles throughout the Church of England in every position other than as bishops. There are now as many women as there are men coming forward to be ordained as priests. I am sure that it will be the same in other hon. Members’ constituencies. In my own constituency, the vicar of Banbury is a woman. The vicar of Bicester is a woman. The vicar in my own parish, from whom I take communion each Sunday, is a woman. They are all excellent examples of leadership within the Church, but my hon. Friend the Member for Worthing West makes a good and important point. I hope that I will be present when the archbishops consecrate the first woman bishop within the Church of England.
Diana Johnson
When does the hon. Gentleman think that might be? In light of the timetable that he thinks we might complete this year in Parliament, when does he think we might see the first woman bishop?
Tony Baldry
Sorry, I hoped that I had made that clear. If General Synod approves the Measure in July, with God’s good grace and the help of Members of Parliament, I hope that we can get it through by the end of this year and that we will see the first women consecrated as bishops in 2014. Obviously, that depends on a whole number of variables, including the work of the Crown Nominations Commission and so forth, but I hope that we will see such a timetable.
At the consecration service, the archbishop addresses the ordinands. I will conclude with a piece of text, because it is a beautiful piece, but it is also worth reminding ourselves what function the bishops actually perform. If one considers this text, there is absolutely no reason why women should not perform any of these responsibilities just as well as men:
“Bishops are called to serve and care for the flock of Christ. Mindful of the Good Shepherd, who laid down his life for his sheep, they are to love and pray for those committed to their charge, knowing their people and being known by them. As principal ministers of word and sacrament, stewards of the mysteries of God, they are to preside at the Lord’s table and to lead the offering of prayer and praise. They are to feed God’s pilgrim people, and so build up the Body of Christ. They are to baptize and confirm, nurturing God’s people in the life of the Spirit and leading them in the way of holiness. They are to discern and foster the gifts of the Spirit in all who follow Christ, commissioning them to minister in his name. They are to preside over the ordination of deacons and priests, and join together in the ordination of bishops. As chief pastors, it is their duty to share with their fellow presbyters the oversight of the Church, speaking in the name of God and expounding the gospel of salvation. With the Shepherd’s love, they are to be merciful, but with firmness; to minister discipline, but with compassion. They are to have a special care for the poor, the outcast, and those who are in need. They are to seek out those who are lost and lead them home with rejoicing, declaring the absolution and forgiveness of sins to those who turn to Christ. Following the example of the prophets and the teaching of the apostles, they are to proclaim the gospel boldly, confront injustice, and work for righteousness and peace in all the world.”
Diana Johnson
People keep calling me a gentleman. I assume that the Queen’s Speech will be in a few months’ time. Will the Measure be in the Queen’s Speech? Do the Government expect to announce it as part of their legislative programme for the year ahead?
James Duddridge
I do not think that it is a Government Bill in that sense, so I would not expect it to be mentioned in the Queen’s Speech. However, I am not privy to that speech.
I shall turn to the specific points that the hon. Member for Kingston upon Hull North made so ably in picking up this brief. She drew comparisons with the Labour electoral college. I genuinely hope that she is wrong in that comparison, given the problems that there have been.
Tax Avoidance (Public Servants)
Diana Johnson Excerpts(12 years, 3 months ago)
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Danny Alexander
It is precisely for the reason that the hon. Gentleman suggests that, in the spending review, we announced an additional £900 million for Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs to enable it to focus attention specifically on tax avoidance and tax evasion. I very much hope that he welcomes that decision.
Diana Johnson (Kingston upon Hull North) (Lab)
Does the Chief Secretary to the Treasury regret not having asked more questions when he was asked to sign off this deal?
Public Service Pensions
Diana Johnson Excerpts(12 years, 6 months ago)
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Danny Alexander
I wholeheartedly agree that it is time to address these differences, but not by trying to get public sector involvement in pensions down to the level in the private sector. What we need to do is what we have done today: set out an offer that combines affordability for the general taxpayer with proper pensions as a reward for a career in the public service, along with steps to encourage more private sector workers to involve themselves in pensions. That is precisely the basis of the new NEST scheme, which the Minister of State, Department for Work and Pensions, my hon. Friend the Member for Thornbury and Yate (Steve Webb), is taking forward.
Diana Johnson (Kingston upon Hull North) (Lab)
Does the Chief Secretary regret the way negotiations have been conducted so far, with him practising megaphone diplomacy, not providing information requested by the trade unions, and causing a great deal of distress and upset to my constituents who are public sector workers?
Danny Alexander
I think what the hon. Lady has said is total nonsense; that is not an appropriate characterisation of what we have done. I do not regret the way the talks have progressed for the past eight months, and I look forward to reaching agreement on this issue, with or without the support of the Opposition.
Oral Answers to Questions
Diana Johnson Excerpts(12 years, 8 months ago)
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Mr Osborne
I certainly will. I agree 100% with the point the hon. Gentleman is making, and on Friday we will be meeting as the G7, and then we have the ECOFIN meeting next week. He is absolutely right: as well as needing to tackle the fiscal policies and budget deficits, we need to make Europe more competitive. We need to make the whole of the European continent more competitive, and that involves supply-side reforms, deepening the single market and promoting free trade around the world, and I will be making that point today and in future.
Diana Johnson (Kingston upon Hull North) (Lab)
T9. Given the latest data on manufacturing, construction, exports and retail, can the Chancellor explain to me exactly where we will see growth and jobs coming from, especially in an area such as Hull?
Mr Osborne
I hope the hon. Lady welcomes the decision we made to make sure that Humberside had an enterprise zone. The way that this and other countries are going to get growth is not by taking yet another fix of the debt-fuelled spending bubble that got us into the mess we are in at the moment; it is by becoming competitive and having successful private sector businesses and a tax and regulatory environment that allows them to compete with not just the rest of Europe but the rest of the world.
Finance Bill
Diana Johnson Excerpts(12 years, 10 months ago)
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Diana Johnson (Kingston upon Hull North) (Lab)
In my constituency, 85 claimants of jobseeker’s allowance are chasing every vacancy. Would not a reduction in VAT assist those people?
Mr Hanson
My hon. Friend’s region of Yorkshire and Humberside has a 9.2% unemployment rate overall, compared with 5.7% in the south-east of England. For someone who is unemployed, the figure is 100% wherever they are. Nevertheless, there are regions of the United Kingdom where many people are chasing jobs, there is a lack of consumer confidence, traditional manufacturing and the retail industry are being hit by a lack of demand, and growth is not occurring, and the VAT increase has been damaging to all those things.