Income Tax (Charge)

Ellie Reeves Excerpts

Thursday 4th March 2021 Commons Chamber

[Ellie Reeves (Lewisham West and Penge) (Lab) [V]]

The Budget was an opportunity to repair our economy and provide the support needed by so many. Instead, it is just a sticking plaster that will continue to leave many of my constituents behind.

For example, I represent a large number of enterprising self-employed people working across multiple sectors, but many have been completely excluded from support for nearly a year. While the Budget means the newly self-employed in 2019-20 will no longer be excluded, those changes could have been made months ago to help to protect livelihoods. Meanwhile, those who previously earned more than £50,000 a year or who operate through limited companies remain completely excluded from support. When I asked the Chancellor in November, ahead of the second lockdown, what he would be doing to fix those gaps in support, he made it clear it was a deliberate policy decision to exclude them, which, frankly, is shocking. The cliff edge of £50,000, rather than a tapered approach, has caused considerable issues in constituencies like mine. One of my constituents, a talented musician who earned over £50,000 before the pandemic, told me: “Raising a young family of four in London as the main earner when work stopped in March caught us in a very compromised position. Now, a year later, we are deep in £30,000-worth of debt. In January, I paid over £14,000 for my tax bill despite receiving no money from the self-employed income support scheme, which, had I not been excluded, would have alleviated a level of anxiety and stress I did not realise was possible. As the months tick by, we become increasingly desperate and I have had to sell a number of my instruments.”

Meanwhile, another constituent of mine has received no support because she is a limited company director. She now faces having to wind up her successful business of eight years amidst the demands of home schooling and caring for her elderly, shielding mother. These are real-life issues affecting my constituents and the Budget does nothing to help and support them. It is clear that the Chancellor’s decision to exclude certain people is having a huge and lasting impact on families. The Government should be fixing this rather than ignoring the matter.

I also represent a large number of independent businesses. Sadly, support to date has not been enough to see many of them through the crisis. The much-loved Alexandra pub in Penge is a brilliant, independent community pub that is a very special place to many, myself included. It is reduced to having to crowdfund, otherwise it faces permanent closure. The news of restart grants is welcome, but for many viable businesses this has come too late in the day, and for others, they may not be able to wait until April to apply for the grant.

We needed an ambitious Budget that sought to support all those who have fallen through the cracks and to rebuild the foundations of our economy for the long-term. Instead, we have a Budget that continues to exclude many from support and only offers a return to the same insecure economy that allowed this virus to cause so much damage in the first place.