Asked by: Emma Lewell (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether it is her policy that the business rates system should level the playing field between high street businesses and online retailers.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The amount of business rates paid on each property is based on the rateable value of the property, assessed by the Valuation Office Agency (VOA), and the multiplier values, which are set by the Government. Rateable values are re-assessed every three years. Revaluations ensure that the rateable values of properties (i.e. the tax base) remain in line with market changes, and that the tax rates adjust to reflect changes in the tax base.
At the Budget, the VOA announced updated property values from the 2026 revaluation. This revaluation is the first since Covid, which has led to significant increases in rateable values for some properties. To support with bill increases, at the Budget, the Government introduced a support package worth £4.3 billion over the next three years to protect ratepayers seeing their bills increase because of the revaluation. As a result, over half of ratepayers will see no bill increases, including 23% seeing their bills go down. Government support also means that most properties seeing increases will see them capped at 15% or less next year, or £800 for the smallest.
More broadly, the Government is delivering a long overdue reform to rebalance the business rates system and support the high street, as promised in our manifesto. The Government is doing this by introducing permanently lower tax rates for eligible retail, hospitality and leisure (RHL) properties, including grassroots music venues, while ensuring that warehouses used by online giants will pay more. The new RHL tax rates replace the temporary RHL relief that has been winding down since Covid.
Unlike RHL relief, the new rates are permanent, giving businesses certainty and stability, and there will be no cap, meaning all qualifying properties on high streets across England will benefit.
Without this support, pubs would have faced a 45% increase in the total bills they pay next year. However, because of the support the Government has put in place, this has fallen to just 4%.
Asked by: Emma Lewell (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the reasons why the recent business rates revaluation results in projected increases of up to 76 per cent in liabilities for pubs over the three-year revaluation period, after transition, compared with projected increases of around 16 per cent for distribution warehouses.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The amount of business rates paid on each property is based on the rateable value of the property, assessed by the Valuation Office Agency (VOA), and the multiplier values, which are set by the Government. Rateable values are re-assessed every three years. Revaluations ensure that the rateable values of properties (i.e. the tax base) remain in line with market changes, and that the tax rates adjust to reflect changes in the tax base.
At the Budget, the VOA announced updated property values from the 2026 revaluation. This revaluation is the first since Covid, which has led to significant increases in rateable values for some properties. To support with bill increases, at the Budget, the Government introduced a support package worth £4.3 billion over the next three years to protect ratepayers seeing their bills increase because of the revaluation. As a result, over half of ratepayers will see no bill increases, including 23% seeing their bills go down. Government support also means that most properties seeing increases will see them capped at 15% or less next year, or £800 for the smallest.
More broadly, the Government is delivering a long overdue reform to rebalance the business rates system and support the high street, as promised in our manifesto. The Government is doing this by introducing permanently lower tax rates for eligible retail, hospitality and leisure (RHL) properties, including grassroots music venues, while ensuring that warehouses used by online giants will pay more. The new RHL tax rates replace the temporary RHL relief that has been winding down since Covid.
Unlike RHL relief, the new rates are permanent, giving businesses certainty and stability, and there will be no cap, meaning all qualifying properties on high streets across England will benefit.
Without this support, pubs would have faced a 45% increase in the total bills they pay next year. However, because of the support the Government has put in place, this has fallen to just 4%.
Asked by: Emma Lewell (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an estimate of the annual cost of increasing Child Benefit by £20 per week.
Answered by John Glen
To ensure that Child Benefit payments retain their value, from April 2023, they will increase in line with September 2022 CPI (10.1%).
The Government publishes details of historic and forecast benefit expenditure, including Child Benefit, on GOV.UK: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/benefit-expenditure-and-caseload-tables-2022
Asked by: Emma Lewell (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent fiscal steps he has taken to help tackle regional economic inequalities.
Answered by John Glen
The Treasury remains committed to tackling this country’s geographical inequalities; the Chancellor recently outlined how spreading opportunity ‘everywhere’, including through devolution deals such as that recently announced with the North East, is crucial to long-term growth.
This Government has invested billions towards levelling up in this Parliament. Most recently, the Government announced the results of the £4.8 billion Levelling Up Fund’s second round, and rolled out the £2.6 billion UK Shared Prosperity Fund.
Asked by: Emma Lewell (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much money have South Tyneside Council returned to his Department from Government Grants allocated over the past two years as of 6 January 2023.
Answered by John Glen
Local authorities receive a wide range of grants from multiple government departments to reflect their broad responsibilities.
HM Treasury does not maintain a central record of grant funding provided to individual local authorities. Information on specific grants, including where relevant the amount returned, is held by the department that is responsible for administering the grant.
Asked by: Emma Lewell (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how the National Minimum Wage for Seafarers on UK flagged ships is monitored; and what plans his Department has to publish monitoring data.
Answered by Richard Fuller - Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The Government is determined that everyone who is entitled to the National Minimum Wage (NMW) receives it.
HMRC does not routinely publish sector specific data on NMW complaints received. However, since April 2021, they have received the following number of complaints from seafarers and third-party information (from members of the public who may not work for a specific employer) since April 2021:
Year | Complaints Received | Third Party Information Received |
2021-22 | 9 | 11 |
2022-23 | 4 | 2 |
Total: | 13 | 13 |
HMRC consider and take all complaints seriously from workers referred by the Acas helpline, or received via the online complaints form, and investigate as appropriate.
HMRC do not just rely on complaints. They also undertake proactive enforcement activities, based on their own risk modelling, and undertaking outreach activities to help employers understand their obligations and making sure workers know their rights
If anyone thinks they are not receiving at least the minimum wage, they can contact Acas, in confidence, on 0300 123 1100 or submit a query online using the link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pay-and-work-rights-complaints.
Asked by: Emma Lewell (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether people on Contributory Employment and Support Allowance are eligible for (a) the Energy Bills Support Scheme, (b) the Warm Home Discount Scheme and (c) Cold Weather Payments.
Answered by Simon Clarke
All households with a domestic electricity meter will receive a universal rebate of £400 through the Energy Bills Support Scheme. This is a doubling of the £200 of support announced in February, and there will no longer be any repayments.
In England and Wales, the £150 Warm Home Discount is targeted to all recipients of Pension Credit Guarantee Credit and also those households who receive means-tested benefits and whose homes are estimated to have the highest energy requirements. In Scotland, the £150 Warm Home Discount is also targeted to all recipients of Pension Credit Guarantee Credit and then certain low income and vulnerable households can apply to their energy supplier to receive the £150 rebate.
The qualifying income-related benefits for the £25 Cold Weather Payments are Pension Credit, Income Support, income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance, income-related Employment and Support Allowance, and Universal Credit. There are additional qualifying conditions that have to be met to receive the payment.
Asked by: Emma Lewell (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what guidance he has provided to banks, financial services and providers regarding early termination fees for Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Schemes.
Answered by John Glen
For Bounce Back Loan Scheme, early repayment is permitted at any stage, without early repayment fees.
For CBILS and CLBILS, as the loan are written in line with lenders’ commercial processes, there is no rule against lenders charging early repayment fees.
Asked by: Emma Lewell (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much has been spent on infrastructure per capita by the Government in (a) London, (b) the North East and (c) South Shields in each year from 2010 to 2022.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
The government is committed to delivering a revolution in the UK's infrastructure. Spending Review 2021 delivers the government’s plans, first set out at Spring Budget 2020, to invest over £600 billion in gross public sector investment over this Parliament, reaching the highest sustained levels of public sector net investment as a proportion of GDP since the late 1970s.
The government has been taking action to level up the North East as set out in the recently published Levelling Up White Paper. This includes the announcements from the Spending Review and Autumn Budget 2021 of £310 million over five years to transform local transport networks in the Tees Valley for schemes such as upgrading Middlesbrough and Darlington stations and improving local rail links, £100 million through the Levelling up Fund for 5 projects in the Norther East and £600,000 through the Community Ownership Fund for two projects in North Shields and Whitley Bay.
A regional breakdown for total current and capital identifiable expenditure per head, from 2016-17 to 2020-21 can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/country-and-regional-analysis-2021/country-and-regional-analysis-november-2021.
Asked by: Emma Lewell (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether the Government is taking steps to make it easier for (a) charities, (b) local governments, (c) universities and (d) other service providers to remunerate people to give their feedback on public and social services that those people rely on for the purposes of helping to improve those services.
Answered by Simon Clarke
As set out in Managing Public Money, it is good practice to use customer feedback in evaluating the quality of services provided to the public. Spending decisions by central government bodies on remuneration for provision of feedback may be permitted where such spending is regular, proper, feasible and value for money.
At Autumn Budget and Spending Review 2021 the government published an updated set of priority outcomes and metrics. These capture the real-world impacts for the public that departments have committed to achieve, including metrics that track user satisfaction with public services. The full list of priority outcomes and metrics can be found here.