Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Geoffrey Robinson and Danny Alexander

Tuesday 10th December 2013 Commons Chamber

[Danny Alexander]

I agree very much with my hon. Friend, and that is why part of our national infrastructure plan last week included further improvements to the planning system for major infrastructure projects. The A5-M1 link road has been prioritised as a key project and I understand that funding was announced last year and work will start next spring.

[Mr Geoffrey Robinson (Coventry North West) (Lab)]

Is the Chief Secretary aware that figures from the Office for National Statistics show that infrastructure work, since this Government came to power, has dropped by 15%? Given its importance as a motor for growth, why is he now planning to cut it yet again in 2015?

[Danny Alexander]

I gave the figures for investment in infrastructure in answer to my hon. Friend the Member for Oxford West and Abingdon (Nicola Blackwood). We set them out in our national infrastructure plan and, what is more, with public and private investment taken together over the next decade or so, we have a pipeline of £375 billion-worth of projects. This is the first time that this country has had a serious long-term plan for investing in infrastructure. If the hon. Gentleman believes in the long-term health of the British economy, he should support our national infrastructure plan, not criticise it.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Geoffrey Robinson and Danny Alexander

Tuesday 5th November 2013 Commons Chamber

[Danny Alexander]

The hon. Gentleman is right that targeted infrastructure investment can unlock job creation in enterprise zones, including at JLR and in various places around the country. I am well aware of the particular scheme that he is promoting and I look forward to discussing it further with him to see how we can take it forward.

[Mr Geoffrey Robinson (Coventry North West) (Lab)]

The Chief Secretary will be aware that several conflicting and not very encouraging cost-benefit analyses for HS2 are currently in circulation. Could he not clear the air by commissioning and publishing a genuinely independent internal Treasury cost-benefit analysis of the project?

[Danny Alexander]

The Government have set out various cost-benefit analyses of the project. With respect to the hon. Gentleman, what is needed in this project is not more procrastination, delay and extra reports, but a commitment in all parts of the House to get on with this north-south railway and allow economic growth in every part of the United Kingdom.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Geoffrey Robinson and Danny Alexander

Tuesday 25th June 2013 Commons Chamber

[Danny Alexander]

Yes I can, and the House will be considering High Speed 2 tomorrow. I hope my hon. Friend and other Members on both sides of the House will give the project very strong support, because it is a massive project that has the capacity completely to transform the regional economic geography of this country. This Government are totally committed to delivering it, and we will do so.

[Mr Geoffrey Robinson (Coventry North West) (Lab)]

Can the Chief Secretary confirm that only seven of the Treasury’s infrastructure projects in the pipeline have been completed? In view of its overall conversion finally to the need for infrastructure investment, is that not a disgraceful record?

[Danny Alexander]

I do not accept that figure, and I tell the hon. Gentleman a very large number of projects are completed or under way that we have announced. There are national road schemes, motorway schemes around the country, local transport schemes around the country, Crossrail under way—tunnelling started in May 2012—and major improvements to over 134 railway stations since May 2010. There is a great deal of investment in infrastructure going on, and he should welcome it.

Infrastructure (Financial Assistance) Bill

Debate between Geoffrey Robinson and Danny Alexander

Monday 17th September 2012 Commons Chamber

[Danny Alexander]

I think that my constituents in the highlands would say that describing it as close to my constituency might be a misuse of the word “close”, but none the less I recognise the right hon. Gentleman’s point. I gently observe that his party had 13 years in office to deal with that project, although I mean no disrespect to him in saying so.

[Mr Geoffrey Robinson (Coventry North West) (Lab)]

Will the Chief Secretary give way?

[Danny Alexander]

Let me answer the intervention made by the right hon. Member for Rotherham (Mr MacShane) and then I will gladly take a further intervention. I will deal with them one at a time, if I may.

I certainly will pass on the right hon. Gentleman’s concerns to the Department for Transport, which is aware of the matter. I have received representations from Members of all parties in the north-east of England about that particular project.

[Mr Robinson]

On road projects that would be advantageous, such as the one mentioned by my right hon. Friend the Member for Rotherham (Mr MacShane), is the Chief Secretary aware that not a single one of those announced in the autumn statement has yet got under way?

[Danny Alexander]

I would point out to the hon. Gentleman that one of the announcements in the autumn statement was about local authority major projects. He will know, for example, that the Kingskerswell bypass is under constructions, that the A164 Humber bridge to Beverley improvements are under construction, and that the east of Exeter scheme improvements to the M5 junction 29 are under construction. I could carry on, but I will save the rest of the list for further interventions.

--- Later in debate ---

[Danny Alexander]

The right hon. Lady is referring to an important piece of legislation, which, generally speaking, will have been taken into account in the process of giving consent to a project. The guarantees will be offered to projects that meet a number of criteria, one of which is that they already have the necessary consents in place to get going within 12 months. The objective is to bring forward and accelerate the development of infrastructure, and it would be inappropriate to impose additional obligations on people delivering projects. This is about enabling projects that are already slated to happen to get going quickly.

[Mr Robinson]

This is a huge sum of money that the Treasury is undertaking to guarantee. I cannot imagine what some officials must think about it, but I know that there will be a strong case for ensuring that all guarantees are immediately and unconditionally added to the public sector borrowing requirement. Is it the case that any guarantee will be counted as public expenditure and be part of the PSBR?

[Danny Alexander]

It is good to hear from someone on the Labour Benches who thinks that £50 billion is a lot of money, given the freedom with which the Labour Government borrowed such sums during their time in office. The hon. Gentleman will know that these guarantees will not score to the PSBR, except to the extent that one makes an assumption about them being called, which causes a bit of immediate public expenditure. It is only at the point at which a contingent liability is called on that it scores as public spending. He will also know, because I suspect that he was involved in these matters when he was a Minister at the Treasury—

[Mr Robinson]

rose—

[Danny Alexander]

If the hon. Gentleman will let me finish my answer, I will give way to him again. He will also know that we recently obtained the agreement of Members on both sides of the House to introduce a new process known as the whole of Government accounts. That process, in addition to covering the national accounts that relate to immediate expenditure, also reports on off-balance-sheet expenditure of all sorts. Contingent liabilities of the kind that might be entered into under the Bill will be reported in the normal way.

The hon. Gentleman will also observe that the Bill includes significant reporting requirements. These will require the Treasury—or the Secretary of State, where appropriate—to report to the House in circumstances in which guarantees are issued under the terms of the Bill. I hope that that satisfies him—but perhaps it does not.

[Mr Robinson]

There was a long-standing Treasury tradition—I do not know when it was last breached, or whether it has been discarded—that a guarantee was counted as expenditure when it was given, not when it was called. The Bill seems to provide yet another easy way for the Government to find some off-balance-sheet expenditure in a way that they swore not to do.

[Danny Alexander]

I am advised that that is not correct, but if the hon. Gentleman wishes to enter into correspondence on the matter, I shall gladly follow it up.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Geoffrey Robinson and Danny Alexander

Tuesday 26th June 2012 Commons Chamber

[Danny Alexander]

It is precisely such an example of the sort of infrastructure that this country needs and the sort of project from which the economy of London and elsewhere will benefit if we can bring the investment forward and make things happen more quickly. As I said, we are looking for ideas about doing just that.

[Mr Geoffrey Robinson (Coventry North West) (Lab)]

Is the Chief Secretary not aware that the so-called national infrastructure programme is way behind schedule, that the construction industry is flat on its back and that the apprenticeships in that sector, so badly needed by the industry and by the Government, are seizing up? Why does he not get his finger out and do something about it instead of making vague promises?

[Danny Alexander]

The hon. Gentleman is wrong to say that the national infrastructure plan, which we published last November, is behind schedule, but of course he is right to say that there are problems in the construction sector. That is why we have taken a number of steps to support the house building sector, but we will make further announcements in that area later this summer.

Finance (No. 3) Bill

Debate between Geoffrey Robinson and Danny Alexander

Tuesday 26th April 2011 Commons Chamber

[Danny Alexander]

I do not accept the hon. Gentleman’s analysis. As he will know, we are currently consulting and engaging with the industry on precisely that question of the trigger price.

I am sure Members in all parts of the House agree that on the road to sustainable growth, access to finance is also a critical issue. For that reason, clause 42 increases the relief available for the enterprise investment scheme to 30%, encouraging further investment in small and growing businesses; clause 9 doubles the lifetime limit on entrepreneurs’ relief from £5 million to £10 million; and clause 43 raises the rate of research and development tax credits for small and medium-sized enterprises to 200%. As we announced in the Budget, from next year it will rise again to 225%, providing real support for small firms investing in research and development.

Small and medium-sized enterprises are the driving force behind the recovery. They employ 60% of Britain’s work force, and contribute to about 50% of all output. Their success will help to define the future of our economy. The last Government planned to increase the small profits rate of corporation tax, but we have chosen to do the opposite. Clause 6 will reduce the rate paid by small businesses to just 20%. The Budget also revealed that we would continue to provide business rate relief for small firms for another year, which will support growing businesses up and down the country.

[Mr Geoffrey Robinson (Coventry North West) (Lab)]

Many firms will, of course, be grateful for the reduction in corporation tax, but will not the slashing of investment allowances go a long way towards offsetting any benefit that might have been gained by small companies in particular? According to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, the real beneficiaries of both measures will be the less capital-intensive service sector,

“historically typified by the financial sector”,

rather than the small companies that export and depend on investment which the Chief Secretary is seeking to help.

[Danny Alexander]

I believe that the reduction in corporation tax will benefit businesses in all sectors. As for the question of capital allowances, the changes in relation to short-life assets have been welcomed throughout the business community, and particularly by the Engineering Employers Federation.

In 2007 the last Government reduced the writing down allowances from 25% to 20%, and we are reducing them from 20% to 18%. That is a balanced move which will ensure that firms in all sectors, including manufacturing, benefit from the new corporation tax environment that we are introducing.