Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Greg Mulholland and Danny Alexander

Tuesday 10th March 2015 Commons Chamber

[Danny Alexander]

The hon. Gentleman will have to wait for the Finance Bill to be published and to hear the Budget statement next week. He should reflect on his party’s record in office on these matters. Frankly, when the coalition Government came to office, we inherited a tax system like a Swiss cheese: it was so full of holes that tax was leaking all over the place. We have plugged a lot of those holes and there is more work to be done, but I do not think that he should give us any lectures.

[Greg Mulholland (Leeds North West) (LD)]

I am sure my right hon. Friend will welcome the report by the Electrification Task Force, which is chaired by the hon. Member for Harrogate and Knaresborough (Andrew Jones), and praise its work. The report said that in tier 1 the Harrogate-Leeds-York line should be prioritised, but does the Minister agree that we must also put in the 1.1 mile of track to connect Yorkshire’s Leeds Bradford airport?

[Danny Alexander]

I congratulate the hon. Member for Harrogate and Knaresborough (Andrew Jones) and my hon. Friend on the their work, and I met them recently to discuss it. There is a strong case for investment in the Harrogate-Leeds-York line and in the rail link to the airport that my hon. Friend describes. Ensuring that degree of connectivity for one of the fastest growing airports in the country, which has huge potential for growth, could also take off the roads the traffic caused by people travelling to other airports in the country. We shall be considering the matter carefully.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Greg Mulholland and Danny Alexander

Tuesday 27th January 2015 Commons Chamber

[Greg Mulholland (Leeds North West) (LD)]

This Treasury team abolished Labour’s unjustifiable and unfair beer duty escalator and delivered two historic successive cuts in beer duty. We still pay more tax on our beer, however, so our British brewers are not getting a fair deal in comparison with their European counterparts. Will the Treasury make it a hat trick?

[The Chief Secretary to the Treasury (Danny Alexander)]

During his time in Parliament, my hon. Friend has been a champion of the beer industry, small pubs and small brewers across the country—and a very effective champion he has been, too. Of course I cannot make any commitments about the Budget at this stage, but I welcome his recognition of the progress made on this subject during the course of this Parliament, and I will certainly take his recommendations for the Budget very seriously.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Greg Mulholland and Danny Alexander

Tuesday 9th December 2014 Commons Chamber

[Danny Alexander]

I totally agree with the hon. Lady. It is incredibly important to improve the rate of house building. I would set the figure at closer to 300,000 houses a year across the UK, rather than the 200,000 that she mentioned. She will know that in the autumn statement we extended the affordable house building programme for a further two years in order to build 275,000 affordable homes in the next Parliament. We are taking forward the idea of Government commissioning of housing, which would be a radical departure for this country, at Northstowe, and looking at it as a solution for the whole country.

[Greg Mulholland (Leeds North West) (LD)]

I warmly welcome the infrastructure announcement, but does my right hon. Friend agree that we also need further devolution to allow the much-needed rail link to Leeds Bradford airport and the electrification of the Leeds-Harrogate-York line? Will he meet me and other interested colleagues who represent the area to discuss how we can take this forward?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Greg Mulholland and Danny Alexander

Tuesday 4th November 2014 Commons Chamber

[Greg Mulholland (Leeds North West) (LD)]

The last Labour Government cancelled the Supertram scheme in Leeds and then told the city that it could only have a bus-based solution. Does my right hon. Friend agree that as well as devo-max and “devo Manc”, we also need “devo Yorks”?

[Danny Alexander]

I could not agree more with my hon. Friend, and the Deputy Prime Minister has been championing that agenda in government for the last four and a half years. If the leaders of Leeds wish to come forward with proposals for further devolution and more power over the things he has been talking about, to ensure that we get the right economic developments in the Leeds area, we would be delighted to have those discussions in an active way, to try to settle a deal there as well.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Greg Mulholland and Danny Alexander

Tuesday 28th January 2014 Commons Chamber

[Greg Mulholland (Leeds North West) (LD)]

8. What steps he has taken to reduce the cost of living for those on low incomes.

[The Chief Secretary to the Treasury (Danny Alexander)]

In addition to lifting the income tax personal allowance, which I mentioned earlier, the Government are supporting working households’ income through other measures such as freezing fuel duty, supporting a council tax freeze and, most importantly, sticking to an economic plan that is getting hundreds of thousands more of our fellow citizens back into work.

[Greg Mulholland]

I thank my right hon. Friend for that answer. The best way to help people and families on lower incomes is to take them out of tax. What is the effect of the increase in the tax threshold compared with the last Government’s disgraceful decision to abolish the 10p tax rate?

[Danny Alexander]

That is a very good question. The tax threshold increases that we have presided over will have taken 2.7 million people out of tax. The personal allowance is a zero rate, whereas a 10p rate would halve the rate of income tax, so raising the personal allowance is literally twice as good.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Greg Mulholland and Danny Alexander

Tuesday 12th March 2013 Commons Chamber

[Danny Alexander]

I do not run away from any of the decisions the Government have made, and the hon. Gentleman should not run away from the fact that the ratchet on fuel prices planned by his party in the last Parliament, which was baked into the public finances, would have dwarfed the increase to which he refers.

[Greg Mulholland (Leeds North West) (LD)]

Turning to the other escalator, the nonsensical beer duty escalator, I can give my right hon. Friend good news: there are now around 1,000 breweries in this country, the highest number for 70 years, because of the explosion in micro-breweries due to fairer and lower beer duty. Now that the Government are rightly going to tackle overcharging by the pub companies, which will allow more access to market for the wonderful micro-breweries, may we also have some joined-up thinking with the abolition in the Budget of the beer duty escalator, which simply does not make sense?

[Danny Alexander]

I certainly share my hon. Friend’s admiration for micro-breweries: one in my constituency has recently produced a beer called Ginger Rodent, which sold out in its first run. I look forward to more sales when it is in the House of Commons bar in June. As for the rest of his question, I take it as a Budget representation.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Greg Mulholland and Danny Alexander

Tuesday 22nd March 2011 Commons Chamber

[The Chief Secretary to the Treasury (Danny Alexander)]

The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions is bringing forward proposals to reform the disability living allowance system and replace it with a new personal independence payment. I am sure that he will have heard what the hon. Gentleman said and will be very happy to discuss the matter with him.

[Greg Mulholland (Leeds North West) (LD)]

The previous Government’s beer duty escalator was damaging to pubs, ill-considered and did not raise the revenue that it should have done. Considering that the Prime Minister has said that he wants this to be a pro-pub Government, will we get some good news for pubs tomorrow?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Greg Mulholland and Danny Alexander

Tuesday 8th February 2011 Commons Chamber

[Danny Alexander]

What was missing from that was any reference to the subject of the question, which was the deficit. Labour Members seem keen to talk about everything except the deficit, which they left for this Government to clean up. I do not apologise at all for the tough decisions we have had to take to sort out that deficit, to introduce tax rises and to deal with public spending to ensure that this country gets back on track. They maxed out the credit card; we have to pay it off.

[Greg Mulholland (Leeds North West) (LD)]

6. If he will take steps to allow charities providing services transferred to them by the NHS to recover value added tax.