Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate her Department has made of the potential impact of the Autumn Budget 2024 on productivity in each year between 2024 and 2028.
Answered by Tulip Siddiq - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
Delivering economic growth and improving productivity is the government's central mission. Since 2010, productivity growth has been less than a third of the productivity growth in the decade prior to the financial crisis. If productivity growth had remained at the previous rate of 2.1% per annum, then GDP per capita would be £12,500 higher in today’s prices.
This is why the government is making further reforms to deliver long-term growth, including: ambitious planning reforms; a modern Industrial Strategy; the development of a 10-year infrastructure strategy; and the publication of the Get Britain Working White Paper. The government expects these measures collectively to have a positive impact on growth. For example, the OBR recognised that proposed changes to the National Planning Policy Framework “may enable greater delivery of new housing and infrastructure projects, which would boost the associated investment flows, as well as increasing productivity over the longer term”.
In their Economic and Fiscal Outlook, published alongside the Budget, the Office for Budget Responsibility evaluated the government’s announced Budget package on public investment as increasing the level of GDP by 1.4% in the long-term.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the keynote address made by the Economic Secretary to the Treasury at the Tokenisation Summit on 25 November 2024, what her timetable is for implementing the proposals on (a) cryptoassets and (b) stablecoins published by her Department in October 2023.
Answered by Tulip Siddiq - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government has signalled its intention to engage firms on draft legal provisions for the cryptoasset financial services regulatory regime as early as possible next year.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate she has made of the the amount of increased taxation generated by the increase in the National Living Wage in 2025-26.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The latest forecasts for tax revenues were published alongside the Office for Budget Responsibility’s (OBR) October Economic and Fiscal Outlook. These forecasts are based on economic determinants, including wage growth and employment levels. Detailed tax receipts forecasts can be found here: Economic and fiscal outlook – October 2024 - Office for Budget ResponsibilityAsked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 5 November 2024 to Question 11832 on Living Wage, how many and what proportion of workers affected by the increase in the National Living Wage will become taxpayers in April 2025.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
At Autumn Budget the Chancellor announced the National Living Wage will rise by 6.7% in April 2025 to £12.21 per hour, representing a pay rise to over 3 million workers. This pay boost is worth £1,400 a year for an eligible full-time worker.
The Government is protecting working people’s payslips by, not increasing the basic, higher or additional rates of income tax, or employee National Insurance contributions. It is also not extending the freeze on personal tax thresholds, allowing them to rise with inflation from April 2028.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she plans to expand the pilot No Interest Loan Scheme to Northern Ireland.
Answered by Tulip Siddiq - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The government recognises the importance of affordable credit in helping people across the UK manage their finances. A government-funded No Interest Loan Scheme (NILS) pilot is being conducted by Fair4All Finance and its partners in England, Scotland, and Wales. The pilot aims to assess how effectively NILS meets the needs of vulnerable consumers. PwC has been appointed to conduct a comprehensive evaluation of the pilot to determine whether NILS is a viable and sustainable product that should be made permanently available.
Lending for the pilot concluded on 31 August 2024. Although Fair4All Finance intended to extend the pilot to Northern Ireland, the absence of a Northern Ireland Executive from October 2022 to February 2024 meant there was insufficient time to secure sign-off for the necessary capital to fund the pilot there before the lending period ended.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she has had discussions with the automotive industry on trends in the level of consumer debt accrued through car hire purchase agreements.
Answered by Tulip Siddiq - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The government engages with a broad range of stakeholders such as the financial regulators, industry, debt advice charities and consumer groups to monitor trends in consumer debt and understand issues affecting consumers.
The Government currently provides a range of debt advice services through the Money and Pensions Service (MaPS) to meet the needs of individuals in problem debt, including national and community-based services offering free-to-client debt advice. In addition, the Government’s ‘Breathing Space’ scheme provides eligible individuals protections from creditor enforcement action for a period of 60 days, giving them the space to work with a professional debt adviser to identify a positive and sustainable solution to their problem debt.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, when she plans to reply to the correspondence from the hon. Member for East Londonderry of 21 August 2024 on a wages and taxation issue.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
HM Treasury has no record of receiving the letter of 21 August 2024 from the Hon Member. Officials have contacted the Hon Member’s office to request a copy.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will have discussions with major banking institutions on progress in establishing banking hubs (a) in rural areas, (b) in small towns and (c) nationally.
Answered by Tulip Siddiq - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government understands the importance of face-to-face banking to communities and high streets, and is committed to championing sufficient access for all as a priority. This is why the Government is working closely with industry to ensure that at least 350 banking hubs are delivered across the UK.
Over 60 banking hubs are already open and Cash Access UK, who oversee banking hub rollout, expect 100 hubs to be open by the end of the year.
The specific location of these hubs is determined independently by LINK, the operator of the UK’s largest ATM network. Criteria that LINK considers includes whether another bank branch remains nearby, population, number of cash-accepting businesses and the financial vulnerability of the community.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will establish an independent body to verify the accuracy of forecasts made by the Office for Budget Responsibility.
Answered by Bim Afolami
The OBR is required by legislation to publish an evaluation of its forecasts against outturn data each year, and in 2023 also published a working paper assessing its historic forecast performance since it was established. The paper showed that its GDP growth and borrowing forecasts were comparable to external forecasters, and more accurate than previous Treasury forecasts.
The OBR is reviewed externally every five years.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 20 November 2023 to Question 1823 on Business: Insolvency, what steps his Department is taking to help tackle the trend in the number of companies declaring insolvency in that period.
Answered by Gareth Davies - Shadow Financial Secretary (Treasury)
The Government was pleased to see that the latest statistics reported by the Insolvency Service showed the number of corporate insolvencies in March 2024 had fallen by 28% compared to March 2023.
The Government continues to help businesses, including through a swathe of policy measures in the Autumn explicitly aimed at ‘Backing British business’. Recent and current policies supporting businesses include:
• Energy Bills Discount Scheme that provided discounts on high energy bills to eligible businesses and other non-domestic energy users from April 2023 to April 2024.
• Continued frozen small business rates multiplier and business rates relief for the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure sector, the latter policy supporting around 230,000 properties up to £110,000 per business.
• Payment and cashflow review outlining measures to combat late payments that can jeopardise stable cashflows.
The Government will continue to monitor the UK corporate sector, using official data and engaging with firms and business groups to inform policy decisions.