Women and the Cost of Living
Debate between Harriett Baldwin and Sarah Wollaston(11 years, 1 month ago)
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Harriett Baldwin
Some Opposition Members think that the Chancellor has tightened too fast, but others might argue that he could have tightened faster. I say that he has been a Goldilocks Chancellor, and this has been a tightening at the pace at which job creation has been allowed to flourish. I also want to put on record that there has been no recession in this country since 2009. At all points in this fiscal responsibility, the Chancellor has looked for measures that have helped hard-working families keep their cost of living under control. He has helped councils freeze their council tax, he has raised the tax-free threshold for working people and he has avoided the 13p fuel duty increase that Labour had planned—
Dr Sarah Wollaston (Totnes) (Con)
Today we have been talking about health care assistants, and there are 1.3 million women—it is an almost entirely female work force—doing that incredibly important job. All of them are likely to benefit from a rise in tax thresholds and very many of them from extra assistance with child care.
Harriett Baldwin
The previous Government, as we heard from the hon. Member for Edinburgh East, thought it was appropriate to tax people earning only £6,500 per year, and to give them their own money back in the form of tax credits. I believe it is more important that we do not take that money in the first place.
I want to demolish what the hon. Member for Ashfield (Gloria De Piero) said on disposable incomes. Since the start of the economic downturn, the average equivalised household income has fallen by about £1,200 since 2007-08. The Opposition talked about the average fall, but the richest fifth of households have seen largest fall. In contrast, after accounting for inflation and household composition, the average income for the poorest fifth of households has grown in the same period by 6.9%—a statistic from the Office for National Statistics. I refute the argument inherent in the motion that we have had a particularly serious impact on the cost of living for women.
I would also like to demolish the claim in the motion that the Chancellor has made
“women pay three times more than men to bring down the deficit”.
I have taken the trouble to look at the Full Fact website, which I recommend to Opposition Members. It makes a line-by-line demolition of their claims. For example, women such as me, who earn more than £60,000, no longer receive child benefit. That is counted as a negative, but I would argue that that is a sensible way to reallocate scarce resources. The Opposition count it as a negative that the income tax cut does not help women as much as men, whereas I think it is a good thing that women are given a tax break.
The third point I would like to demolish is that it is a problem for more women than ever before to be in work. I welcome it. One reason this has been a successful area of welfare reform is that the number of lone parents out of work—I accept that the number of lone parents out of work declined under the previous Government—has declined sharply since 2010, falling by 26% to just under 500,000. I agree that that is still too high and we have more to do, but we are doing an enormous amount—providing free child care and helping lone parents into work—to help them to lift their own families out of poverty. There are other positive aspects of welfare reform for women in the workplace. Although well intentioned, a terrible consequence of Labour’s approach to welfare is that it trapped many women in 16-hour-a-week jobs. I have met many women in my constituency who have said, “I have been offered more hours, but it does not make economic sense for me to take them.”
Rural Fair Share Campaign
Debate between Harriett Baldwin and Sarah Wollaston
Harriett Baldwin (West Worcestershire) (Con)
I am handing in a petition in the same terms for 128 signatories from the beautiful town of Pershore and the villages around Bredon Hill in my constituency.
The Petition of the residents of West Worcestershire.
[P001268]
Dr Sarah Wollaston (Totnes) (Con)
I am presenting a petition in the same terms on behalf of people from Loddiswell and Dartmouth in my constituency, who speak for my entire constituency in recognising that the cost of providing services in rural areas is far higher and that the settlement should be based on age as well as deprivation.
The Petition of the residents of Loddiswell.
[P001258]
Petitions
Debate between Harriett Baldwin and Sarah Wollaston
Harriett Baldwin (West Worcestershire) (Con)
I am handing in a petition in the same terms for 128 signatories from the beautiful town of Pershore and the villages around Bredon Hill in my constituency.
The Petition of the residents of West Worcestershire.
[P001268]
Dr Sarah Wollaston (Totnes) (Con)
I am presenting a petition in the same terms on behalf of people from Loddiswell and Dartmouth in my constituency, who speak for my entire constituency in recognising that the cost of providing services in rural areas is far higher and that the settlement should be based on age as well as deprivation.
The Petition of the residents of Loddiswell.
[P001258]
Health
Debate between Harriett Baldwin and Sarah Wollaston(13 years ago)
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Harriett Baldwin (West Worcestershire) (Con)
There are three fine community hospitals in my constituency: Pershore, Tenbury and Malvern. My hon. Friend may wish to invite her constituents to visit the Pershore hospital, which is owned by the district council and operated by the NHS care trust. It is an interesting model.
Dr Wollaston
I thank my hon. Friend for that intervention. There is an understandable fear that many premises in the most stunning locations, which have been bequeathed to their communities by local benefactors, could end up being sold off with communities powerless to intervene. I want to touch on some of the alternative models. Communities are reassured that for the time being there is a clear directive providing that in future only NHS organisations may own the estate, but I agree with my hon. Friend that local models can provide alternatives. NHS ownership may, in some circumstances, create difficulties, and inhibit the development of hospitals’ full potential. For example, the Community Hospitals Association is concerned that in some areas management may pass to mental health organisations with little experience of managing community hospitals. There is also a concern that passing management to predominantly secondary-care-focused trusts could cause the hospitals’ interests to be sidelined.
In many parts of the country, social enterprises have been formed to provide community services, but currently they cannot own and invest in premises, and nor can GPs acting as commissioners. May I ask the Minister to look into how ownership arrangements could be made more flexible in order to provide local solutions, while at the same time guaranteeing to local people that the value of their assets will be safeguarded for their communities? I hope that all our leagues of friends will then feel confident enough to continue to invest for the future.
Let me briefly raise the issue of the system of tariff payments. As the Minister will know, currently the tariff is not fairly distributed, which means that community hospitals are often not funded for the provision of step-down care. The acute hospital receives all the funding irrespective of how long the patient remains in its care, although community hospitals are ideally placed to provide safe step-down services. I therefore hope that the Minister will give an update on how and when the tariff will be reformed to assist community hospitals to offer the full range of services they wish to provide.
The main focus should be on avoiding the need for acute hospital admissions in the first place. Community hospitals have a key role to play in providing many services, not just in-patient and palliative care. I join the Community Hospitals Association in calling for more investment in research and evaluation of their role and contribution to high-quality care and the wider social care economy.
Finally, I wish all Members and staff of the House a very happy Christmas.