Oral Answers to Questions

Jack Abbott Excerpts

Tuesday 20th May 2025 Commons Chamber

[Rachel Reeves]

As the hon. Lady knows, when I became Chancellor last year, we inherited a £22 billion black hole in the public finances—not in some year in the future, but in the financial year that we were already three or four months into. This meant that we had to make difficult and urgent decisions to put our public finances back on a firm footing—because, unlike the Conservatives, I will never play fast and loose with the public finances.

[Jack Abbott (Ipswich) (Lab/Co-op)]

T6. Labour-led Ipswich borough council recently announced investment to reopen the iconic Grimwades building in our town centre, which has been left vacant for more than a decade. This local ambition matches the Government’s national initiatives, but challenges remain, so what steps are the Government taking to go even further and reform the unfair business rates system for good?

[The Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury (James Murray)]

We are determined to go further and faster to reform business rates, which is why we will publish an update paper in the summer. I am also glad that we can work with councils such as Ipswich to ensure that we can turn around town centres after years of Conservative decline.