Autumn Statement

James Morris Excerpts

Wednesday 3rd December 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Osborne]

I am absolutely ready to engage with authorities, including of course Labour authorities, in Birmingham and in the rest of the west midlands on what more we can do to invest in the west midlands. We have had a good and productive cross-party relationship with the Labour leaders in Manchester, and I would like to see that replicated in Birmingham, with Albert Bore, and with the Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat authorities in the black country. We are willing to do that and to hear their good ideas.

A number of proposals have been made on enterprise zones. We will make an announcement in the Budget. A lot of good ideas have come in. We were not ready to assess all the different bids to make a decision in time for the autumn statement, but we will do that in time for the Budget.

[James Morris (Halesowen and Rowley Regis) (Con)]

I welcome the Chancellor’s statement, particularly his commitment to new spending on the NHS. Does he agree that we can invest in things such as the new Midland Metropolitan hospital in Sandwell and improved services at Rowley Regis hospital only if we stick to our long-term plan and have strong economic growth?

[Mr Osborne]

I have visited with my hon. Friend the great local NHS that he does so much to support and have seen his commitment to major capital investment in new hospital services. I hope his area will also benefit from the new £1 billion fund for improving primary care facilities so that we can deliver secondary care-style services in our communities, working with our GPs. That will be a huge investment, on top of the big investment he has already secured for his area.

The Economy

James Morris Excerpts

Wednesday 26th November 2014 Commons Chamber

[Chris Leslie]

I would like to make a little progress, because I know that a lot of Members want to speak.

The problem with this Chancellor and the promises that he made back in 2010 is that he has failed abysmally to complete the deal and ensure that he delivers on those promises. It is not just about the record on the national health service or even on immigration, where the Government have failed to meet their target of reducing net migration to tens of thousands. They have failed to deliver a recovery shared by all, they have failed to eliminate the deficit, as they promised to do, and they have failed to detoxify their reputation on the NHS. The real question is whether the Chancellor and the Prime Minister, after nearly five years, are prepared to start taking some responsibility for the situation.

[James Morris (Halesowen and Rowley Regis) (Con)]

rose—

[Chris Leslie]

Will they do what I suspect the hon. Gentleman is about to do and blame Europe? They love to blame Europe, in particular, but they have also blamed the weather and even the royal wedding. Who is the hon. Gentleman going to blame?

[James Morris]

Is the hon. Gentleman seriously arguing that the challenges we are addressing through our long-term economic plan have nothing to do with the fact that we had the deepest economic recession since the second world war—a recession over which his Government presided—which led to thousands of people being made unemployed, hundreds of businesses going bust and an absolutely devastating long-term effect on many people’s lives? Does he not take any responsibility for that?

[Chris Leslie]

Government Members want to airbrush the fact that there was a banking crisis, and a global banking crisis—[Interruption.] They do not like the fact that there was a banking crisis. They want to pretend that it was everybody else’s fault—there they go again.

I must tell the hon. Member for Halesowen and Rowley Regis (James Morris) that he has been in government—perhaps he has not been a Minister, but he has supported the Government—for nearly five years. The Government must start taking some responsibility for the state of the economy.

Oral Answers to Questions

James Morris Excerpts

Tuesday 4th November 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Osborne]

We are operating under a tough set of rules. The rules were put in place in 2007.

[James Morris (Halesowen and Rowley Regis) (Con)]

T10. There are now 1,217 fewer people claiming unemployment benefit in my constituency than in 2010. Does the Chancellor agree that we need to continue the job of reducing business taxes to incentivise business to create jobs, rather than to adopt the policy of slapping higher taxes on business, which will only have the effect of destroying jobs?

[Mr Osborne]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. I have been lucky enough to visit successful manufacturing businesses in his constituency with him and, indeed, to see the investment that as a result we are able to make in new hospitals in the west midlands. He of course makes the very strong point that if you increase business taxes—that is the official policy of the Labour party—in such a competitive world, you will destroy jobs, reduce revenues and not be able to fund good public services.

The Economy and Living Standards

James Morris Excerpts

Thursday 12th June 2014 Commons Chamber

[Ed Balls]

As I said, the first wrongheaded thing to do is to bury one’s head in the sand and not to face up to the reality. We can debate the Chancellor’s record. In 2010, he said that he would balance the Budget in 2015, but the deficit will be £75 million. He said that he would make people better off, but the Institute for Fiscal Studies has confirmed that people will be worse off in 2015 than they were in 2010. He said that we would all be in this together, but he has imposed the bedroom tax on the most vulnerable, seen record numbers go to food banks and cut the top rate of income tax for those earning more than £150,000.

[James Morris (Halesowen and Rowley Regis) (Con)]

rose—

[Charlie Elphicke (Dover) (Con)]

rose—

--- Later in debate ---

[Ed Balls]

Of course that is good news. For decades, we have been an open, global trading nation that attracts investment from around the world, and I want to keep it that way. However, complacency is not the way to make that happen. We have to face up to the reality that living standards are falling because, as the International Monetary Fund said in its report last week, our recovery is characterised by woefully low productivity growth. That is why living standards and wages are still falling, even as growth returns. Unless we face up to that challenge, we will have substantial problems.

[James Morris]

Last year, the right hon. Gentleman said that the Chancellor should listen to the IMF. Surely, he should take his own advice. He was wrong on growth. The Government’s long-term economic plan is working. Higher taxes would lead to a more insecure Britain. In the spirit of the debate that he wants to have, surely he has to admit that he was wrong on growth.

[Ed Balls]

In 2010, the Chancellor said that, by now, the economy would have grown by 12%. It has actually grown by half that amount. That is why the deficit has not come down and why people are worse off. The Chancellor would have been well advised to take the sound advice in 2010 and not choke off the economic recovery. He should take the sound advice of the IMF now and look at ways to improve housing supply and to tackle the woeful productivity performance over which he is presiding.

--- Later in debate ---

[James Morris (Halesowen and Rowley Regis) (Con)]

The Government were formed with one overarching purpose: to get our economy back on its feet, building a framework for jobs and restoring some sanity to our nation’s finances. Nowhere was this need greater than in the black country in the west midlands.

The previous Government promised to put an end to boom and bust. For families in Halesowen and Rowley Regis, they delivered on one half of that pledge. Even before the start of the great recession, gross value added in Dudley and Sandwell collapsed from 88% of the national average in 1997 to just 74% in 2008. As the prosperity gap between the black country and the south-east grew out of control, the number of private sector jobs in the west midlands actually fell under the previous Government. If the boom bypassed the black country, the bust hit families hard in Halesowen and Rowley Regis.

Now, four years of action from this Government—one might call it a long-term economic plan—have helped to turn things around, and many families in Halesowen and Rowley Regis are starting to see the benefits. Yesterday’s jobs figures showed unemployment falling more quickly in the west midlands than anywhere else in the country, with 80% of the increase in jobs being full-time positions. In my constituency, the number of people who are out of work has fallen by more than a third since the election. Some 2,000 more people in Halesowen and Rowley Regis are in work, helping to ensure a stronger future for them, their families and the country as a whole. Thanks to the year-on-year increases in personal allowances, 30,000 of my constituents are now able to keep more of what they earn for themselves and their families, and 3,000 people on low incomes no longer have to pay any income tax at all. Things are still difficult for a lot of families and we still need to do more to make sure that everybody benefits as the economy recovers, but the evidence is strong that things are getting better. People in Halesowen and Rowley Regis literally cannot afford to return to the mistakes of the past.

A Government cannot be judged by the weight of legislation they propose, but by the impact their actions have on the country. There is more to commend in this Queen’s Speech than we have time to discuss, but the small business, enterprise and employment Bill will make it easier for businesses in Halesowen and Rowley Regis to compete, to invest and to grow. A few days after the Budget, I was pleased to welcome the Chancellor to Cube Precision Engineering in my constituency, a young company that has grown from a staff of six to a team of more than 37. The day after the Budget, Cube placed an order for a new £325,000 machining centre to allow it to grow further, increase exports and create new jobs. The Bill will help more businesses to access the finance they need to invest in their own growth.

The measures in the Queen’s Speech build on the achievement of the Government’s long-term economic plan: helping businesses to create jobs, increase our skills base and build prosperity; supporting families with child care costs when parents return to work to make sure that it pays for them to work and our economy is able to benefit from their skills and potential; and encouraging workers to save for their futures by allowing them more choices over how they save and more freedom over how they use their money. This is the programme of a Government who have already delivered a lot, but who recognise there is still a lot more to do. This is a Queen’s Speech that I am very proud to support.

Finance (No.2) Bill

James Morris Excerpts

Tuesday 8th April 2014 Commons Chamber

[Shabana Mahmood]

I agree that business needs certainty. All our figures are based on analysis from the House of Commons Library. That is the best we have to go on and it is, of course, a respected source for making projections on the likely cost of cutting the rate and how much will remain for business rates. As I have said, all the money raised will go towards our business rate policy, which applies to 2015-16 and 2016-17. We will, of course, consider the circumstances in the early part of the next Parliament when deciding what to do about business rates.

During the Budget debates, Government Members tried to argue that our proposal to increase corporation tax back up to 21% meant that Labour was all about increasing business taxes. It is interesting that that argument has not been repeated since those debates. It quickly fell apart when it was pointed out to Government Members that, given that all the revenue from our corporation tax policy would be spent on cutting and then freezing business rates for small businesses, their argument did not seem to consider small businesses to be real businesses. I am glad that Government Members appear to have dropped that particular line of attack and I would warn them against trying to run it again, because it was insulting to small and medium-sized enterprises.

[James Morris (Halesowen and Rowley Regis) (Con)]

Under this Government, local authorities will be able to retain an uplift in business rates as part of local government funding. Has the hon. Lady considered the impact of a business rate freeze on the ability of local governments to benefit from an uptake in business rates, and on local government finance in general?

[Shabana Mahmood]

Our policy is fully costed. We do not envisage any loss of revenue for local government. Our key priority is to give practical assistance to businesses as soon as possible, so that people such as those who visit my constituency surgery to say that they are fearful that they will have to close their business get some relief from what is becoming a very real business burden.

Last week the Secretary of State for Education suggested to the British Chambers of Commerce that our policy on corporation tax and business rates pits businesses against each other, which is complete nonsense. The idea is not to tell one business that it is going to suffer while another business does really well; it is to get a better balance with regard to the landscape of business taxation.

As I have set out in detail, corporation tax cuts over the life of this Parliament amount to some £10 billion and 2% of businesses in this country have done very well with their tax bill. It is fair and right to consider what is happening to the other 98%, understand the struggles they face and make choices that the 2% might not like, but that will offer support to smaller businesses and that will go some way to ensuring that they can remain in business and continue to grow and do good for the economy.

Even if the headline rate of corporation tax increases from 20% to 21%, it is important to remember that it will remain competitive. I do not believe that the change would be destructive or damaging to UK plc. In fact, I think that it and the moneys that will go to businesses as a result of a cut and then a freeze in business rates could do real good, not just for SMEs but for the economy as a whole.

--- Later in debate ---

[Nigel Mills]

A symmetry of tax rates would make perfect sense. Whatever form of income one had, one would know what rate one was paying.

[James Morris]

One of the issues in Britain is that not enough companies are starting up and then growing. One of the reasons for that is that we do not have enough symmetry and the tax system is too complicated. Does my hon. Friend therefore think it would be a good idea to get some simplicity into the system?

[Nigel Mills]

My hon. Friend is exactly right. I think many Members, not least the Minister, know of my commitment to tax simplification. I was tempted, knowing that we were debating corporation tax, to table my amendment yet again on rewriting the whole corporation tax code to one that is more understandable and less complex.

Finance (No. 2) Bill

James Morris Excerpts

Tuesday 1st April 2014 Commons Chamber

[Danny Alexander]

I could not agree more with my hon. Friend, and I shall come to those points later. He is absolutely right to say that measures in the Bill will ensure a degree of fairness.

Let me begin by describing the measures that will aid growth and investment. Hon. Members will be well aware that the economic recovery is taking hold. Jobs are up, the deficit is down, the economy is growing and, as we have seen from this morning’s figures, productivity is improving. This growth has come about because of the nous and the hard work of businesses and individuals in every part of the United Kingdom. We have done our best, over our four years in office, to create the right tax environment to support their work by reducing the level of corporation tax, bringing rates for large and small firms down to 20%, and at the same time offering generous reliefs for R and D-intensive firms and the creative sector. Our reliefs for the film, high-end television and video games sectors are among the most generous in the world, and the critical and commercial success this year of movies such as “Gravity” shows that these reliefs really have taken off.

We know that all the changes we have made across our tax system have been responsible for companies locating their operations here, and for companies expanding their operations here, but we also know that there is still a long way to go. The Bill tackles some of the challenges facing our business community and our economy. We recognise that British businesses are still not investing enough, and that it is only by increasing business investment and productivity that we can embed a long-term recovery that benefits everyone. Let me put that point into perspective. If businesses had increased investment by just 10% in 2012, the level of GDP in this country would be £12 billion higher today. That is why we need to use our tax system to encourage further investment now. The Bill will therefore raise the annual investment allowance to £500,000, with effect from this month.

[James Morris (Halesowen and Rowley Regis) (Con)]

Will not the doubling of the investment allowance have a specific benefit for manufacturing companies outside London and the south-east, particularly in areas such as the west midlands and the black country, where manufacturers’ order books are full and those companies are seeking to invest in new plant and machinery?

[Danny Alexander]

As usual, my hon. Friend is absolutely right. In particular, the measure will help small and medium-sized manufacturers outside London; they are the backbone of our economy.

amendment of the law

James Morris Excerpts

Monday 24th March 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Newmark]

My hon. Friend makes a good point, and I think it was the shadow Chancellor who predicted 1 million people unemployed—I will get to that point in a moment.

More growth means more jobs, and over 1.5 million more jobs are forecast over the next five years, on top of the 1.7 million new jobs created in the past four years. Indeed, today we have more men and women in work than ever before. In Braintree, unemployment has dropped by a third since the general election, with general unemployment down from 3.4% to 2.3%, and youth unemployment from 6.3% to 4.1%. Last Friday we had a successful jobs fair in Braintree with more than 30 businesses and 450 local people attending. I thank Braintree Freeport and Amtek for sponsoring the event, and Braintree district council and Ignite—especially Liz Storey and her team—for their support.

Getting young people back into work is vital, as Councillor Stephen Canning, the youngest councillor in Braintree, keeps reminding me. As a founder of the Million Jobs campaign, I am delighted that the Chancellor has abolished national insurance contributions for employers hiring a young person under 21.

Apprenticeships, too, have been a great success, giving over 1 million people a first step on to the jobs ladder. In particular, I congratulate Braintree district council, especially Councillor Chris Siddall, cabinet member for prosperity and growth, on its apprenticeship programme, and Essex county council on supporting over 2,700 apprentices in the past five years.

The deficit is now down by one third and is due to fall to 5.5% next year. That is 50% of what we inherited in 2010. Yes, the Government’s long-term economic plan is indeed working.

This is a Budget for savers, with the raising of the annual limit on ISAs to £15,000, the abolition of the dreaded 10p rate on savings income helping over 1.5 million lower-income savers, and the new pensioner bonds offering up to 4% return on a three-year bond. This is a Budget for pensions and pensioners, with no one being forced to buy an annuity and no punitive 55% tax rate if people try to take more of their tax-free lump sum. This Budget puts pensions back in the control of pensioners, taking them away from the diktat of Government.

This is a Budget for business. At this point, I draw the House’s attention to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests. The annual investment allowance, which increased tenfold from £25,000 to £250,000, is now doubled again to £500,000. With the business confidence index at an all-time high, I hope that this will encourage businesses, including farmers in my area, to invest more in plant and machinery and to hire more people.

[James Morris (Halesowen and Rowley Regis) (Con)]

Today I visited a company in my constituency, Cube Precision Engineering, with the Chancellor. We could already see the immediate impact of the raising of the investment allowance to £500,000, which is allowing that company to place an order for a new machine that will enhance its competitiveness and allow it to take on new people.

[Mr Newmark]

That is a fine example of exactly why raising the allowance from £25,000 to £250,000 was an important decision that created jobs. As my hon. Friend has indicated, doubling it again will create even more jobs.

This is a Budget for hard-working people, with petrol duty frozen; a penny off a pint of beer, again; and, most importantly, the personal allowance raised to £10,500, cutting taxation for over 25 million people and lifting 3.2 million people out of tax altogether.

--- Later in debate ---

[Paul Blomfield (Sheffield Central) (Lab)]

I do not know whether you, Madam Deputy Speaker, or other Members of the House caught the recent BBC programme “Mind the Gap”. It was not about the perils of travelling on the underground but the growing problem of our country’s two economies—the way in which London and the south-east are sucking economic activity away from the rest of country. Judging by their policies over the past four years, this Government clearly do not mind the gap; indeed, they have widened it. It is not just a north-south problem; it is London versus the rest. The Chancellor’s Budget fuels the gap.

Let us spend a moment looking at two-economies Britain under this Government. Public funding has been diverted from areas where it is needed most by their local government finance settlement, as highlighted by my right hon. Friend the Member for Leeds Central (Hilary Benn). Regional development agencies were scrapped as soon as this Government got through the door.

[James Morris]

Can the hon. Gentleman remind us of what happened to regional inequalities when the RDAs were in existence under the previous Government?

[Paul Blomfield]

I would cite the extremely successful advanced manufacturing research centre, which is a pioneering collaboration between the university of Sheffield, Boeing and Rolls-Royce. It has been highlighted by the Government as a model of industrial innovation. However, it simply would not be there if it had not been for RDA investment.

London also thrives with arts and culture funding, with subsidies worth £68.99 per head, while the rest of England gets just £4.58 per head.

The Budget does not just ignore those issues; it is making them worse. Research by Sheffield political economy research institute has exposed the Chancellor’s flagship increase in the income tax personal allowance as not benefiting the lowest paid and not addressing regional inequality. In many ways, it has made that inequality worse.

This situation is not inevitable. We simply need the political will and the policies to reverse the trend. Let us build on our regional assets, such as our universities, which are uniquely positioned around the country to drive growth through innovation. Let us ensure that there is effective investment in research and development across the higher education sector.

We need an active industrial strategy that does not simply pick winners but supports growth in key sectors across the country, such as the nuclear sector. Of course, one of the early actions of the Government was to undermine that sector in my city by scrapping the loan to Sheffield Forgemasters.

We need a fairer distribution of public funding that puts need at the heart of funding allocation and that recognises the role of public investment in stimulating local economies. The Government should use the levers of public sector employment to address the regional imbalance. They should move Departments, not just minor agencies, out of London. Why can the Department for Education not move lock, stock and barrel to Sheffield? Let us move the Department of Health to Leeds. Let us take the Department for Work and Pensions to Hull.

Government Members have raised concerns about the impact of what they describe as “generous public sector pay” on private sector employers in the regions. However, we cannot accept the argument that there must be a race to the bottom on pay and conditions for there to be regional growth outside London. All regions benefit from decent, well-paid jobs. They fuel our local economies and put money in people’s pockets that will be spent in local businesses. Moving Departments out of London would be good not only for the regions, but for London. For evidence of that, we need only ask those who are struggling to rent or buy in the overheated housing market in the capital.

Moving Departments of State to the regions would not just provide economic benefits, but would ensure that policies were no longer shaped by people who live and work in London, and who see everything through the prism of the metropolis. One of my constituents, Amy Hall, who is a biophysicist, wrote to me last week and said:

“We need to be less London-centric as this seems to be blinding some of the key policy makers to the situation elsewhere.”

Amy was right. There are things that we can do to make that happen.

Moving Departments out of London is not a new idea. It was pioneered by the Labour Government in the ’70s. I remember the Manpower Services Commission coming to Sheffield as a result of a Government decision in 1976. More progress was made under the last Labour Government in moving civil service jobs out of London. According to the information I have been given by the House of Commons Library, that progress has halted under this Government.

We need to take action to achieve a one nation economy, not a one city economy.

Autumn Statement

James Morris Excerpts

Thursday 5th December 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Osborne]

I absolutely support my hon. Friend and his campaign to make sure that the local council helps local hard-working families by freezing council tax—that is what it should be doing. By bringing this to our attention, he reminds us that there are things we can do to help people, and we are doing them today.

[James Morris (Halesowen and Rowley Regis) (Con)]

I warmly welcome the Chancellor’s statement, particularly his focus on infrastructure and his infrastructure plan, and the progress that has been made on the extension of Birmingham airport. Does he agree that as we sustain this economic recovery, investment in infrastructure in places such as the west midlands is crucial to rebalancing the economy and creating jobs in constituencies such as mine in the black country?

[Mr Osborne]

I agree with my hon. Friend. The good news is that businesses are expanding, and jobs are being created in Halesowen and across the black country. We have got to make sure we support that, with enterprise zones, with transport links, with links to the rest of the country and, indeed, with the European continent, through High Speed 2, and by investing in important things such as his local hospital. In all these areas we are backing his constituents, and because they have him as their Member of Parliament, they are heard in this place.

Cost of Living

James Morris Excerpts

Wednesday 27th November 2013 Commons Chamber

[Chris Leslie]

Absolutely. This is an unprecedented period—we can characterise it as record breaking—during which wages have not been able to keep pace with the costs our constituents are facing.

[James Morris (Halesowen and Rowley Regis) (Con)]

Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

--- Later in debate ---

[Chris Leslie]

That is precisely what baffles Government Members so much: they cannot understand the ingratitude of the British people, who somehow seem not to recognise the work that the Government are supposedly doing. The reality is that these are the pressure points—the points of stress and anxiety—faced by so many people up and down this country.

[James Morris]

Will the hon. Gentleman give way on that point?

[Chris Leslie]

The hon. Gentleman has been very persistent, so I will give way.

[James Morris]

It has taken the hon. Gentleman 20-odd minutes to talk about one of the keys to solving the cost of living crisis, which is the creation of new jobs. I presume he welcomes the 11% fall in unemployment in his constituency during the past year, with a 15% fall in youth unemployment. Is that not absolutely key to our recovery and to solving the cost of living crisis that he has taken so long to talk about?

[Chris Leslie]

The hon. Gentleman, whose name is sometimes mixed up with that of others, should do better than to pick on my constituency of Nottingham East, where unemployment has been a persistent and long-running problem. Of course there have been fluctuations in the past few months, but I must tell him that the number of young people out of work for more than a year on jobseeker’s allowance has rocketed astronomically in this country: it is up 127% since the last general election. The number of long-term unemployed, who have been out of work for two years or more—we must turn our attention to that persistent problem—has gone up 374% since the last general election.

--- Later in debate ---

[Sajid Javid]

Let us talk about the growth in Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland. Is the hon. Gentleman referring to the record 92% increase in unemployment in his constituency in Labour’s last term? I notice that he did not refer to the 18% decline under this Government.

[James Morris]

My hon. Friend refers to what the Labour Front-Bench team will not mention. In the past two years, export growth in the west midlands has gone up by 30%—the best performance of any region. Is that not further evidence that the Government are on track with a sustainable, long-term plan to rebalance the British economy?

[Sajid Javid]

My hon. Friend is right. As a fellow west midlands MP, I have seen at first hand record growth, particularly in manufacturing and in the car industry.

Enough on the mistakes of the past. This Government are working hard to secure the country’s future. The only way we can deliver a sustained improvement in living standards is to continue to tackle the economy’s problems head-on and to deliver a recovery that works for all.

Oral Answers to Questions

James Morris Excerpts

Tuesday 10th September 2013 Commons Chamber

[Sajid Javid]

The hon. Lady should look up the facts. Bank bonuses reached their peak when the shadow Chancellor was City Minister; today they are almost one seventh of what they were at that time. The hon. Lady should welcome the measures we have taken to help working families. They have helped reduce interest rates and keep mortgage rates low, meaning that the average family with the average mortgage are paying £2,000 less per year than they did under the previous Government.

[James Morris (Halesowen and Rowley Regis) (Con)]

If it had not been for the Government’s council tax freeze, and if council tax had continued to rise on the trajectory set under the previous Government, the average bill would now be £200 higher. Does the Minister agree that the steps taken by the Government are helping hard-working families keep their council tax bills down?

[Sajid Javid]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. That council tax freeze is helping families up and down the country, as are many other measures we have taken, such as the cap on rail fares.