Oral Answers to Questions

Jessica Morden Excerpts

Tuesday 19th December 2023 Commons Chamber

[Nigel Huddleston]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for his comments. We have talked about this topic in my previous roles over many years. He is aware that the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities has published a consultation on the introduction of a planning use class for short-term lets. He will also be aware that, through the Levelling Up and Regeneration Act 2023, the Government have introduced a new power to allow councils to apply a council tax premium on second homes. There is progress in this area, but we are always open to new ideas.

[Jessica Morden (Newport East) (Lab)]

10. What recent discussions he has had with the Financial Conduct Authority on how creditors contact customers in debt.

[The Economic Secretary to the Treasury (Bim Afolami)]

I was pleased to speak at the launch of the Money and Mental Health Policy Institute’s report on this subject last week, alongside the FCA. It is worth saying that I used to be on the advisory board of that institute. The Government and the FCA will continue to work closely to ensure that consumer protections are fit for purpose, including through our upcoming reform of the Consumer Credit Act 1974.

[Jessica Morden]

A constituent who was a victim of domestic abuse and whose ex-husband fraudulently took out a loan in her name was constantly harassed by creditors as she tried to clear the debt, and, according to a recent report by the organisation that the Minister mentioned, that is an experience shared by others. Will Ministers discuss with the FCA imposing legal limits on arrears communications in cases such as this, as other countries have done?

[Bim Afolami]

Let me say two things. First, I pay tribute to the former Financial Secretary, now the Health Secretary—my right hon. Friend the Member for Louth and Horncastle (Victoria Atkins)—who did a great deal of work in relation to economic abuse. I am committed to continuing that work with the Treasury to ensure that we limit the circumstances in which the incidents described by the hon. Lady can occur. As for the broader question of what the regulator does in such cases, we have put a record level of funding, to the tune of some £93 million, into working with regulators on debt advice. I shall be happy to discuss with the hon. Lady the details of how we can help her constituents in the way that she suggested.

Oral Answers to Questions

Jessica Morden Excerpts

Tuesday 20th December 2022 Commons Chamber

[Jeremy Hunt]

We have announced a package of support for businesses this winter worth nearly £20 billion; it will help businesses throughout the United Kingdom, including in Scotland. It includes special measures for energy-intensive industries. We will shortly announce plans that will take effect from next April.

[Jessica Morden (Newport East) (Lab)]

12. What fiscal steps his Department is taking to help tackle increases in the cost of living.

[The Chancellor of the Exchequer (Jeremy Hunt)]

Because of these unprecedented and difficult times, the Government have chosen to make more than £100 billion of additional support available to families this winter and next winter, on top of increasing the national living wage by a record 9.7% and uprating benefits by inflation.

[Jessica Morden]

Businesses do not know what Government help, if any, will be available for energy bill support from April next year. They include nursing homes, supported housing schemes and older people’s schemes, which have been able to pass on lower costs to vulnerable residents. Without help, costs will significantly increase for those vulnerable people and affect the long-term viability of care and support services. What are the Government doing to address the issue?

[Jeremy Hunt]

I am very grateful that the hon. Lady asked that question. She is absolutely right; a number of businesses, charities and organisations such as care homes are extremely vulnerable because of the big increase in energy prices. All I would say is that she should look at what the Government have done this winter. With around £18 billion of support, we have demonstrated that we are aware of those concerns. Early in the new year, we will bring forward an appropriate package on what will happen from next April.

Economy Update

Jessica Morden Excerpts

Thursday 26th May 2022 Commons Chamber

[Rishi Sunak]

My hon. Friend makes an excellent point. We have published a distributional analysis today, which I point him to, which shows that the package that we have announced is extremely progressive in nature, with those on the lowest incomes benefiting most. Some three quarters of what we have announced will go to the most vulnerable households, including pensioners. A flat rate payment has the benefit of being more progressive than VAT, which obviously gives very high, or higher, tax discounts to those who are particularly wealthy or have large houses and energy bills.

[Jessica Morden (Newport East) (Lab)]

In acknowledging the Government’s long-overdue U-turns today, we should be clear that the delay has cost people dearly. I relay to the Chancellor that this week, a local housing association told me that it is seeing under-25-year-olds, who are shamefully paid a lower rate of universal credit, using it all on gas and electric bills that are made worse by sky-high standing charges, which account for £3.50 out of every £10 and are particularly high in south Wales. What is he doing to address those long-term issues?

[Rishi Sunak]

The Energy Secretary is engaged in a conversation with the industry, the Competition and Markets Authority and others about ensuring that our energy market works fairly for consumers. I know that he will treat those matters as a priority.

Taxes on Motor Fuel

Jessica Morden Excerpts

Monday 23rd May 2022 Westminster Hall

[Tonia Antoniazzi]

That is a big concern to people. When there was a fuel duty cut from the Government—of only 5p, but still—we did not even notice it. That is very concerning. I hope the Minister will address that issue.

When I spoke to Michael last week, the issues that he raised, and that were raised in response to the survey, were the same as those that my constituents raise with me week in, week out. Michael explained that as a single parent he could see the cost of filling up starting to mount, and that as a company owner he has had to make economies in the business as well. He is therefore clearly seeing this from two sides. Michael said that reducing the mileage of company cars and ultimately cutting the number of cars in the fleet was a big issue for his automotive business. We also spoke about the environmental angle. He said that he was really supportive of electric cars, but that there were still issues with the initial cost of electric cars and the lack of infrastructure to support a mass roll-out.

The AA has calculated that the cost of filling a typical 55-litre tank has risen during the year from £70.61 to £92.20 for petrol, and from £71.94 to £99.48 for diesel. There has been the most derisory of efforts to help drivers. For me, that is symptomatic of a Government who have no idea about the impact that the cost of living crisis is having on people across the country—rising home energy prices, food prices rocketing and the cost of fuel at a record high.

[Jessica Morden (Newport East) (Lab)]

May I add in the views of the domiciliary care workers whom I met recently in Newport East? Collectively, care workers drive more than 4 million miles a day to care for the vulnerable in our communities. They fear that they may have to leave the profession because the cost of fuel is making it difficult for them to get to work. Does my hon. Friend agree that that can only add to the recruitment crisis in care?

[Tonia Antoniazzi]

I thank my hon. Friend for making the point about care workers being on the road all the time. That cost has a huge impact on the quality of the care service, which we need to support, particularly at this time of year. So yes, that does contribute to the crisis. I hope to hear the Minister’s views on that as well. Ultimately, Michael would like the Government to grab this issue “by the scruff of the neck”, as he said. I am sure he will be listening very carefully to the Minister’s response.

For me, the most telling part has been the responses from the people who signed the petition. We heard about how the austerity agenda from 2010 was very hard for so many people; they allocated every month how much they were going to spend on fuel. Now, those prices are rocketing. Despite rising costs, many people have told us that they have to drive. They have to use their cars for their job or to access essential services. One man said:

“We live in an isolated village with a bus service that runs once a week, out of the village and back again. My wife is disabled, so the car we have is absolutely vital to us.”

As my hon. Friend the Member for Newport East (Jessica Morden) has mentioned, we heard from care workers who have to travel between clients as part of their work. One told the survey:

“I am a home carer for the elderly and vulnerable who live at home. We are paid little enough as it is, with petrol prices so high, and that comes out of our pockets, not the company that I work for. This means if I don’t have the money to put fuel in my car, I can’t go to work, and these vulnerable people do not get essential care.”

Rising fuel prices are also impacting on people’s ability to visit and care for their own relatives. Where once people used their cars as a lifeline to visit friends and family, the cost of filling up has made them even more isolated, compounding the impact that we suffered during covid-19. Another comment read:

“I haven’t seen my mum in months because of how much it will cost me to drive to see her. Two years of lockdown and now it feels like another worse punishment…My children and grandchildren live 100 miles and 140 miles away, so I have had to restrict travelling to see them due to the cost of fuel. The two years of covid restrictions has affected my mental state, and not to be able to see my children and grandchildren has exasperated this condition.”

Many are having to make difficult sacrifices to get by. One person said:

“I work for the NHS and have two disabled children. It has been a nightmare, as I cannot afford to keep putting fuel in, but I need it, as they go to a special school a few miles away and I have to go to different hospitals for work. I go without food so that my kids have food and fuel, all because these prices keep rising.”

In many of these situations, there are no alternatives for people. Public transport links are often not good enough, and the Government’s lack of investment in local transport has made the public reliant on their own means of transport. I have been contacted by a community car scheme from Gorseinon in my constituency about fuel prices and the approved mileage allowance payment rates. Such schemes rely on volunteers who support those with mobility issues by taking them to appointments, often NHS appointments, instead of going by ambulance. The rise in petrol prices has affected those schemes’ ability to recruit and retain voluntary drivers, which will ultimately have a knock-on effect on the NHS. The volunteers also serve as companions to people who may be isolated and lonely. This lifeline, like many others across the country, is at risk if the Government do not act.

When the Chancellor set out a cut of 5p per litre in his spring statement, we did not think it would make much of a difference. It has not even scratched the surface. In fact, last week there were newspaper reports of this cut barely being passed on to the customer at the pumps, as my hon. Friend the Member for Newport East has spoken about. When we go to fill up, we quickly see price rises when oil prices go up, but we rarely see lower prices when the price of oil falls. Any evidence of profiteering by the petrol retailers must be looked at in full, and I welcome the Business Secretary’s call on retailers to make sure they pass on any cut in the oil price to customers.

We know that there is more the Government can do. We have seen examples from across Europe of Governments taking action to deal with the cost of fuel. In Poland, the Government cut VAT on fuel to 0%—something that UK Ministers said we could not do within the EU. Why are we not doing it now? Ireland’s Government announced a 20% cut in excise duty per litre of petrol and a 15% cut per litre of diesel. France introduced a 15 cents per litre discount on fuel prices on 1 April and has given €400 million in immediate aid allocated for hauliers. That money will be allocated to companies in the transportation sector based on the number of their vehicles and their tonnage. In Germany, the federal cabinet announced a relief package, according to which the energy tax on fuel is to be reduced to the minimum rate—a cut per litre of about 14 cents.

Spain introduced measures to cut fuel duty by 20 cents per litre and Belgium cut its fuel duty by 17.5 cents per litre. The Netherlands, Italy, Slovenia, Hungary, Croatia, Romania and Sweden have all introduced measures to cushion the blow to consumers of these higher prices.

The Labour party has made it very clear that we will introduce a windfall tax on oil and gas companies that are benefiting from this increase in prices. We have seen bumper profits from Shell and BP in the first quarter of this year, while prices have risen and risen for working people and pensioners, with no end in sight, and there is no sign of action from this Government either. The Tories are out of ideas and out of touch. They should bring in an emergency Budget urgently, with a one-off windfall tax to cut household bills and support businesses.

I know that the people who keep this country going—those who need to get to work, those with caring responsibilities, the people who deliver our parcels, and people who want to go out and enjoy themselves after two years of restrictions—will be fascinated by what the Minister tells us today. The 102,000 people who took the time to sign this petition, and Michael in Chorley, will be waiting to see if the Government are really willing to help with the cost of living crisis.

Tackling Fraud and Preventing Government Waste

Jessica Morden Excerpts

Tuesday 1st February 2022 Commons Chamber

[Jessica Morden (Newport East) (Lab)]

Thank you very much, Madam Deputy Speaker, and happy birthday. What a wonderful way to spend your birthday. May I thank members of the Opposition Front Bench for choosing this subject to shine a light on? With everything else that is going on, it is really important not to lose sight of the Government’s woeful record on waste and fraud. I will speak on behalf of constituents—taxpayers—in Newport East hit by rising bills and energy costs, stagnant wages and facing the national insurance rise in April.

Families struggling just to get by, desperately wondering how they will cope through the coming months, are told time and again by the Government that there is little they can do to help; that the NI rise cannot be rethought because the Chancellor sees

“little headroom for fiscal loosening”;

that the £20 universal credit uplift cannot be maintained because of costs and an

“ever-emerging and changing situation”;

and that they will not take VAT off fuel bills, with Government Members even trooping through the Lobby to vote against Labour’s motion on this, despite the Prime Minister telling us during the Brexit referendum that:

“When we Vote Leave, we will be able to scrap this unfair and damaging tax.”

That is not to mention all those excluded throughout this from Government schemes.

Yet all the while, the Government are writing off billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money lost to waste and fraud. As Conservative peer Lord Agnew—often mentioned today—said when resigning last week:

“Total fraud loss across government is estimated at £29 billion a year. Of course, not all can be stopped, but a combination of arrogance, indolence and ignorance freezes the government machine.”—[Official Report, House of Lords, 24 January 2022; Vol. 818, c. 21.]

That is from their own side. The Government have been cavalier not only with lockdown rules and drunken parties but with due diligence when it comes to public spending. Just this week, it was revealed that £2.7 billion of taxpayers’ money was spent on PPE products that will go unused by the NHS; 71 UK Government contracts, with a total value of £1.5 billion, were awarded to suppliers without due diligence, with hundreds of millions going to firms with no experience of public contracts, including the Florida jewellery company and the pest control company; and £3.5 billion of covid contracts were given to Tory-linked firms. As the National Audit Office said, the Government’s approach “diminished public transparency” and fell short of the

“standards that the public sector will always need to apply if it is to maintain public trust.”

The Conservative party defends all this by pointing to the extraordinary circumstances of the pandemic, but other Governments did not make the same mistakes. In Wales, the Auditor General saw no evidence of priority being given to potential suppliers depending on who referred them, and the Welsh Labour Government introduced legislation, the Social Partnership and Public Procurement (Wales) Bill, to ensure that procurement contracts are fully open and responsible throughout supply chains—a Labour Administration doing it the responsible way.

As we have heard throughout the debate, the Department of Health was not alone in squandering our money. Thanks to my right hon. Friend the Member for Wentworth and Dearne (John Healey), we know that the Ministry of Defence wasted £13 billion of taxpayers’ money since 2010 on failed procurement projects, overspends and other admin errors. The Public Accounts Committee concluded that the Ministry of Defence procurement system

“is broken and is repeatedly wasting taxpayers’ money.”

The Ministry of Justice also wasted around £240 million in the last year on an array of projects, including £98 million on the new case management system for the electronic tagging of criminals, which was scrapped before it could be used.

As the Public Accounts Committee reported, the Department for Work and Pensions allowed universal credit fraud to spiral during the pandemic, with more than £8 billion lost to scams and errors. We all wanted money to go as quickly as possible to those who needed it, but the system was vulnerable to attack by organised crime groups and was overseen by Ministers who, to quote the Public Accounts Committee, had simply “lost control.”

The Chancellor has now decided to write off £4.3 billion of funds allocated to the coronavirus help schemes. As my right hon. Friend the Member for Wolverhampton South East (Mr McFadden) highlighted last month:

“It is roughly the same as half the annual policing bill for the…country.”—[Official Report, 18 January 2022; Vol. 707, c. 219.]

Hard-working police officers in Gwent police would have valued that money after a decade of Tory cuts in which they saw their budgets cut by 40%. It is more than the whole towns fund, it is almost the cost of the levelling-up fund, it is the same amount as the Chancellor took off universal credit in the autumn Budget, leaving thousands of my constituents worse off, and it would have been enough to help every family in the country who are suffering with their energy bills.

As my hon. Friend the Member for Leeds West (Rachel Reeves) said, this all matters because it means less money for everything else and nothing to help with the cost of living crisis, and it means the Government are raising taxes in April. One of the many families in my constituency who have been in touch with me talked about how they have had to cut down to one meal a day so they can heat their home through the night to keep their baby warm. That is just one of hundreds of harrowing stories, and it is all down to competence and political choices. What this Government have shown us is carelessness, incompetence and cronyism.

Oral Answers to Questions

Jessica Morden Excerpts

Tuesday 7th December 2021 Commons Chamber

[Mr Clarke]

The Budget provided the largest ever block grant settlement for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland as part of the Barnett consequentials, of which we are very proud. On the right hon. Gentleman’s specific point, I am happy to reply to him in correspondence when I have further detail.

[Jessica Morden (Newport East) (Lab)]

The western gateway partnership covers a cross-border area with 4.4 million people and brings huge economic potential across south Wales and the south-west, but it is still yet to receive the same level of recognition from the Government as other pan-regional partnerships, such as the northern powerhouse. Will the Government address that and get behind the western gateway?

[Mr Clarke]

The hon. Lady raises a really important point: the western gateway is a phenomenally important part of our wider UK growth package. I engaged closely with it last year when I was the Minister for Regional Growth and Local Government and I am always happy to support its work. The western gateway has equal standing alongside the northern powerhouse and the midlands engine. I can certainly confirm that I and, indeed, Ministers in the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities are always happy to engage substantively with the hon. Lady and with the leadership of local authorities in that area.

Working People’s Finances: Government Policy

Jessica Morden Excerpts

Tuesday 21st September 2021 Commons Chamber

[Liz Twist]

I thank the hon. Member for his intervention; of course, I absolutely agree with the important point he makes.

Some 7,320 households in my constituency of Blaydon, or 21%, will be affected by this cut, which represents a combined loss for low-income households in Blaydon of £146,400 a week. That is £146,400 being sucked out of the local economy each week, virtually overnight. Is that levelling up for my community? I thank the North East Child Poverty Commission for the important work it does to produce such figures, which graphically illustrate the problems we are facing.

We have talked a lot about jobs as well, because universal credit is as much an in-work benefit as it is an out-of-work benefit. Some 40% of those on universal credit are in work, many doing really important key worker jobs that did so much for our society during the last 18 months of the pandemic. This is not about people being lazy and wanting handouts. Low wages, poor-quality jobs, zero-hours contracts—they all mean that being in work is no longer enough to be out of poverty in this country.

[Jessica Morden (Newport East) (Lab)]

My hon. Friend is making an excellent point. She refers to the fact that 40% of universal credit claimants are in work. Does she agree that that means that one in 14 British workers might be affected by this cut?

[Liz Twist]

I thank my hon. Friend for her intervention and share her concern about the number of people who will be affected by this cut. Being in work is not enough; we need better quality jobs, with proper conditions and adequate pay.

I want to mention the energy price cap rise and the inevitable cost rises that will follow. Many of these families will feel the impact of that. Many may be living in poorly insulated homes and may feel the need to increase the heating in their properties. We know that there are links between poor quality housing and poverty and, indeed, poor health, so the energy price cap rise will have a significant impact on those families—probably more significant than for some of us. Labour wants to keep the uplift until we can replace universal credit with a better, more compassionate social security system that properly supports those who need it.

I want to refer also to the increase in universal credit claims as a result of the pandemic. I have managed to get information from Gateshead Council showing a significant increase in council tenants across Gateshead claiming universal credit. Indeed, from April 2020 to the end of March 2021—almost exactly that whole year of the pandemic—there were 1,758 new universal credit claims. Some of those dropped off during the year—perhaps they were not eligible, or whatever—but there was still an increase of nearly 1,100 tenants claiming universal credit.

One other issue, which we have talked about often and must not forget, is the five-week wait, which leads to incredible arrears, certainly in Gateshead. By 31 March, 69% of Gateshead tenants were in arrears by an average of £666. Clearly, those arrears need to be resolved at some stage. They are a debt around the neck of those people.

I want to talk about the national insurance rise. Research from the New Statesman and the Resolution Foundation shows that people in the north-east will lose a higher proportion of their disposable income than those in the south of England due to incomes on average being lower in the north-east: people in the north-east will lose up to 25% more income than those in the south-west. When it comes to social care, people will still need to sell their home to fund their care, especially people with lower value homes. They will still face a substantial cost before the cap kicks in. Homeowners in the north-east could face care costs of up to three fifths of their assets, including the value of their home, while homeowners in London face costs of just 17% of their assets due to the difference in the value of housing. That is deeply unfair, on top of the additional contribution for many workers who, as I said, are in relatively low-paid jobs.

--- Later in debate ---

[Jessica Morden (Newport East) (Lab)]

I congratulate the hon. Member for Hartlepool (Jill Mortimer) on her maiden speech. She is not in her place, but it was a very good maiden speech and I look forward to joining her in many more debates in this place. Having spent a little time at by-elections, I have never quite been sure that Peter Mandelson would confuse mushy peas with guacamole, but there we go.

Thank you very much indeed for calling me today, Mr Deputy Speaker, to support Labour’s motion on behalf of all the families in Newport East who have been hit really hard over the past 20 months and who now face the perfect storm of rising costs and cuts to Government support, with their incomes down and prices rising. Instead of making positive plans to tackle the problem and to help people, Conservative Members are making it worse, as we saw last week from their manifesto-busting vote to increase national insurance contributions—we saw their actions then.

The burden of lower incomes and rising prices is falling yet again on working people who can least afford it. As my hon. Friend the Member for Blaydon (Liz Twist) said, many of the working people who are being hit yet again were the key workers we so relied on in the pandemic. As my hon. Friend the Member for Houghton and Sunderland South (Bridget Phillipson) said, this is very much about political choices. That is a point that we repeatedly have to ask the Government to address—this is about political choices that they are making.

Last month, I met my local citizens advice bureau in Monmouthshire. I also thank Newport CAB, which is doing an excellent job in difficult times with funding cuts—my thanks go to all those out there offering advice services, because we will really need them in the months to come. In my meeting with Monmouthshire CAB, we discussed the looming autumn crisis, the end of furlough on 30 September and the cut to universal credit, which so many hon. Members have mentioned and the impact of which we could see coming down the tracks.

The uncertainty of the pandemic has already led to a series of income shocks for many constituents who are struggling just to meet everyday bills. Whether those bills are for heating, food, transport, childcare, back-to-school costs or rent, they are pushing people into debt. The Money Advice Trust’s report “The cost of Covid” makes shocking reading: it found that 5.5 million adults are behind on their basic bills and credit payments, 12% of adults have used credit and 37% are using high-cost credit just to cover essential outgoings such as groceries and energy bills.

[Alex Sobel (Leeds North West) (Lab/Co-op)]

My hon. Friend is making an excellent speech. Payday lenders —loan sharks, really—are charging exorbitant interest. The Government changed the regulations in 2017, but that has not helped at all. In the credit union market, which we particularly support, credit unions are absolutely at their limit because of covid, but the Government have not stepped in to support those low-cost lenders at all. It has been a boon to payday lenders, but for low-cost lenders such as credit unions, which are membership organisations, the Government have done absolutely nothing.

[Jessica Morden]

My hon. Friend has made an extremely valid point. I see that at first hand in my constituency, and I hope that Ministers will note what he said, take it away and actually do something about it.

People are using credit, including high-cost credit, to cover essential outgoings—spending on groceries, energy bills, and school books and stationery for children. Those on the lowest incomes are also bearing the brunt of the rising food prices that we have talked about today. I pay tribute to Raven House Trust food bank, Caldicot food bank, and all the other food banks that serve Newport East for the fantastic work that they do to support people. I also pay tribute to the community and the churches for supporting those food banks during what has been a very difficult time.

[Liz Twist]

During the pandemic, we have seen our community groups, our churches and others come to the forefront and help people. Without that help, would not many more people have been in real difficulties?

[Jessica Morden]

My hon. Friend is right. We owe a debt of gratitude to all those out there in the community—in churches and in other organisations—who have stepped up to help those who are suffering the most.

According to the BBC food price index, food prices have risen by 8.3% since January, with meat and fish up by 22% and fruit and vegetables by 14.7%. As has already been said today, the Government have done very little to address the supply chain issues which are leading to higher prices yet again. We are seeing HGV driver shortages and delays at borders and ports, and we need the Government to address those problems. As we have seen in many news reports, the costs of raw materials for many goods and services have risen as well, affecting the cost of furniture, women’s clothes, vets’ bills, second-hand cars and more. So much for the positive strategy from this Government for shaping our future post Brexit.

[Matt Rodda (Reading East) (Lab)]

My hon. Friend is making some excellent points about the wide range of problems that families are facing—not only the deeply mistaken cut in universal credit and the end of the furlough scheme, but wide-ranging price rises linked to supply chain issues and the Government’s ineptitude in so many respects. All those problems are hitting ordinary people across the country very hard. Do we not face a perfect storm for many of our residents?

[Jessica Morden]

My hon. Friend is spot on. It is indeed a perfect storm, with all those factors coming together at the same time.

Petrol and diesel are also more expensive, costing more than they have since 2013, and the cost of buying a home has skyrocketed in Newport East. Home-Start Cymru has highlighted the huge rise in prices in Monmouthshire, and we have seen the same in Newport. That has put the opportunity to buy beyond many people, particularly our local young people trying to get on to the housing ladder. Housing insecurity has increased, with more mortgage arrears and more people pushed into renting. My hon. Friend the Member for Houghton and Sunderland South mentioned the research carried out by Zoopla, which has reported that rental prices have risen by 5% in the last 12 months, while wages have remained stagnant for many. Average rail fares are rising three times faster than wages, and are 50% higher than they were in 2010. Studies by the Office for National Statistics suggest that those who commute to work are set to experience the steepest increase in rail fares next January. As we heard from my hon. Friend the Member for Reading East (Matt Rodda), it is all coming together in a perfect storm.

There are further problems on the horizon. This week we have seen the crisis in energy costs and soaring prices. Fuel debt is already the third most common type of debt with which people seek help. The energy price cap for October—just as the cold weather sets in, furlough payments end and the universal credit uplift is scrapped—is set at £153, higher than the warm home discount payment, which has been set at the same rate since 2014. As Martin Lewis has said on his website, that payment should be increased in the Budget, and I hope that the Ministers are listening to that too.

The CAB estimates that 2 million households are already behind in paying their energy bills. As I have mentioned the CAB, it is important to note that while demand for debt advice has gone up and up, funding for debt advice services has decreased. If the Government do nothing else as we come into the autumn, they should at least look at properly funding our debt advice services.

The cutting of the universal credit uplift will be the biggest overnight cut to social security, with 8,630 households in Newport East alone seeing their money cut by £20 a week. I know at first hand from my constituents, as many hon. Members do, how the uplift has been a lifeline for those struggling to buy essentials.

[Margaret Ferrier (Rutherglen and Hamilton West) (Ind)]

I have heard from One Parent Families Scotland that single parents are often overlooked and stigmatised, and that an overwhelming number of one-parent families are headed by single mothers. On top of the day-to-day worries of increased energy and food costs, they also worry about providing a happy Christmas or a fun birthday for their children, and will push themselves into debt to do so. The £20 universal credit uplift is a lifeline for single parents. Does the Member agree that it is not enough to be barely getting by, and that it is also about quality of life?

[Jessica Morden]

The hon. Member makes a really valid point. Added to that is the fact that single parents who are under 25 get a lower rate of universal credit because they are perhaps deemed to be living at home, which is deeply unfair. They will also be deeply hit by these cuts and changes.

We know that 40% of those who will be hit by this cut are in work. That is an inconvenient truth for Ministers, who ignore the fact that universal credit is as much an in-work benefit as an out-of-work benefit. A cut of £1,040 a year alongside the increase in national insurance contributions says everything about where this Government’s priorities lie. Action for Children has said that

“you can’t level up the country by pushing down the living standards of some of the hardest working families in the country.”

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation estimates that 300,000 more children will be pushed into poverty. Families who are just about keeping their heads above water will be plunged into poverty.

In the face of this crisis, the Government choose not to help but to make things worse, wasting huge amounts of taxpayers’ money on outsourcing and crony contracts while hitting the same group of people over and over again. I hope that Conservative Members will do better tonight than they have in previous votes. I hope that they will stand up for constituents who need them, and show that they understand what life is like for many in this country.

Better Jobs and a Fair Deal at Work

Jessica Morden Excerpts

Wednesday 12th May 2021 Commons Chamber

[Jessica Morden (Newport East) (Lab)]

Ahead of the Queen’s Speech, Opposition Members called on the Government to prioritise jobs in the recovery from the pandemic. As the Leader of the Opposition said yesterday, after a year of sacrifice we needed a Queen’s Speech that rose to the scale of the challenge and was transformative for our economy, public services and society, but what we got lacked ambition and a plan to meet that challenge.

For example, we did not get an uptake on the long-awaited and much needed employment Bill. It is imperative that the Government take swift action to deal with the scourge of insecure work, including by putting an end to exploitative working practices such as fire and rehire. I know constituents who have been caught in such traps—most recently at British Gas—and met some of them during the recent election campaign. Their accounts of the way they have been treated, often after years of loyal service, are deeply unfair. It is a reminder of the urgent need to reform employment practices so that everyone is treated with dignity and respect at work.

The Queen’s Speech was notable for what it excluded as much as for what it included. For all the talk about levelling up, there was no meaningful indication of support for an industry that should be at the very heart of that agenda: steel. Steel communities are a key part of our industrial future. There cannot be an advanced economy or an economic recovery from the pandemic without a resilient steel sector. Our steel producers need action on industrial energy costs—we have been going on about that for ages—and we need to ensure that British steel manufacturers, such as those in Newport East, are at last at the front of the queue for Government contracts.

Platitudes about levelling up across the regions and nations of the UK are popular with Government Ministers, but these Ministers are less keen on talking up Wales, and there was scant mention of Wales in yesterday’s Queen’s Speech. We are still waiting on assurances from Tory Government Ministers on their “not a penny less” promise on the replacement of European structural funds and on long-overdue investments in our transport network. It is wrong that Wales accounts for 11% of the UK rail network but receives only 2% of rail investment enhancement from the Department for Transport.

I express my deep disappointment, and that of campaigners and charities throughout the country, that the Queen’s Speech failed to incorporate long-awaited reform of the benefits system for terminally ill people. We are now approaching the two-year anniversary of the Government’s review of access to welfare benefits for the terminally ill and we are still no closer to the scrapping of the cruel six-month and three-year rules that force people to spend their final months grappling with a complex and uncaring system.

We have continuously raised the issue with Ministers over the past year, alongside the Motor Neurone Disease Association, Marie Curie and other campaigners, to whom I pay tribute for keeping it high on the agenda, especially on social media. The responses have been vague and non-committal, with promises of updates “soon” followed by inaction. Ministers say that they are receptive to the campaign and acknowledge the need for reform, but I question why we are stuck in this limbo. Two years since the review was announced, thousands have died while waiting for a decision on their benefits claim, so will Ministers on the Front Bench today convey to the Department for Work and Pensions people’s anger and frustration and ask the Department to sort the situation out?

Finally, on policing, despite warm words from the Government, the truth is that they have still not addressed the impact of their swingeing cuts to policing over the past decade. Today, the police workforce nationally has 23,824 fewer personnel than in 2010. Operation Uplift is welcome, but it still does not take things back to 2010 levels or beyond. The Government must do better for our police services and for communities such as Newport East.

Equitable Life

Jessica Morden Excerpts

Thursday 21st January 2021 Commons Chamber

[Jessica Morden (Newport East) (Lab) [V]]

I really do appreciate the opportunity to speak in this debate on behalf of the constituents who have contacted me over the years, having been victims of the Equitable Life scandal. As other Members have highlighted, almost 1 million pension savers have received back just 22% of the losses they suffered as a result of colossal maladministration. The Treasury has refused to disclose the full workings of the calculations behind the payments made to date, putting paid to the notion of a fair and transparent programme of compensation, which was promised to Equitable Life victims back in 2010.

The human impact of this scandal cannot be understated, and many of those affected by the collapse of Equitable Life are still bearing the costs of this injustice every day. As others have pointed out, Equitable Life victims are not individuals and families who can afford to write this scandal off as a kind of unfortunate administrative error. Typically, as the hon. Member for Harrow East (Bob Blackman) said, they are retired nurses, teachers, factory and shop workers, and small business owners with less than £20,000 in their pension pot. They put their hard-earned savings pension rights into what they understandably saw as an established, reputable and well-recognised provider, and they were badly let down.

My office has received harrowing accounts—others have said the same—from constituents in recent years, including, recently, from a woman writing on behalf of her husband, who is now 89 and living with dementia. He is one of many who lost thousands of pounds by putting the profits of his small business into an Equitable Life pension, as he was advised. Another constituent, one of the many who received only 22% of their losses, as calculated by the Treasury, describes it in painfully frank terms. He said:

“The amount I have lost would have enabled me and my family to enjoy more things such as holidays before I die.”

He added:

“I was amazed by the revelations that the successive governments had failed to regulate the Society properly. In such circumstances I expected government to ensure the losses sustained by policyholders were made good. I feel particularly incensed by the successive government administrations’ failure to accept the report and advice of their Parliamentary Ombudsman that policy holders should be put back in the position they would have been if the maladministration had not occurred. I am even more incensed by the excuses they have made over many years”.

That point about “many years” is worth emphasising. We are now 13 years on from the parliamentary ombudsman concluding that the victims’ loss was directly attributable to a decade of serious serial regulatory maladministration. We are 11 years on from Equitable Life victims being promised fair and transparent compensation and from the coalition Government accepting that the victims’ losses amounted to about £4.3 billion, before allocating only £1.5 billion for compensation. Many of those who were promised, who deserved and who indeed needed recompense are no longer with us, but the Government still owe it to those traced pension saver victims still with us to find a solution quickly. As one constituent put it to me, “It is a policy decision that is now delaying and preventing action.”

I urge the Prime Minister and the Chancellor to look carefully at the recommendations from the action group and the all-party parliamentary group as soon as possible. Every effort should be made to ensure that those who are owed compensation are identified and that the process of compensation is accurate and transparent. It is important that the Government, once and for all, get to the bottom of what happened, and we all look forward to the Public Accounts Committee and Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee responding to the proposal for a joint inquiry.

Financial Services Bill

Jessica Morden Excerpts

Report stage & 3rd reading & 3rd reading: House of Commons & Report stage: House of Commons
Wednesday 13th January 2021 Commons Chamber

[Florence Eshalomi (Vauxhall) (Lab/Co-op) [V]]

I wish to focus my remarks on amendments 1 and 2, tabled in the name of the Leader of the Opposition. As my right hon. Friend the Member for Wolverhampton South East (Mr McFadden) said, the amendments are desperately needed now to ensure that regulators must take into account the Government’s target of achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050. I was therefore disappointed to hear from the Minister that the Government will not support the amendments but might “consider” the matter “in the future”. We cannot afford to wait. Climate emissions are cumulative, and a large part of the carbon that we produce today will stay in the atmosphere for hundreds, if not thousands, of years.

If we are serious about tackling the climate emergency and reaching our 2050 target, we must reduce our emissions as quickly as possible. The sensible and least-destructive way to do that is to start to adapt our economy now; the irresponsible thing would be to leave it too late, thereby making the inevitable economic adjustment more painful for everyone. Regulation is one of the most powerful tools in our box of options and will ensure that the whole financial sector is unified in its actions towards this really important goal and, most crucially, acts within a timeframe that reflects the climate emergency we face.

I do not want my two young children to ask me one day why I missed the opportunity to fight for a better, more sustainable future for them. That is why I will support amendments 1 and 2, and I urge all Members in the House to join me.

[Jessica Morden (Newport East) (Lab) [V]]

I wish to speak briefly in support of new clause 7, tabled by my hon. Friend the Member for Walthamstow (Stella Creasy), to whom I pay tribute for her work with campaigners on the issue. Her new clause would require buy-now-pay-later operators to be regulated by the FCA.

As others have said, buy-now-pay-later is a new and growing industry, the popularity of which has rocketed in the pandemic, with one company reporting a 43% increase in sales. It is a form of credit that promotes impulse buying—one in four users spend more than they planned—and it is targeted at young consumers who are pursued by companies using celebrity influencers and targeted ads. StepChange, the debt charity, is seeing many more under-40s coming forward for advice with this type of debt. Let us protect consumers and properly regulate the sector, which is currently uncontrolled and operating with a social media-savvy face. Let us not wait for people to get into trouble with unsustainable levels of debt, particularly when we will see an increase in personal debt because of the pandemic.

[Dame Angela Eagle (Wallasey) (Lab)]

I wish to focus on two areas: equivalence with the European Union for our financial services sector and financial crime. I also support the efforts to provide more protection against abuses in the consumer credit market and the mortgage market.

As a result of the Government’s decision to pursue a very hard Brexit and the ending of the transition period, UK financial service companies have now lost their passporting rights to EU countries. The Government’s trade and co-operation agreement with the EU in effect sidestepped financial services, putting at risk many jobs in the sector and much tax revenue for the Exchequer. The deal means that there is an agreement for goods, in which the EU has a trade surplus with the UK, but nothing for services, in which the UK has a huge trade surplus with the EU. There is a feeble non-binding declaration to establish a framework for co-operation on financial regulation, but there is no sign of any rush from the EU to grant the UK equivalence so that the loss of passporting rights can be overcome and continued market access to our financial services sector can be achieved. Perhaps the fact that €6 billion of share trading formerly done in London migrated to Paris and Amsterdam on the first day of post-Brexit trading is encouraging Brussels to drag its feet and hope that much more will follow. Over time, I fear that this Government’s lack of interest in protecting equivalence for financial services is more likely to lose us jobs and revenue than inaugurate the big bang 2.0 that the Chancellor was fantasising about in the Commons earlier this week.

Financial and economic crime is a huge problem, and one that the Government have been far too slow to address. Their own estimates suggest that one in five people in the UK falls victim to fraud every year. There is £6 billion of organised fraud against business, and this is getting worse. The extent of economic crime in the UK, including money laundering, fraud and corruption, led the Intelligence and Security Committee in its report on Russia to note that London is now considered a “laundromat” for corrupt money. As the scale of global corrupt wealth enmeshed in the UK property market becomes visible, we need an urgent step change in the Government’s response, especially on transparency of overseas property ownership, and a tightening up of the company formation process in the UK. More needs to be done, and urgently, to crack down on this behaviour.