Oral Answers to Questions
Julian Huppert Excerpts(12 years ago)
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Jo Swinson
The right hon. Lady will know that there is due to be an urgent question shortly, when this issue will be discussed in more detail. Personally, as a strong supporter of women’s equality, I share her disappointment and that of many others. As a Scottish humanist, I recognise that I may not be the best person to tell the Church of England what it should be doing. All our religious institutions are important. She raised the issue of the role of Parliament. She may be aware that I have not been a supporter of all-women shortlists for Parliament. There is an irony in that there is a continuing all-male shortlist as a result of this decision. She is right to highlight that a significant majority in the General Synod supported the move to women bishops. The fact that 95% of dioceses supported it gives some reassurance to those who would like to see this change happen.
Dr Julian Huppert (Cambridge) (LD)
Women are routinely paid less than men—15% less on average nationally; 23% less in London. However, the Davies report found that organisations with more women on their boards outperformed their rivals by 42% in sales, and significantly on return on capital and on equity. Does my hon. Friend agree that to promote greater equality in the workplace, companies must be far more open about their employment practices so that they have better outcomes?
Jo Swinson
Of course, the pay gap figures have just been updated and published this morning and they have come down slightly, but my hon. Friend is right to highlight that they are still too high. My hon. Friend highlights the fact that having more women on boards can help companies’ performance. I encourage employers to sign up to our “Think, Act, Report” initiative, so that they properly use the talents of women within their businesses at all levels.
Oral Answers to Questions
Julian Huppert Excerpts(12 years, 7 months ago)
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Mr Duncan Smith
Indeed I will write to my hon. Friend. We have looked again at the flexible support fund and increased its flexibility and what advisers can do. Let me give some examples. General advisers in jobcentres can give up to £300—raised by over £100—to whatever specific area they think needs it. Senior operational managers can give up to £500, district managers can give up to £50,000, and work service directors can give up to £100,000, so the scope is there for them to do that flexibly. Many awards have been made, for example £985 for a class 1 HGV driver’s licence, so there is scope. I advise right hon. and hon. Members on both sides of the House to remind their young unemployed and other unemployed constituents that there is scope for them to be supported if they have difficulties.
Dr Julian Huppert (Cambridge) (LD)
15. What steps he is taking to ensure that pension funds adopt ethical and infrastructure investments.
The Minister of State, Department for Work and Pensions (Steve Webb)
If I may refer briefly to the grouping of earlier questions, Mr Speaker, I understand that we failed to notify my right hon. Friend the Member for Bermondsey and Old Southwark (Simon Hughes) and my hon. Friend the Member for East Dunbartonshire (Jo Swinson) of the grouping and so apologise to them and to you.
Pension scheme trustees can consider companies’ environmental, social and governance practices. I am clear that trustees’ duties do not require them simply to maximise short-term investment returns. On infrastructure, the autumn statement set out details of a memorandum of understanding signed by the Government with two groups of UK pension funds to support additional investment in UK infrastructure.
Dr Huppert
I thank the Minister for his comments. He will be aware of the whole range of investments that give more than just short-term financial returns. For example, the Cambridge Retrofit programme, which was launched last week, will try to retrofit every building in Cambridge by 2050. However, how will he communicate with trustees and ensure that they are aware that their fiduciary duties do not prevent them from doing this, because many of them seem to be unaware of it?
Steve Webb
The Pensions Regulator communicates regularly with trustees and provides a trustee toolkit on its website that sets out their duties, but I think that auto-enrolment provides an opportunity for ethical investment. For example, the National Employment Savings Trust will specifically have an ethical fund for those who wish to invest in that way, and I hope that the schemes my hon. Friend refers to will seek to find investment through that sort of route.
Housing Benefit
Julian Huppert Excerpts(14 years ago)
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Caroline Flint
No, I am going to make some progress.
We have also heard from the Government that their plans will save money. However, if they do not think their policies through and consider their impact on people, they could end up costing more than they save. The Government say that the cap will save £65 million. Others say that its consequences—uprooting families, forcing them out of their homes and into temporary accommodation—could cost nearly twice that. We have heard that the Government intend to increase the amount for discretionary housing payments, but I seemed to hear them say that they would use that money to pay the people who they say should not be in those homes to stay in them. Instead of using housing benefit for that purpose, they are going to use discretionary housing payments. That is a smokescreen too far.
The Government like to say that these reforms will help people into work, but pricing hundreds of thousands of working people out of whole swaths of the country, often where most of the jobs are, will make it more difficult, not less, for people to find work and keep their jobs.
Caroline Flint
The hon. Gentleman was not here for the debate, so I will not give way.
Reducing people’s housing benefit when they have been out of work for a year does not help them to get a job. It punishes them for not having one, and we reject that entirely. The Government say that reducing housing benefit will bring rents down. Landlords themselves tell us otherwise, however, with 90% saying that they will be less likely to take on people on housing benefit. That means that there will be more people chasing fewer homes, which will drive rents up, not bring them down.