Autumn Statement

Julian Sturdy Excerpts

Wednesday 5th December 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Osborne]

I, too, welcome the investment that Bombardier has made in Belfast and hope that some of my announcements today on help for the aerospace industry, particularly the supply chain for advanced manufacturing, will benefit the hon. Lady’s constituents. On APD, we acted swiftly to deal with the specific issue of the transatlantic flight from Belfast to the United States, and I am glad that we were able, with the Northern Ireland Executive, to come to a satisfactory arrangement on that. More broadly, the point she makes about APD has been made by others. We have had to make some difficult decisions, and sticking with the APD rates we inherited from the previous Labour Government was one of them, although we were able, in the very early years of this Government, to do something to ameliorate that by delaying one of the increases.

[Julian Sturdy (York Outer) (Con)]

I congratulate my right hon. Friend on his statement and thank him for the consideration he has given to our report on empty property rates. The move to give new build commercial properties an exemption from paying empty property rates will be a welcome boost to the economy and will be much welcomed in the industry, but I ask him to keep the wider issue of empty property rates on existing units under consideration.

[Mr Osborne]

As I said in my statement, the report produced by my hon. Friend and some of his colleagues showed powerfully the impact that the empty property rates that the previous Government introduced have had, hitting development in our towns and cities. It is an expensive measure to get rid of, which is why we have been unable to get rid of it all today, but we have listened to him and his colleagues. There was the idea of providing a grace period for new commercial development, and we are now introducing that 18-month grace period. I congratulate him on making the case for it so powerfully.