Oral Answers to Questions Debate

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Department: HM Treasury

Oral Answers to Questions

Karen Lumley Excerpts
Tuesday 12th October 2010

(14 years, 1 month ago)

Commons Chamber
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David Gauke Portrait Mr Gauke
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My hon. Friend is right. There is a need to balance the desire for a quick service with ensuring that we do not allow fraudulent registrations. Between April and September this year, 57.4% of applications were processed within the target 10 calendar days. There was an improvement in the rate during August and September, when 71.4% and 79.7% of applications were processed within the 10 days.

Karen Lumley Portrait Karen Lumley (Redditch) (Con)
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14. What assessment he has made of the effect on GDP of proposals to increase the level of economic growth in the June 2010 Budget.

Justine Greening Portrait The Economic Secretary to the Treasury (Justine Greening)
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A key part of the emergency Budget was to make sure that we rebalanced our economy on to a more sustainable, private-led footing with economic growth taking place. As I said, we introduced a range of measures to support business, but we did not stop at that; we now have a second Finance Bill that brings forward further measures. The Office for Budget Responsibility’s analysis following the emergency Budget showed that it is forecasting a sustained recovery in economic output, with employment growing year on year and unemployment falling year on year.

Karen Lumley Portrait Karen Lumley
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What would have happened in smaller, mixed-economy areas such as my constituency of Redditch if the Government had refused to take the challenge as they have and face up to the difficult decisions?

Justine Greening Portrait Justine Greening
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Such areas would have faced a jobs tax with higher national insurance, higher corporation tax rates, lower economic confidence and, quite possibly, higher interest rates.