Household Energy Bills: VAT

Debate between Lloyd Russell-Moyle and Simon Clarke

Tuesday 11th January 2022 Commons Chamber

[Mr Clarke]

The share of our support is going up. We are also increasing the number of people who are likely to be in scope. We are consulting on increasing the number of people for whom that discount provides a benefit by 780,000. It will also likely rise in value from £140 to £160, so it is an expanding benefit.

Vulnerable households will also be supported with the cost of essentials through the £500 million household support fund. That funding has been made available to local councils across England to support their residents this winter. Importantly, in recognition of the fact that families should not have to bear all the VAT costs they incur to meet their needs, domestic fuels such as gas and electricity are already subject to a reduced VAT rate of 5%. In response to the Opposition’s calls to go further on VAT costs, I would note that that would mean our spending a significant amount on subsidising the fuel consumption of some of the wealthiest. When we look at our response to all these challenges, we need to ensure that we spend taxpayers’ money on the most effective possible interventions to support the households struggling the most with the cost of living.

The cost of living is not about any single bill or expense. That is why, at the autumn Budget, the Government put in place a host of measures to help families with the cost of living.

[Lloyd Russell-Moyle (Brighton, Kemptown) (Lab/Co-op)]

There has been a £67 council tax rise, a national insurance rise of £250 and an income tax rise of £150—those are averages, for the average person. How on earth can the Chief Secretary say that his Government have put measures in place to help the ordinary person in this cost-of-living crisis when he will be clobbering them with, on average, a £1,405 bill? What they are doing is disgraceful.

[Mr Clarke]

That was a typically temperate intervention from the hon. Gentleman. To make sure that work pays, we have cut the universal credit taper rate by 8p, from 63p to 55p. That is an authentically Conservative response to make sure that we target our interventions to help people. We are increasing the work allowance by £500. Taken together, that is a tax cut for 2 million low-income families, which is worth £2.2 billion, or an extra £1,000 a year in their pocket. It was a Conservative Government who introduced the national living wage in 2016, and it will be a Conservative Government who increase the national living wage in April by 6.6% to £9.50 an hour for workers aged 23 and over.

Budget Resolutions

Debate between Lloyd Russell-Moyle and Simon Clarke

Tuesday 2nd November 2021 Commons Chamber

[Mr Clarke]

I absolutely will, because there is sometimes said to be ambiguity about levelling up. It is clear to me that it is about life chances through life, from cradle to grave. It is about jobs, prospects, investment in skills and jobs, and all of that comes from the start of life. I know that my hon. Friend will be doing a fantastic job in Nottinghamshire to help to deliver that.

[Lloyd Russell-Moyle]

Will the Minister give way?

[Mr Clarke]

Yes, I will. It is always a pleasure to give way to the hon. Gentleman.

[Lloyd Russell-Moyle]

So much for intergenerational levelling up—why have the Government cut the youth budget? It is the biggest cut in youth funding in 10 years.

[Mr Clarke]

The Government stand fully behind our youth budget. From the National Citizen Service to youth hubs, our wider work is clear. We are fully committed to ensuring that young people benefit as part of the Budget and spending review.

Meanwhile, we are spending record sums on improving connectivity and have allocated £5.7 billion to eight city regions to transform their transport systems. There is also the £4.8 billion levelling-up fund. We are taking on the criminals who make too many people’s lives a misery by recruiting 20,000 new police, providing an extra £2.2 billion for the courts, prisons and probation services, and committing £3.8 billion to the largest prison-building programme in a generation.

World-class public services are made possible only by the hard work of the private sector and the genius of the free market—a point made brilliantly by my neighbour, my hon. Friend the Member for Redcar (Jacob Young). That is why we are choosing to ignite even greater public sector success by investing in our economic infrastructure, improving skills and supporting innovation, with commitments to boost R&D funding and access to early stage equity finance.

To make sure that work pays, we are increasing the national living wage, cutting the universal credit taper rate and increasing the universal credit work allowance by £500 a year. That was the subject of a powerful speech by my right hon. Friend the Member for Preseli Pembrokeshire (Stephen Crabb) and likewise by my hon. Friend the Member for Isle of Wight (Bob Seely).

Financial and Social Emergency Support Package

Debate between Lloyd Russell-Moyle and Simon Clarke

Wednesday 25th March 2020 Commons Chamber

[Mr Clarke]

I take that point to heart. If the right hon. Gentleman sends me the details, I will write to him after this debate and ensure that that company is contacted personally so that we can provide the guidance needed for his constituents.

[Lloyd Russell-Moyle]

My ex has been sent a letter from his employer saying, “We want to put you on the 80% but we don’t yet know how this works. We do not know the details.” I suggest that it is perhaps not just one employer that needs to be written to; all employers in this country need to be given greater guidance. That letter came from a top law firm that his employer had got in to try to work out the system, and that firm could not work it out either. I do not think it is about an individual case. Will the Minister please put on the public record the details of how employers will use the scheme?

[Mr Clarke]

I can confirm that other Government Departments, alongside my own, will have heard the hon. Gentleman’s remarks, and we will ensure that they are taken to heart.

This is a convenient point to discuss universal credit and some of the related issues, which the hon. Member for Brighton, Kemptown raised, as did the hon. Member for Glasgow South West. I can confirm that advances for all new universal credit claimants are now available online or by phone, with no requirement to attend the jobcentre. Earning rules for the self-employed have been temporarily relaxed for those who are sick or self-isolating. From 6 April, we are increasing the standard allowance for UC and the basic element in working tax credit for one year: both will increase by £20 a week on top of the planned annual uprating, and that will apply to all new and existing universal credit claimants and to existing working tax credit claimants, too. We recognise that there is going to be an enormous increase in the number of people claiming universal credit; we will continue to make sure that the system responds to this fast-changing situation.