Overseas Aid

Debate between Lord Flight and Lord Bates

Wednesday 30th January 2019 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bates]

First, I pay tribute to the noble Lord for taking through that legislation, which I was delighted to support myself from the Back Benches; it was crucially important. We need to keep at the forefront of our minds that there is a huge need out there. We need to build on the commitments we have already given and the pledges we have made, but as he rightly points out, we also need to encourage others to step up to the plate. Increasingly, however, we see that Governments cannot do this alone. We need to leverage in trade and private investment to bridge that gap if we are to lift people out of poverty.

[Lord Flight (Con)]

My Lords, may I ask the Minister what proportion of the 0.7% goes via EU projects or other EU conduits?

Financial Services (Implementation of Legislation) Bill [HL]

Debate between Lord Flight and Lord Bates

Committee: 1st sitting (Hansard): House of Lords
Tuesday 8th January 2019 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bates]

For the points I will come to in a minute, which the noble Lord has slightly pre-empted. Obviously he has read the wind-up speech I gave at Second Reading—the arguments about volume of legislation and timeliness remain consistent—but I will come back to that.

[Lord Flight (Con)]

Would I be correct in describing the reason for that legislation as enabling us to meet equivalence requirements going forward if we have not otherwise dealt with things?

[Lord Bates]

Equivalence is one of a range of considerations that could be taken into account at that point.

High Street Banks

Debate between Lord Flight and Lord Bates

Wednesday 19th December 2018 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bates]

Fair banking principles are upheld currently by the Financial Conduct Authority. I come back to the point that the access to banking standard is now in place, and has been in place since last year. It requires much greater consideration and consultation before branches are closed. Alongside that, the Government have been investing in the Post Office network to the extent of some £2 billion since 2010. Those two factors will, I believe, help address the majority of concerns.

[Lord Flight (Con)]

My Lords, I declare an interest as a director of Metro Bank. Are the Government aware of the extent of the services and branches that the new banks are bringing to this country? Metro Bank has just opened its 62nd branch and will continue to add branches. It has gained 1.5 million customers in less than 10 years. My point is that modernisation is happening, and it is often the new banks that are providing what people want.

[Lord Bates]

Modernisation is indeed happening and challenger banks are making a big contribution to the way that banking services are delivered. The reality is that digital online banking is now conducted by 71% of the population. Next year, mobile apps will overtake digital banking in service delivery. That is leading to changes in our high streets, communities and villages. They need to be taken into account, but so too does the changing way in which we pay for services.

Green Finance

Debate between Lord Flight and Lord Bates

Monday 5th March 2018 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bates]

We have said that we are open to that. It is one option being looked at by the Green Finance Taskforce, and it feeds into the work of the Green Finance Initiative in the City of London, which is doing great work in this area. However, we should not overstate the extent to which we are being left behind. We are in a position where some 63 green bonds in seven currencies listed on the London Stock Exchange, amounting to £20 billion—that figure represents an increase of 93% between 2016 and 2017. However, we will keep all options open and listen to the advice that we are given.

[Lord Flight (Con)]

My Lords, will the Government consider allowing local authorities to raise funds by bond issues, particularly in areas of environment expenditure?

[Lord Bates]

Many of those areas are for the local authorities concerned to look at. One thing that we have introduced is the clean air fund, which was announced by the Chancellor, and some £220 million will be available specifically to help local authorities in that area, but of course local authorities are able to come forward with their own proposals, should they choose to do so.

Business: Exports

Debate between Lord Flight and Lord Bates

Thursday 6th July 2017 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bates]

The EU agreed that deal with great support from the United Kingdom. We have made it very clear that we want to replicate such deals and potentially get even better terms for our markets. We have seen a tremendous increase in the value of exports over the past year—up by 5.8%, and up by 34.8% since 2010. We believe that we can do better than that outside the European Union.

[Lord Flight (Con)]

My Lords, will the Government look at arrangements for the financing of exports in comparison to both the US and France? This country is much less helpful and, post-ECGD being privatised, quite a few businesses still find it difficult to get exports financed.

[Lord Bates]

My noble friend will be aware, of course, that the export finance levels were doubled by the Chancellor in the Autumn Statement last year. That will be a significant increase. Some 279 companies had access to export finance and more than 70% of those were small and medium-sized enterprises—precisely the sorts of organisations that we need to encourage to do more.