Oral Answers to Questions

Mark Hoban Excerpts

Tuesday 6th September 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Andrew Turner (Isle of Wight) (Con)]

8. What fiscal measures he is taking to reduce the costs of businesses which employ less than 25 staff.

[The Financial Secretary to the Treasury (Mr Mark Hoban)]

Small businesses play a vital role in the economy and the Government have taken a number of steps to support them. The Government have provided support for small businesses and employers by reversing the previous Government’s planned £3 billion tax on jobs, reducing corporate taxes and introducing a moratorium on new domestic regulation for micro-businesses.

[Mr Turner]

Does the Minister agree that we should make it as simple as possible to set up small businesses in the UK and get rid of unnecessary regulations and red tape?

[Mr Hoban]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. We need to reduce the burden of red tape to encourage small businesses to set up and to create more jobs. That is one reason why, for example, we introduced a moratorium exempting micro and start-up businesses from new domestic regulation for three years from 1 April 2011.

[Mr Adrian Bailey (West Bromwich West) (Lab/Co-op)]

A year ago the Chancellor claimed that 400,000 small business start-ups would be assisted by the national insurance holiday in the regions. To date the figure is, I believe, 5,000. Will the Chancellor undertake to bring a report before the House saying how many new jobs have been created by those 5,000 new start-ups and what the cost to the Exchequer has so far been per job?

[Mr Hoban]

The hon. Gentleman should be aware that HMRC is writing to all new businesses set up in the last 12 months to ensure that they are aware of the scheme and to encourage them to apply for it. It is important that they do so, but this is just one of a series of measures that we have taken to ensure that more new jobs are created in the private sector. I would have thought that the hon. Gentleman welcomed the fact that over the last year there have been 500,000 net new jobs created in the private sector.

[Elizabeth Truss (South West Norfolk) (Con)]

9. What steps he is taking in respect of further supply-side reform of the UK economy.

[The Financial Secretary to the Treasury (Mr Mark Hoban)]

“The Plan for Growth”, published alongside the Budget this year, sets out the Government’s plan to put the UK on a path to sustainable long-term economic growth. The second phase of the Government’s growth review will report later this year.

[Elizabeth Truss]

I thank the Minister for his answer. In the last decade the UK has fallen from 14th to 89th in terms of burden of regulation and from 14th to 95th in terms of extent of taxation. Does the Minister agree that we should be freeing up companies, rather than spending money that we do not have, to drive economic growth?

[Mr Hoban]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. Of course, it is part of the previous Government’s legacy that our competitiveness fell so far behind that of our international competitors. That is why we have taken action to reform corporation tax, for example, so that we have one of the best and most competitive regimes in the G20 and more businesses are encouraged to come to the UK. It is also why we are tackling regulation and red tape in the economy, which is why, as I said earlier, we have seen 500,000 net new jobs created in the private sector. That is three and a half jobs in the private sector for every job lost in the public sector, which shows the progress that we have made over the last year.

[Stewart Hosie (Dundee East) (SNP)]

Both this Government and the previous one have taken an axe to tax allowances for investment on the supply side of the economy—for example, the abolition of the industrial buildings allowance under Labour and the reduction of the annual investment allowance of £100,000 to only £25,000. Have the Government turned their face away entirely from the reintroduction of tax allowances, or will they listen to representations that demonstrate the positive growth in investment on the supply side from such tax allowances?

[Mr Hoban]

The reforms to allowances were used to help to fund measures such as the reduction in corporation tax rates for large companies and the reduction in the small companies’ tax rate from the 22p proposed by Labour when it was in government to 20p. We are therefore seeing changes in the rate of tax paid by businesses of all sizes, which is helpful in encouraging economic growth and job creation.

[John Robertson (Glasgow North West) (Lab)]

10. What his policy is on the pay of public sector workers earning less than £20,000.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Gareth Thomas (Harrow West) (Lab/Co-op)]

11. What recent assessment he has made of the level of economic growth.

[The Financial Secretary to the Treasury (Mr Mark Hoban)]

Our economic policy objective is to achieve strong, sustainable and balanced growth, more evenly shared across the country and between industries. The independent Office for Budget Responsibility’s forecast, published at the Budget, takes full account of the policy measures announced in the spending review and in Budget 2011. The OBR forecast that the economy would grow throughout 2011, and in every year of the forecast. It will publish its updated forecast in the autumn.

[Mr Thomas]

As the level of economic growth over the past 12 months was lower in Britain than in the rest of the G7, is it not about time that the Minister had the courage to persuade his right hon. Friend the Chancellor to start work on a plan B?

[Mr Hoban]

It has been very clear, listening to all the international commentators talking about what is happening in the UK economy, that their advice has been to stick to the course and stick to plan A. That is the action that this Government are committed to—[Interruption.] This is interesting. We have one plan; the previous Government seemed to have more plans than they knew what to do with, and that is why they lost their credibility.

[Claire Perry (Devizes) (Con)]

What does the Minister think is more likely to encourage growth: cuts in corporation tax or the increases in national insurance that Labour was proposing?

[Mr Hoban]

In our first Budget we were able to reduce corporation tax and set out a clear path to reduce it over the lifetime of this Parliament. We were also able to reverse Labour’s damaging jobs tax.

[Mr Geoffrey Robinson (Coventry North West) (Lab)]

Will the Minister draw to the attention of the Chancellor the fact that economic credibility affects all Treasury Ministers in due course, and that in his case it is affecting him rather earlier than he might have thought? Can he not see that, with a lack of growth, he will not hit his deficit reduction target? Without hitting that target, he will not realise his plan, and without his plan—which is already in shreds—he will lack credibility, too.

[Mr Hoban]

I wonder whether the hon. Gentleman’s remarks about the loss of credibility for Treasury Ministers reflect his own experience.

[Jake Berry (Rossendale and Darwen) (Con)]

Given how badly prepared the UK economy was for the financial crisis, does the Minister think that it was delusional to believe that its effects would be over in six months?

[Mr Hoban]

The previous Prime Minister thought that what we now know to have been the longest and deepest recession since the war would be over in six months. That demonstrates the degree of delusion that existed under the previous regime. We are taking the tough and necessary decisions to tackle the legacy that we have been left by our predecessors.

[Andrew Selous (South West Bedfordshire) (Con)]

13. What recent assessment he has made of the effects on the economy of the public sector borrowing requirement.