Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation
Debate between Max Wilkinson and Meg Hillier(1 week ago)
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Dame Meg Hillier
The hon. Gentleman raises quite a detailed point, but we know that AI can add about 0.2% to productivity in the economy overall. I do not have direct figures for the NHS, but my sister Committee—the Health and Social Care Committee, ably led by the hon. Member for Oxford West and Abingdon (Layla Moran)—will no doubt be looking at these issues. As he knows, the Committee corridor is examining the power of AI, covering both the costs and the opportunities, and I am sure the House will continue to discuss the opportunity to improve productivity in various guises and to scrutinise the Government very robustly on that.
What is interesting about the Budget is that some of its measures are for today, but it is clearly rooted in longer-term reforms, which I welcome, because we need to be thinking about the long term. One of those measures is devolution, and I am a firm believer that power should be devolved to the most appropriate level. In fact, when I was a baby councillor with the now chief of staff to the Prime Minister back in 1994, he and I were both responsible for devolving powers to areas within pram-pushing distance. I should say for younger Members that this was before the days of the internet, which perhaps dates me too much. Giving people a say over spending in their own local area can be a really powerful way of engaging people with the decisions that are made—not seeing politics as something distant and remote, but very much part of their communities.
Dame Meg Hillier
I have given way several times, and a lot of Members are waiting to speak.
Whitehall is often just too distant—not just physically and geographically, but in attitude—from communities and towns up and down the country. I always say that we should not make decisions about people without people. However good our civil service is—and I pay great tribute to the many civil servants I have quizzed over the years about public spending—there will still be a challenge if we do not have the right people around the table, and that may be because they just do not know what is going on in a geographical area.
Our mayors have a very important role, but if money is to be devolved to them, there needs to be very strong local accountability. Of course, the last Government abolished the Audit Commission, which I think is a great sadness, and we have seen huge challenges in local government audit. The Mayor of London has the strongest accountability, with 25 London Assembly members able to challenge him openly and regularly about his spending, and powers to delve into the detail, but mayors in other areas do not have that.
I would say to the Government and the mayors that there is very good reason to have very strong accountability. First, a mayor will want to prove to their constituents that they have spent money effectively, and to be transparent about that, so that when they come up for re-election, people know that their mayors are not frittering away their hard-earned tax pounds and that they are delivering the things they want. Secondly, if a mayor spends money well in their area, they might prove to the Government that they can get more bang for the taxpayer pound than Whitehall achieves by doing it from a distance. Dare I say it, but there may even be times when the Government of the day do not give quite enough money to deliver what was promised, and mayors need the figures to prove that they have been short-changed. In all those circumstances, we need a stronger accountability process, and I hope that we do not go so fast in the drive towards devolution that we do not have those checks and balances in place.
I am very pleased about the moves on cheaper energy and clean power. The Chancellor mentioned GB Grid, which is a start, but about 400 projects are needed to upgrade the grid, and I believe that GB Grid covers 10 or 11 of them, so there is still a huge challenge to get the grid up to speed to meet the target of net zero by 2050. I think the pledge to buy and build only when new technologies will lower bills and be connected to the grid may be an important driver in that area. We may want to quiz the Chancellor about that—as, I am sure, our sister Committee, the Energy Security and Net Zero Committee, will want to do with the relevant Ministers in due course. I welcome the energy cost reductions for businesses, because I think all Members across the Chamber have heard that businesses have been really struggling in that regard. I have also been pushing for the closure of the loophole on VAT for online marketplace sales, so I am pleased to see that.
On the face of it, this Budget looks as though it has done a good job, but the devil is of course in the detail, so I again put the Chancellor on warning that we will be looking through that detail over the next few weeks. We have the Office for Budget Responsibility before the Treasury Committee next week, alongside other economists, and we will have the Chancellor himself on 11 November, when we will have had a chance to go through all the figures in detail and can challenge him on what he has promised today and the promises for the future.
Overall, I think we must see cross-party support for the approach to support households in these challenging international times, when a lot of the things that buffet the Government are very difficult for them to control. We must support small businesses. Quite rightly, we all are lobbied a lot by our small businesses. People invest their energy in their businesses, and they need support. We need a long-term vision. Part of our challenge as scrutineers of the Government on the Committee corridor is to hold them to account for their 10-year plan—which we have yet to see—for reshaping the state and devolution. I again warn all Ministers sitting on the Front Bench that the Budget may feel good after the statement today, but we will be challenging them in detail about the money they are spending, whichever Committee they appear before.