High Street Retailers

Melanie Ward Excerpts

Wednesday 5th February 2025 Westminster Hall

[Mr Campbell]

The short answer to that is yes. I think some things are being done by devolved Government, but I was alluding to the rating of commercial premises in the run-up to Christmas. We need to reduce car parking charges and rates at that time because many businesses exist throughout the year only because of the turnover that they get between October and Christmas eve.

Richard Walker, the managing director of Iceland—who I understand is a supporter of the Labour Government, so I hope this is not viewed as a criticism—said just this week:

“The Treasury is right to look at levelling the playing field on tax, but it has parked its tractor in the wrong place going after hard-working British farmers. Let’s stop messing around and make online sales tax reform the priority. High streets and farmers are the bedrock of this great country, we need to get behind them.”

I could not agree more. We need a fundamental reassessment of where our high streets will be not in 15 years’ time but in 15 months’ time.

[Melanie Ward (Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy) (Lab)]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for giving way; he is being very generous with his time. It is already clear from this debate that decline in our high streets is a common problem across the UK, including in my constituency. We probably all agree that it will take innovation, creativity and, crucially, investment to redevelop our high streets. Will the hon. Gentleman join me in paying tribute to the work of local organisations such as Love Oor Lang Toun and the Adam Smith Global Foundation in my constituency, which are doing so much to develop the future of Kirkcaldy?

[Mr Campbell]

I do not know those organisations, but I presume, on the basis of the hon. Lady’s endorsement, that they are very worth while and worth defending.

This week—this is a very topical issue—the Government in the Irish Republic have indicated that they will look at VAT terms. Of course, Northern Ireland is in very close proximity to the Republic. Here in the UK, VAT is charged at 20%, and in the Irish Republic it is 13%. That puts our high street retailers, particularly those in the hospitality sector, at a bit of a disadvantage. The Government in the Republic have indicated that they will reduce their rate yet again from 13% down to 9%, which means that the disadvantage gap for Northern Ireland retailers and consumers will widen considerably.

The Minister will obviously not be able to respond immediately. If he does, I would be very surprised. I would welcome his response if he were able to say, “I’m going to go to the Treasury and get special dispensation for Northern Ireland hospitality on the high street, with a 5% introductory rate for the next four years of this Parliament”—I think that would be an excellent idea that would get support across the divide in Northern Ireland. But I hope he will have some discussion with his colleagues to see what can be done. We are at an acute disadvantage, and it is most heavily felt. In the past couple of days, hotel managers and hospitality retailers have been on local radio saying, “Our opportunity for business is diminishing even more as a result of this decision to reduce VAT in the adjoining businesses, just a few miles across the border, down from 13% to 9%. We are struggling with charging a 20% rate.” So a 5% rate would be very welcome.

In conclusion—

Budget Resolutions

Melanie Ward Excerpts

Wednesday 6th November 2024 Commons Chamber

[Andrew Griffith]

I hope that the hon. Gentleman has a long and successful career in this House, but he will not have very long to wait; if he is concerned about a lack of investment in the NHS, I ask him to sit down with the Chief Secretary to the Treasury and ask exactly what the rate of growth will be for NHS spending and departmental spending in the years ’26-27 and ’27-28. Then perhaps he could come back and tell me what he thinks about that level of spending growth.

The Government talk of stabilising the economy—we have heard a lot about that—but this is not a Budget for stability; it is anything but. Let me educate Labour colleagues. There is nothing stable about lowering the rate of economic growth. All that does is create a more fragile and susceptible economy. There is nothing sustainable about a Government changing the fiscal rules after saying that they would not. Even with the potentially unsustainable levels of departmental spend, there is nothing stable in a Government having a razor-thin level of headroom that the OBR quantifies at only £10 billion—just one third of the level that the Chancellor’s predecessor set—to ensure that they remain within the fiscal rules, which they have just made up, by the way.

[Melanie Ward (Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy) (Lab)]

Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

[Andrew Griffith]

I will happily give way to the hon. Lady if she wants to talk about headroom in the fiscal rules, and the lack thereof.

[Melanie Ward]

The hon. Gentleman is talking about stability, but does he recognise the irony in his party—the party of Liz Truss—lecturing the Government about stability?

[Andrew Griffith]

The—[Interruption.] I am trying to find something relevant to say to the hon. Lady. There is a—[Interruption.]

--- Later in debate ---

[Melanie Ward (Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy) (Lab)]

Some have spoken today of the wait for this Budget. Depending on our perspective, we waited either 16 weeks or 14 years, and I was in the latter camp. I was proud to sit behind my right hon. Friend the Member for Leeds West and Pudsey (Rachel Reeves), the first woman Chancellor in the 800-year history of the office, as she delivered the Budget last week, and I was even more proud of the Budget that she introduced and what it means for working people of all ages in Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy. One in four children in my constituency are growing up in poverty; they have been failed by two Opposition parties. Save the Children Scotland said this year that the Scottish Government’s policies would not “move the dial” on child poverty, and the SNP has consistently failed to meet the targets it has set. Once again, its Members are not here to listen to the debate.

Because of this Budget, Labour’s fair repayment rate will mean that more than 1 million of the UK’s poorest households will be £420 a year better off from next April. That is expected to benefit 110,000 households in Scotland and to begin at last to drive down dependence on emergency food parcels. Many of those visiting food banks are in work, and the 6.7% increase to the national living wage and the even larger increase for 18 to 20-year-olds is an important recognition of the financial difficulty in which many of my constituents find themselves.

In Fife alone, more than 8,000 low-paid workers stand to benefit from the increase to the national living wage. The mineworkers’ pension scheme will return more than £1 billion to 112,000 former coal workers, 824 of whom are in my constituency. That means that the people who powered our country, who were so badly mistreated for so many years by the Conservatives, will receive a 32% increase to their annual pensions.

Finally, Labour’s Budget delivers the largest financial settlement to the Scottish Government in the history of devolution, with an extra £3.4 billion next year alone. It is over to the SNP now to use that competently to fix Scotland’s precious public services, which the SNP has run down over the past 17 years.

In conclusion, this Budget delivers for all age groups and all parts of my constituency in enacting our manifesto commitments to make work pay, to revive our public services and to tackle poverty. I am proud to support this historic Budget.