Oral Answers to Questions

Nick Boles Excerpts

Wednesday 11th January 2012 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I do think that we should make progress on the issue of pay ratios, and we can start with the Government setting out their own pay ratios as an act of leadership. I think this Government have shown some leadership, not least by cutting and freezing Ministers’ pay and having total transparency on pay across Government. On the specific case that the hon. Gentleman raises, this year we have seen a 49% increase in pay yet only a 4% increase in the FTSE. I am not against people running great companies being paid lots of money if they are growing and expanding them and succeeding, but we should not have rewards for failure. Frankly, the last Government had 13 years to deal with this, and did sweet nothing.

[Nick Boles (Grantham and Stamford) (Con)]

Does the Prime Minister think that it can ever be fair for a single family to receive £100,000 a year in housing benefit alone?

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend makes an important point. The issue of top people’s pay and this issue are, in many ways, linked. We need to get rid of a something-for-nothing culture in this country. We inherited an out-of-control benefit system in which there were families on many tens of thousands of pounds of housing benefit. We had an out-of-control immigration system in which it paid to cheat, and we also had an out-of-control banking system in which reward was not linked to success. Unlike the last Government, we are going to deal with all those things.