Oral Answers to Questions

Nick Thomas-Symonds Excerpts

Tuesday 24th October 2017 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hammond]

My hon. Friend puts his finger on an important problem. Corporation tax in the UK—in fact, in all countries—is levied on profits generated by the activities of companies within the territory. The big global digital companies present us with a new challenge of attributing profits effectively to individual jurisdictions. We are continuing to work with the OECD’s taskforce on the digital economy, and we are also looking carefully at ideas emerging within the EU for interim solutions pending a full international solution.

[Nick Thomas-Symonds (Torfaen) (Lab)]

Given that the previous Chancellor has now said that in 2008 the Labour Government

“did what was necessary in a very difficult situation”,

does the current Chancellor accept that the fact we have thousands of people going to food banks and desperately underpaid public sector workers is entirely the fault of Tory policy?

[Mr Hammond]

No. Of course a Government need to be able to respond to an external shock, but a prudent Government have got the economy in good shape to respond before such a shock arises. The problem in 2008-09 was that the then Labour Government were borrowing tens of billions of pounds at the top of the economic cycle—grossly irresponsibly.

Oral Answers to Questions

Nick Thomas-Symonds Excerpts

Tuesday 7th June 2016 Commons Chamber

[Helen Hayes (Dulwich and West Norwood) (Lab)]

1. What steps he is taking to ensure that young people are not disproportionately affected by reductions in government expenditure.

[Nick Thomas-Symonds (Torfaen) (Lab)]

4. What steps he is taking to ensure that young people are not disproportionately affected by reductions in government expenditure.

[The Chief Secretary to the Treasury (Greg Hands)]

The Government have a long-term economic plan designed to help young people, which includes 3 million new apprenticeship starts, a 10-year low in youth unemployment, the lifetime individual savings account to help first-time buyers, 360,000 16-year-olds doing National Citizen Service and record numbers going to university.

--- Later in debate ---

[Greg Hands]

That was an extraordinary question. It ignored all the announcements that I made about what the Government have been doing for young people. Let us not forget the situation we inherited in 2010, when youth unemployment had gone up by 45% under Labour. The facts are these: a record number of young people are going to university, including a record number from disadvantaged backgrounds, and the proportion of young people struggling financially has almost halved since the hon. Lady’s days in 2010.

[Nick Thomas-Symonds]

The wages of 18 to 21-year-olds fell by about £1,000 a year during the last Parliament, yet under-25s are excluded from the national living wage. Will the Chief Secretary to the Treasury condemn what the Minister for the Cabinet Office said: that that is because people under 25 are simply not productive enough?

[Greg Hands]

The hon. Gentleman is ignoring our amazing record on youth unemployment since we took office six years ago. Youth unemployment has fallen by 102,000 this year. Youth employment is up 94,000 over the year and is close to the highest proportion on record. On why the national living wage does not apply to those who are under 25, I remind him that the national minimum wage does apply to those who are under 25 and is increasing under this Government. For younger workers, the priority is to secure work and gain experience. Youth unemployment remains higher than the unemployment rate for those aged over 25.

Bank of England and Financial Services Bill [Lords]

Nick Thomas-Symonds Excerpts

3rd reading: House of Commons & Report stage: House of Commons
Tuesday 19th April 2016 Commons Chamber

[Jonathan Edwards]

I am delighted that we have reached this group as I feared that our consideration on Report would be concluded prematurely. I therefore have only a very short speech, but luckily this is rather a straightforward and uncomplicated matter. If I had known that I would have far more time than I assumed—a rare privilege in this place—I would have prepared a far lengthier speech, quoting extensively from the masterpiece “A History of Wales” by the late, great John Davies, or John Bwlchllan as he was known to his friends, and from “When was Wales?” by the great historian who was a member of the Labour party and of Plaid Cymru, Gwyn Alf Williams, who retired to Drefach Felindre in my constituency.

I am delighted that my amendments 4 and 5 are being supported by the Labour Front-Bench team. When I was eating my cornflakes in the hotel this morning, it was a nice surprise to receive an email from David Williamson, the Western Mail correspondent, citing a press notice by the shadow Secretary of State for Wales saying that she supported my proposal. Perhaps this is the start of a beautiful new relationship, although I fear that I might be doing my best to scupper those sorts of endeavours after the election. I aim to press amendment 4 to a Division, with your permission, Mr Deputy Speaker.

I have spoken on this issue before in the Chamber, but I will reiterate a few points that I made on Second Reading. The amendment deals with the historical anomaly that prohibits Wales from producing its own distinctive banknotes. Both Scotland and Northern Ireland are allowed to do so, and so to celebrate their respective national figures and landmarks.

[Nick Thomas-Symonds (Torfaen) (Lab)]

The hon. Gentleman talks about our historical position, so does he support my view that my predecessor but one in what was then the constituency of Pontypool, Leo Abse, made probably the greatest contribution in the 20th century as a Back Bencher to changing people’s lives, and therefore would be a fine candidate to go on such banknotes?

[Jonathan Edwards]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for that intervention. When I realised that I would be able to make this speech, I feared that there would be a lot of interventions along those lines. I will be citing some notable names during my speech, but that is not a matter for politicians to determine.

Short Money and Policy Development Grant

Nick Thomas-Symonds Excerpts

Thursday 11th February 2016 Commons Chamber

[John Penrose]

We are all anxious to crack on with this as soon as we can, and we would like to start the consultation shortly. Given the level of interest that has been made evident during this urgent question, I am sure that we would be criticised further if we were to delay the consultation. I would like to get on with it soon, if we can, and to allow plenty of time for people to respond over a period of weeks. I am sure that the Select Committee’s Chairman, my hon. Friend the Member for Harwich and North Essex (Mr Jenkin), will understand that timetable and that he will time his Committee’s investigations appropriately.

[Nick Thomas-Symonds (Torfaen) (Lab)]

The Chancellor of the Exchequer has increased the pay of one of his special advisers by as much as 42%. How on earth can it be justified for the Chancellor to lecture the rest of us on tightening our belts when that does not seem to apply to him?

[John Penrose]

As I mentioned before, the total cost of Spads since the general election has started to fall.

Guaranteed Income for Retirees

Nick Thomas-Symonds Excerpts

Tuesday 17th November 2015 Westminster Hall

[Nick Thomas-Symonds (Torfaen) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Betts. It is also a pleasure to appear before the Economic Secretary to the Treasury for the first time.

I congratulate the hon. Member for Ross, Skye and Lochaber (Ian Blackford) on securing this timely debate. I agree with much of what he said. This is the time to take stock of the pension freedom reforms. The idea of monitoring and identifying risks is important, and I will return to that in a moment. The concepts of supporting society and planning for the future are also vital.

My hon. Friend the Member for Coventry South (Mr Cunningham) and the hon. Member for East Lothian (George Kerevan) made good points about choice and protection. My hon. Friend also made a crucial intervention about pensioner poverty, and it is important that we monitor that issue.

The hon. Members for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath (Roger Mullin), and for Kilmarnock and Loudoun (Alan Brown), raised the issues faced by women born in the 1950s due to the increase brought in by the Pensions Act 2011 in the state pension age. In that respect, I have a question for the Minister about transitional provision. On 20 June 2011, the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions said:

“Let me simply repeat what I said earlier—it is a bit like a recording, but I shall do it none the less: we have no plans to change equalisation in 2018, or the age of 66 for both men and women in 2020, but we will consider transitional arrangements.”—[Official Report, 20 June 2011; Vol. 530, c. 52.]

What has happened on transitional arrangements since 2011? What meetings have been held on them? What proposals do the Government have to put such arrangements in place to assist women who lost out by virtue of the date on which they were born in the 1950s? I sincerely hope the Minister can deal with that issue today.

I congratulate the hon. Member for Airdrie and Shotts (Neil Gray) on his contribution. He made a good point about the problems that will arise in the future if the Government do not deal with these issues now. I also congratulate the hon. Member for Paisley and Renfrewshire South (Mhairi Black)—we can safely say that every Member of the House is closer to retirement than she is. She made a good point at the start of her speech, and the scrutiny and constructive criticism she mentioned throughout her contribution are precisely what needs to be brought to bear on these reforms in the months and years ahead.

The debate has been extremely useful in highlighting a number of issues that the Government need to deal with. The issue of scams came up, and it is crucial. In that respect, I quote the recent Work and Pensions Committee report:

“The pension freedom reforms have increased the prospects of people being conned out of their life savings.”

That should be a warning to the Government. The report also treats the promotion of awareness as a crucial weapon against those scams, and the Government should seriously consider paying more attention to that.

The hon. Member for Paisley and Renfrewshire South brought up the issue of Pension Wise. To deal first with take-up, the first set of statistics we have had seem to suggest that only about 18,000 people—fewer than one in 10—have accessed the guidance. Clearly, more needs to be done to flag up the availability of Pension Wise. Other criticisms in the Work and Pensions Committee report also need to be dealt with. The website has been described as not fit for purpose; the Government should attend to that damning criticism. The guidance has also been criticised for being too general on the one hand, in that it pays insufficient attention to people’s individual circumstances, and too narrow on the other, in that it deals with pensions but not the other things that people need to cope with in retirement. Pension provision is a crucial part of that, but people will have varying interests, such as property that they own, or their care needs. Those other things need to be taken into account in the guidance provided by Pension Wise.

Another issue is the advice gap. Someone whose pension pot is enormous will have access to expensive financial advice on it, and that would be proportionate. However, there is an enormous gap in the middle between people who have access to the free guidance, and those who obtain specialist advice at the top. Many people with pension pots will be in the middle, where such advice is not available. This is a two-way street: we want to increase demand from people who want advice, but on the supply side, we need a regulatory framework in which advisers feel comfortable and confident in giving advice, and about the liabilities to which they open themselves. In that regard I look forward to the results of the financial advice market review, but there is action that can be taken now, certainly as far as improvements to Pension Wise are concerned.

The hon. Member for Ross, Skye and Lochaber mentioned the Social Market Foundation’s recent “Golden Years?” report. That, too, should warn the Government about what can happen in these situations when policy is not managed appropriately in the short and medium term. He mentioned, of course, the cautious Australian, the quick-spending Australian and the typical American, but the statistics from Australia make sobering reading. It seems that about 25% of people exhaust their pension pots by age 70, and the figure is about 40% by age 75. Those numbers are highly significant, particularly in an age of increasing life expectancy. Our cautious Australian would decumulate by less than about 1% a year, which would be a more optimistic statistic; but we might compare that with the decumulation rate of about 8% a year for the typical American. That would be a far more worrying statistic to deal with.

There is a broader point to make. Advice and guidance are obviously important at the age of 55, but we must move away from the view that this is exclusively about making sure that people have the appropriate information at the start of their retirement. The reality is that people’s needs between the ages of, say, 55 and 65 are different from their needs between 65 and 75, or 75 and 85. Life expectancy is of course rising, and their needs would be different between 85 and 95 as well. I suppose that that point goes to the heart of what the debate is about: a guaranteed income—that is the phrase used in the title of the debate—throughout retirement. We must look beyond what happens at age 55, although that is highly important, at structured ways through retirement, in which people have access to the advice and guidance they need to make informed decisions. It is vital that the Government do that.

Overall, we can see today’s debate as a marker for the need for action. No one wants people to exhaust their pension pots at age 75. We want action now, to ensure that people will be protected from scams, and that they can get the advice and guidance they need.

--- Later in debate ---

[Harriett Baldwin]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for that clarification. I agree that we need to evaluate the measures, which is why this is such a timely debate. It is extremely important that, as people take advantage of the new pension freedoms, they have the right information and the tools they need to make an informed and confident decision about their financial future. I recognise that there is a range of different circumstances and that one size does not fit all.

It might be helpful if I summarise some of the changes made over the past five years to the pension landscape to strengthen the finances of people in retirement. They include ensuring that there is no enforced retirement age at 65, and strengthening the first pillar of retirement income, the basic state pension, which now rises with a triple-lock—increasing by the greater of 2.5%, earnings or inflation every year. That has been very important cumulatively over the past five years—the income replacement of the state pension is now at its highest level since 1992—and we have pledged to continue that throughout this Parliament.

[Nick Thomas-Symonds]

I refer back to the Hansard quotation from 20 June 2011 that I cited about the transitional provisions for women born in the 1950s who have lost out under the new state pension provisions. Can the Minister update the House about what has happened with that policy and how the transitional provisions will be introduced?

[Harriett Baldwin]

I assure the hon. Gentleman that I am just setting out the background. I will address the points that colleagues raised later in my speech.

The changes we are making to simplify the state pension are also important, because they are going to set a new level for the state pension that is higher than the means-tested threshold that we have had in this country historically. That is very important, because we do not want those who draw down their retirement savings to be thrown on to means-tested benefits. I believe I am right in saying that that is a crucial difference from the situation in Australia. We have also safeguarded support for older people in other ways, such as providing free bus passes, eye tests, television licences and so on.

The changes we made in April are an integral part of the whole landscape. I will describe for the benefit of all hon. Members what we think success for the reforms looks like: a vibrant and competitive retirement income market with a range of different products that give people the flexibility and security that is right for them, and well informed, engaged consumers who can access the guidance and advice they need. As more people are automatically enrolled in employer schemes, more people engage with the process. More than 5 million more people are now saving for a retirement income than were in 2010, and by the full roll-out in a couple of years’ time, we will have almost 9 million additional new savers through automatic enrolment, saving £15 billion a year more in aggregate.

Individual Electoral Registration

Nick Thomas-Symonds Excerpts

Tuesday 20th October 2015 Westminster Hall

[Nick Smith (Blaenau Gwent) (Lab)]

I beg to move,

That this House has considered the matter of individual electoral registration.

For Parliament, 2015 has been a year for celebrating our democracy. Across the country, in schools, festivals and in the media, people have joined us in celebrating a journey that started 800 years ago with the signing of Magna Carta and led to our sitting here today. However, this year could end with a body blow to our democracy that could have repercussions for years to come.

The transition to individual electoral registration should reach its end in December 2016; instead, it has been brought forward by the Government to December 2015. The effects could be disastrous. According to the latest projections from the Electoral Commission, 1.9 million people are at risk of being removed from the electoral register. That number will drop as canvassers go door to door this autumn. Nevertheless, reasonable estimates produced by the Labour party suggest that close to a million people will be dropped from the register. That is a million people whose voices will no longer be recognised and who will be ignored when the Government begin to redraw the political landscape with the new boundaries.

That move goes against the advice of the independent Electoral Commission. It will not be subject to a vote in Parliament nor, apart from now, will MPs be given a certain chance to debate the important issues at stake. That is why today’s debate is so important. We need a Parliament that represents all its constituents in all its constituencies, but instead my borough of Blaenau Gwent had lost 1,736 people from the register by the time of the general election. It is projected that Wales will lose 68,000 people from the register in December, and that is unacceptable.

When the Labour Government legislated for the move to IER we put in a transition period with strong safeguards, but we can see from the numbers squeezed off the register by the current rushed transition that the Conservative Government’s haste will soon leave many people repenting at their leisure. There might be a view that this was a safe time to finalise the transition, as we have just completed a general election.

[Nick Thomas-Symonds (Torfaen) (Lab)]

I congratulate my hon. Friend on securing this debate on an issue that is absolutely key to our democracy. Does he agree with me that if there is to be the change to IER, together with the forthcoming change to the constituency boundaries, the Government’s responsibility to increase the safeguards, rather than bring forward the date by a year—as has happened—will be reinforced?

[Nick Smith]

The MP for my neighbouring constituency makes an important point, which gets to the crux of our discussion. May 2016 will feature big elections for the Welsh Assembly, the Scottish Parliament and the Mayor of London. People’s votes, across the UK, will be vital in shaping the country once more, and the boundary review of 2016, on which my hon. Friend touched, will shape it on a much more fundamental level.

Those people who are removed from the register in December 2015 will not be counted for the purposes of determining their representation in Parliament. If the shape of a constituency is drawn based on its reduced number of voters, we will soon be faced with a distorted electoral map. Large urban areas with multiple-occupancy housing and regular home movers are the areas that are set to be hit and, on a party political level, the urban areas affected coincide with traditional Labour representation. I would like to think that the Government would not rush in the IER process to tip the scales in their favour for future elections. However, how can we have confidence in the boundaries, even in London, when Hackney faces a nearly 23% drop-off in the number of registered voters? The average loss in Britain is calculated at almost 4%. The 10 poorest areas in Britain face an average projected loss of 6.2%.

We are in danger of shrinking the voice of our poorer communities. For people in those communities, falling from the register has consequences beyond that of losing the vote. It means, for example, losing the chance of obtaining safe, affordable credit in areas where loan sharks may ply their trade. It means public service provision dipping even lower, affecting everything from school places to GPs. My major concern is that it is already too late to fix that problem before the December deadline.

The student population is a good example of my last point.

Finance Bill (Second sitting)

Nick Thomas-Symonds Excerpts

Thursday 17th September 2015 Public Bill Committees

[The Financial Secretary to the Treasury (Mr David Gauke)]

Welcome to the Chair this afternoon, Mr Howarth. As I said to Sir Roger this morning, we look forward to serving under you both in the weeks ahead.

Clauses 3 and 4 will ensure that in future an individual working 30 hours a week on the national minimum wage will not pay income tax. Clause 5 sets the income tax personal allowance for 2016-17 and 2017-18. The changes deliver the Government’s commitment to support and to reward those in work. The Government are committed to supporting hard-working individuals, which is why we have a strong record in cutting taxes and reducing the tax bill for the lowest paid. To date, 27.5 million individuals have seen their typical income tax bill reduced by £825 as a result of personal allowance increases over the previous Parliament.

[Nick Thomas-Symonds (Torfaen) (Lab)]

I am sure that, like me, the Minister has read the Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s report on the Budget proposals. It finds that, over the course of this Parliament, a single parent working full time on the national minimum wage will end up being worse off as a result of this Budget. Is what is being introduced really a national living wage?

[Mr Gauke]

If one takes into account the overall Budget measures, including the changes to welfare and the personal allowance, the introduction of the national living wage and the extension of free child care to 30 hours, eight out of 10 households will be better off by 2017 as a consequence. That is a record to be proud of.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Gauke]

Clause 9 will reduce the burden of inheritance tax for most families by making it easier to pass on the family home to their children and grandchildren. That means there will be an effective inheritance tax threshold of up to £1 million for married couples and civil partners by the end of this Parliament.

[Nick Thomas-Symonds]

Can the Minister tell me what percentage of properties in the UK will benefit from these inheritance tax changes? What percentage of those properties are outside London and the south-east?

[Mr Gauke]

This is an area where I hope we can reach a consensus, although I may well be confounded. There is a place within our tax system for an inheritance tax regime that applies to the wealthiest estates. We believe that a proportion of estates should continue to pay inheritance tax. One challenge we face is that over the next few years, unless we take some form of action, it is likely that the proportion of estates that will pay inheritance tax will increase significantly. If we simply allow the system to roll on as it is, inheritance tax will become much more widely applicable. That may well be the position that some Members hold, but we are talking about an application far wider than was the case under the previous Labour Government.

Let us not forget that it was the previous Labour Government who made a substantial change to inheritance tax when they brought in the transferable nil-rate band. I am sure that Members will remember the autumn of 2007 as clearly as I do, and the announcement by the then Chancellor, Alistair Darling, of the introduction of that nil-rate band. At that point, the proportion of estates affected by inheritance taxes was somewhat lower than is forecast to be the case by the end of this Parliament. I hope that context is helpful to the hon. Gentleman.

The changes we are introducing were a commitment in our manifesto, and it is a commitment that I am pleased to deliver. Inheritance tax was introduced in 1986. It may be helpful if I explain briefly how it works. The rate of inheritance tax is 40% on anything above the inheritance tax nil-rate band of £325,000. There is also a full exemption for anything left or gifted to a spouse or civil partner. As a result, the estate of the first spouse or civil partner will often not use the full allowance of £325,000, so any unused amount can be transferred to a surviving spouse or civil partner. That means the surviving individual can have an allowance of up to £650,000 before inheritance tax needs to be paid.

However, we now have the problem that more hard-working families are facing an inheritance tax bill than at any time since the introduction of the system nearly 30 years ago. Last year, 35,000 estates had an inheritance tax liability and that has been forecast to rise by nearly double to 63,000 in 2020-21. And thousands more worry about leaving their families with a large inheritance tax bill when they die. A YouGov poll in March 2015 showed that 59% think that the tax is unfair—more than any other tax—and it is easy to understand why. If people have saved, paid their taxes and worked hard to own their home, it can only be right that it will go to their family and not to the tax man. That is why we promise to make it easier for hard-working families to pass on their home to their children and grandchildren, and that is what the clauses deliver.

From 6 April 2017, a new additional transferrable nil-rate band will be phased in for all individuals who leave their home on death to direct descendants. That includes children, stepchildren, adopted children, foster children and grandchildren. The new allowance will be up to £100,000 in 2017-18, up to £125,00 in 2018-19, up to £150,000 in 2019-20 and up to £175,000 in 2020-21. That will be separate from the existing inheritance tax nil-rate band, which will remain at £325,000 until April 2021.

[Nick Thomas-Symonds]

Prior to coming to the House, I practised law in this area of law. It seems to me that clause 9 essentially seeks to increase the nil-rate band up to £1 million to include family homes. That is the stated aim. I know that the Minister is a fan of simplicity in the tax system, so I am puzzled as to why it takes an additional 400 lines in the Bill to do that, which in turn creates even greater complication in what is an already complicated area of law.

[Mr Gauke]

I understand the hon. Gentleman’s point, but if he will bear with me, I will set out the rationale for the measure. We think there is a particular issue about family homes and the fact that more and more homes are caught by inheritance tax. That is why we have introduced these measures. When it comes to complexity, if one looks at the inheritance tax regimes of Germany, Italy or France, they all consist of a number of different bands or rates, depending upon the relationship between individuals. Germany also allows for an exemption in certain circumstances when the family home is left to children or stepchildren. Several countries, such as Australia, Sweden and Canada, do not have inheritance tax, but still charge capital gains tax on death, and those regimes have their own complexities. Complexity is inevitable because of the complexity of relationships and so on.

What we are considering today is in addition to the existing inheritance tax nil-rate band, which will remain at £325,000 until April 2021. That means that individuals will have an effective inheritance tax threshold of up to £500,000 by the end of this Parliament. In addition, a surviving spouse or civil partner will be able to claim up to £1 million.

From 6 April 2017, a surviving spouse or civil partner who dies will be able to benefit from the transferrable element of the new allowance even if their spouse or civil partner died several years ago. To ensure that the wealthiest make a fair contribution to the public finances through inheritance tax, the largest estates will not be able to benefit from this new allowance. They will have it gradually withdrawn by £1 for every £2 that the estate is worth over £2 million. We do not want to discourage downsizing, and I can confirm that legislation will be introduced in the Finance Bill of 2016 to ensure that those who downsized or ceased to own a home on or after 8 July 2015 are not penalised.

The Government have tabled six amendments to clause 9. Amendments 1 to 3 clarify that homes placed in some types of trust for the benefit of a surviving spouse during their lifetime, and where the home passes to a direct descendant on the spouse’s death, will benefit from the new main residence nil-rate band. Amendments 4 and 5 will ensure that the main residence nil-rate band will apply when an individual leaves their home to the current or surviving spouse or civil partner of anyone already defined as a direct descendant. Finally, amendment 6 is a minor change to the definition of a foster parent to include other similar terms, such as kinship carers in Scotland.

The Opposition’s amendment 7 would require the Chancellor of the Exchequer, three months after the passing of the Bill, to publish a report reviewing the impact of clause 9 on different regions of the UK and house prices. I recognise the importance of evaluating the impact of policy changes, but a formal report is not necessary in this case. HMRC already publishes annual statistics on the number of tax-paying estates and the amount of tax due in each region. I have also explained the steps taken to reduce any potential impact on house prices. The OBR has confirmed that it expects this measure to have only a small impact on the housing market. The Government will keep the impact of the policy under review in the normal way and at the appropriate time, but a report more than a year before it takes effect is not a sensible way forward.

The changes made by clause 9 will mean that around 93% of estates will be able to pass on all their assets without paying any inheritance tax. The number of estates facing an inheritance tax charge in 2020-21 will be almost halved in comparison with previous forecasts, and thousands more will pay less tax. This measure will also provide peace of mind to thousands of families who worry about the prospect of paying inheritance tax. Inheritance tax will, however, continue to make an important contribution to the public finances. The number of tax-paying estates will continue to be higher at the end of the decade than at any time between the introduction of inheritance tax in 1986 and 2014-15. Indeed, more estates will continue to make a contribution than at any time between 1979-80, when capital transfer tax was in operation, and the end of the last Parliament.

There are those who disagree with making it easier for hard-working individuals to pass on their family home to their children and grandchildren. They say that rewarding hard work and aspiration is not a priority, but they are out of touch with the British people. The Government listen to the British people and deliver on their promises.

Finance Bill (First sitting)

Nick Thomas-Symonds Excerpts

Thursday 17th September 2015 Public Bill Committees

[Nick Thomas-Symonds (Torfaen) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Roger. On the passing of the Fiscal Responsibility Act 2010, which, like the clause, had declaratory effect, the then shadow Chancellor, who is now the Chancellor of the Exchequer, said that it was “vacuous and irrelevant”. Is the Minister as surprised as I am about the Chancellor’s U-turn on declaratory legislation?

[Mr Gauke]

I would draw a distinction between a Government who had no reputation for fiscal responsibility seeking to obtain such a reputation by passing such legislation and a Government who have a record of controlling income tax by increasing the personal allowance and not increasing rates, notwithstanding the challenges we face in the public finances. The clause underlines the Government’s commitment not to increase taxes, and income tax in particular, on the British people, because that is the wrong response. That is consistent with what we have done in office. The problem the last Labour Government had was that, in response to the fiscal crisis, rather than coming forward with clear proposals to reduce the deficit or even to accept a need to get to grips with that deficit, they simply sought to pass legislation. That was the wrong response then, whereas this is the right response now.

--- Later in debate ---

[Barbara Keeley]

There is a great deal of looking back, but let us look at what is happening this year and what will happen in the years following this Budget. The Office for Budget Responsibility forecasts net taxes to rise by more than £47 billion over the next four years, with much of the money coming from increases in dividend tax, insurance premium tax, vehicle excise duty and cuts in pension tax relief. Of course, welfare cuts will also raise almost £35 billion. It is one thing saying that families will benefit from the tax lock, but all of those measures will hit many families and individuals in the UK hard.

The combination of changes needs to be seen in the context of the cut to tax credits that Government Members voted through this week, which are likely to leave millions of families worse off. I was asked the other day, “What else would you do?” It is our contention that the welfare reform we need is to things such as overpayments and the error and fraud in the welfare system, because things are not properly checked at the point of application. Error and fraud cost £3 billion a year. The cut to tax credits will hit working people on middle and lower incomes, which undermines the Government’s argument that this is a Budget for working people.

[Nick Thomas-Symonds]

On that point, the Chancellor of the Exchequer made much in the last Parliament of a distinction between those who are in work and those who are not. By this attack on those who are in work, does he not find himself on the wrong side of his own dividing line?

[Barbara Keeley]

Absolutely so. A great deal is said at the moment about working people, working families and who supports them. Paul Johnson, director of the IFS, has said:

“Significant allowances were an integral part of the design of universal credit, intended to give claimants an incentive to move into work.”

That is an important point. On tax credit cuts, he adds:

“This reform will cost about 3 million families an average of £1,000 a year each. It will reduce the incentive for the first earner in the family to enter work.”

Greece

Nick Thomas-Symonds Excerpts

Monday 29th June 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Osborne]

I agree with my hon. Friend that the Greek economy needs to be more competitive. Clearly—I think this is the universal observation—the Greek economy needs important structural reforms. Ultimately, those have to be delivered by the Greek Parliament and by Greek Governments. Of course, we are happy to provide assistance. Indeed, over the past five years we have provided advice and assistance to the Greek Treasury and others about how to undertake those reforms. There is now the more immediate issue of the referendum.

[Nick Thomas-Symonds (Torfaen) (Lab)]

Many of my constituents who will be visiting Greece over the next few weeks will have heard the Chancellor’s advice about carrying a sufficient number of euros with them for the duration of their holiday. Given that this is a fast-moving situation, and that many people may be concerned about the safety implications of carrying large amounts of cash, will he undertake to monitor access to money in Greece on a daily basis to ensure that the Foreign Office advice on the website is as up to date as possible?

[Mr Osborne]

The hon. Gentleman asks a perfectly fair question. We have thought about this quite carefully. Clearly, it is a very uncertain situation. As things stand, the Greek Government have gone to considerable lengths to try to make sure that tourists can continue to access cash through ATMs and that the payments that they make with credit cards and the like are accepted by Greek businesses. It is an uncertain situation that is changing rapidly, and of course people could be on holiday when it does change, so we are suggesting to them that they be prepared. That advice will be updated whenever it needs to change; we keep it under constant review.