Economic Growth

Debate between Nusrat Ghani and Emma Reynolds

Monday 7th September 2026 Commons Chamber

[The Chief Secretary to the Treasury (Emma Reynolds)]

With permission, I will make a statement on the Government’s plan to deliver good growth in every postcode.

At the G20 in North Carolina last week, the Chancellor and I met Finance Ministers from leading economies to discuss our shared economic challenges. Global instability, conflict and trade frictions are continuing to drive up inflation and interest rates around the world. While these shocks are international in nature, their impact is also being felt here in the UK—from the cost of the weekly family shop to the cost of Government borrowing.

Britain has shown resilience in the face of these pressures and the economy is now turning a corner: our growth was the fastest in the G7 in the first half of this year, Government borrowing fell to its lowest level in six years last year and interest rates have been cut six times since the general election. We are building on our strengths—our world-class universities and our world-leading sectors, such as life sciences, defence, technology, creative industries and financial services—and, because of the choices that this Labour Government have already taken, we are in a stronger position today to capitalise on the opportunities for growth across our economy.

In the context of a more uncertain world, we must continue to make responsible choices. Fiscal discipline will underwrite every promise this Government make. Both the Prime Minister and the Chancellor have made clear their commitment to meeting the fiscal rules, with a buffer against uncertainty. We will address the long-term pressures on our public finances to put debt on a sustainable downward path. As the Chancellor said earlier today, there is nothing progressive about spending £1 in every £10 on debt interest.

In his statement to this House last week, the Prime Minister laid out a clear diagnosis of what has gone wrong in our economy: political power was centralised, the economic fundamentals were privatised or outsourced, and our country was de-industrialised. The solution is a fundamental shift in the way our country works. No. 10 North and the Treasury are working together to build a stronger, more strategic centre of government and a more active state. Together, we will support the ambitions of local leaders and exert public influence and direction over the essentials, including transport and housing. We will devolve power and resources to local leaders. London is of course an economic powerhouse, but if our city regions could emulate the success of second cities in France and Germany, growth in our country could be transformed.

The Chancellor has instructed public investment institutions to focus on regional growth. To build on our high growth areas, the Oxford-Cambridge corridor and the northern growth corridor, he has today announced a new £150 million northern scale-up fund, delivered by the British Business Bank, to back the most innovative and fast-growing firms from Liverpool to Newcastle. The new Northern 500 will also bring together 500 of the north’s most ambitious mid-sized businesses into a single growth community, focused on scaling, investment and productivity. The National Wealth Fund will establish new strategic partnerships with South Yorkshire, the Liverpool city region, the north-east and Cardiff, giving those areas support to build their investment pipelines. At the Budget next month, the Government will go further, with a road map for fiscal devolution—a permanent transfer of power and resources from Whitehall to our regions. This plan will drive economic growth and productivity in three key areas: supporting investment, boosting innovation and getting more people into good jobs.

First, I will turn to investment. Business investment has increased by nearly 5% since the general election, but in a highly competitive world we must do more to reduce the barriers that firms face. The Government will tackle the thicket of consultation, litigation and administration that is holding up private investment, including by extending our reforms of judicial review from energy to all major infrastructure. We will bring an end to the consultation culture across Government, supported by new guidance from the Attorney General on legal risk to give Ministers confidence to make decisions. As the Chancellor has set out, we will make further changes to the Treasury’s Green Book, reducing the discount rate from 3.5% to 3%, to ensure that the Treasury rulebook does not go against key regional infrastructure projects and that places across the country get a fairer hearing in spending decisions. Work is already under way to progress place-based business cases in Plymouth, Birmingham, Liverpool and Port Talbot, and at the Budget we will publish guidance to allow more areas to do the same.

The second driver of growth is innovation. The UK has a fantastic record on innovation. We are world leaders in frontier technologies, quantum computing, nuclear fusion, space technology and AI. But too often, ideas born here have to go elsewhere to find the capital they need to scale. Today we are setting out a new ambition to double the number of unicorns in this country. The Government will identify and back these high-potential firms, providing them with the necessary capital to scale. New cross-economy sandboxing powers will also enable firms to test frontier technologies safely. Building on the important work already taking place in defence and sovereign AI, the Chancellor will work with Government Departments to earmark new, dedicated funds to back British innovation.

The third vital driver of growth is jobs. Our objective is to get more people into good, highly skilled jobs, and to make the most of the untapped talent that exists across the country. That is why, two weeks into office, the Prime Minister set out a bold new plan to transform technical education, and why, this autumn, Alan Milburn will set out his full recommendations to Government on how to address the blight of youth unemployment. This is our moral duty—not only our fiscal duty—because it cannot be right that so many young people are stuck on benefits.

The plan for growth is underpinned by fiscal discipline. It will hand power to local leaders and unlock the potential of our regions. It will build a strong, strategic centre of Government and enable greater public direction and influence over the essentials. It will back British business, goods and exports, creating wealth and prosperity in all parts of the country. It is a plan to build hope and optimism across our economy, and to drive good growth in every postcode. I commend this statement to the House.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani)]

I call the shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury.

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[Emma Reynolds]

I thank the Chair of the Treasury Committee for her question, and I agree with her: public financial institutions must make independent decisions about the businesses that they support. The Chancellor has talked today about new strategic priorities for the NWF, and that is also the right thing to do. That goes in parallel with what my hon. Friend was saying.

On oversight of mayoral strategic authorities, my hon. Friend is right that if we are going to devolve more power and, critically, more resources, there should be more oversight. The First Secretary of State has talked about the role of others, including Members of this House, in holding mayoral strategic authorities to account when they receive those new powers.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani)]

I call the Liberal Democrat spokesperson.

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[Emma Reynolds]

We are working with the mayor on that issue. Our colleagues will get back to you on that.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani)]

Hopefully they will get back not to me, but to the hon. Member.

[Emma Reynolds]

I am sorry, Madam Deputy Speaker.

Farming Road Map and Profitability Review

Debate between Nusrat Ghani and Emma Reynolds

Wednesday 24th June 2026 Commons Chamber

[Emma Reynolds]

That is precisely why window 1 will be open next week to small farms and those farms without an existing agreement. It is also why we have capped the agreement level per year to £100,000. We want smaller farms to benefit from the SFI.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani)]

I call the Liberal Democrat spokesperson.

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[Madam Deputy Speaker]

Order. That was far too long.

[Emma Reynolds]

I hope to give the hon. Gentleman some brief answers, but I would be very happy to have a discussion with him after the debate, because he has put forward a lot of different questions. Food production is the primary role of farmers, but in the road map we also talk about the transition to more sustainable farming and regenerative farming, so I do not agree with his analysis. Actually, the focus of the road map and some of our SFI actions on healthier soils will help to ensure that farms are more productive and less reliant on expensive inputs such as chemical fertilisers.

The hon. Gentleman talks about unfair charges. We are bringing the Groceries Code Adjudicator under DEFRA and we are looking at what more we can do to make things fairer for farmers, including in the road map, bringing down barriers and helping more co-operatives to be established, because that redresses the power imbalance he talked about.

I absolutely agree with the hon. Gentleman on the importance of uplands to the farming sector and to our countryside—I know he has a very beautiful constituency. We have increased the payment rates for upland farmers for some SFI actions and the road map talks about our plans to make it easier for upland farmers to access schemes. I am happy to have a longer conversation with him about that, including about commoners. As he knows, we have commissioned a review by Hilary Cottam. I think he has been working with her too, which is welcome.

A third of land is tenanted; it is a really important sector. We want a vibrant sector. I appointed the country’s first ever Commissioner for the Tenant Farming Sector, Alan Laidlaw. We know that a lot of tenants are very anxious about the shift away from long-term tenancies to shorter-term tenancies, so he is right to raise that. We have also commissioned the Law Commission to look at agriculture tenancy law. We are working with the sector to see what more we can do to ensure longer and more secure tenancies.

[Emma Reynolds]

May I take this opportunity to thank my hon. Friend for all the work he did as Farming Minister? Indeed, some of his fingerprints are on the road map, so I want to thank him for that. He is right in what he says about food security and about innovation being central to it. That is why I announced extra funding of £53 million for the farming innovation programme today. At the second meeting of the Farming and Food Partnership Board, we talked about the two sector growth plans we are working on, horticulture and poultry. He mentioned poultry. We had a really good discussion on the barriers to further investment in poultry. Planning is one of them, but there are others too. That is a sector where we can make really good progress to ensure that we boost the production of poultry in our country.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani)]

I call the Chair of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee.

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[Emma Reynolds]

We do want to see more British food in our institutions. As I said in response to a previous question, we are establishing a baseline—which was not established under the hon. Gentleman’s Government or ever before—to see what percentage of public sector contracts are going to British producers. That is the first step. May I also say that I am a big fan of the hon. Gentleman’s constituency? I spend some time there because my parents live in his patch.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani)]

I call Callum Anderson; he has gone. I call Jack Robertson—[Interruption.] You know when you stare at something and you can see it, but you are incapable of reading it? I call Dave Robertson.

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[Emma Reynolds]

It is in the road map, but I want to say, first, that I look forward to going on holiday in the right hon. Gentleman’s constituency at some stage—sounds like we get a great service! I will let him know when I am on my way. He is right to mention this issue. It is something that we are looking at, and it is mentioned in the road map. I know that there are real problems for commoners getting access to some Government schemes, so that is something he will see in the road map. Upland farmers and others really need to ensure that they can access the schemes that we have.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani)]

I fear that that is more about the bottles of champagne than the right hon. Gentleman’s constituency.

Water White Paper

Debate between Nusrat Ghani and Emma Reynolds

Wednesday 21st January 2026 Commons Chamber

[The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Emma Reynolds)]

With permission, Madam Deputy Speaker, I would like to make a statement on the publication of the Government’s water White Paper, “A New Vision for Water”. The paper sets out once-in-a-generation reforms, putting consumers and the environment first and building a water system fit for the future.

For too long, the last Conservative Government turned a blind eye—perhaps that is why there is not a single Conservative Back Bencher in the Chamber to discuss this issue. They neglected the needs of people and the environment. The result: a whole-system failure, companies profiting at customers’ expense, vital infrastructure left to crumble, record levels of pollution in our waterways and public trust destroyed. It is no wonder that none of them—we may have one of two—has turned up to sit on the Back Benches.

This Government inherited that terrible failure, and we are not shying away from it. Every family in this country deserves clean water from their taps, seas safe for their children to swim in, and bills that are fair and affordable. This Government is turning the page on that Tory failure. Our goal is simple: a water system that delivers safe and secure water supplies, better water quality and a fair deal for customers and investors.

Within weeks of coming into office, this Government asked Sir Jon Cunliffe to lead an independent water commission. Sir Jon met over 150 stakeholders, including environmental groups, investors, Members of both Houses, and local communities. His call for evidence received more than 50,000 responses—there is much more interest from people out there than from the Conservative party. I thank Sir Jon and all those who contributed, including right hon. and hon. Members. The White Paper sets out our response to his recommendations.

The Cunliffe review was vital, but we did not wait for its conclusions to act. In our first year in office, we laid the foundations for the transformation that this White Paper sets out. We passed the Water (Special Measures) Act 2025 to give the regulator the power to ban bonuses for polluting water bosses and issue automatic fines for pollution; we ringfenced the money from consumers’ bills, so that it can be spent only on fixing and upgrading infrastructure and improving water quality, not diverted to pay bonuses or dividends; we secured an historic £104 billion of private sector investment to rebuild the water network; and we established the brand-new water delivery taskforce to get spades in the ground, fast-track the delivery of new infrastructure projects and drive economic growth.

This White Paper builds on those strong foundations and sets out a new vision for water in this country. Our reforms deliver three fundamental shifts. The first is the shift from fragmentation to co-ordination. Today, responsibility for water is scattered across four different regulators. The result is confusion, duplication and regulatory gaps. We will change that. We will abolish Ofwat and create a new and more powerful regulator, integrating economic and environmental regulation. We will hold water companies to account by moving away from a system of self-monitoring, in which water companies have been marking their own homework, to a more proactive and preventive approach.

There will be nowhere to hide for poorly performing water companies. We will introduce an MOT approach for water company infrastructure, requiring maintenance checks on pipes, pumps and water treatment works; we will introduce a chief engineer and ensure that there is engineering capability in the new regulator, so that decisions are grounded in practical understanding; we will take a new supervisory approach, holding companies to account in detail and recognising the different challenges they face; and our new performance improvement regime will give the regulator the power to step in faster and put things right earlier. That is prevention-first regulation.

However, regulation alone will not clean up our rivers, lakes and seas. We need everyone with a stake in our waterways to be pulling in the same direction. New reforms for regional planning will bring councils, water companies, farmers and developers together to tackle local pollution, manage water resources and support housing growth. That will strengthen community voices in the water system and drive greater use of nature-based solutions.

The second shift is from corporate interest to public interest. We must never lose sight of who this reform is for: customers and the environment. We will introduce an independent water ombudsman to resolve consumer disputes fairly. We will keep bills affordable through the wider roll-out of smart meters to help those who need it most. There will be a new water efficiency label on every appliance, so that when customers buy a washing machine or a shower, they will know exactly what it will cost not just to buy it, but to run it—to help bring their bills down. We are also cracking down on pollution at its source. We will tighten agricultural standards, including on sludge spreading. We will double funding for catchment partnerships, harnessing the power of nature to protect our rivers.

The third shift is from short-term thinking to long-term planning. For too long, the water sector has lurched from one five-year price review to the next, with no clear picture of where we are headed. We will publish a transition plan to provide a clear, simple road map for water companies, investors and the regulators. The plan will set out how the next price review will deliver those reforms, how we drive better co-ordination between existing regulators during the transition, and how we will make leadership appointments at the earliest opportunity to the new regulator’s board, including a chair-designate.

For too long the previous Conservative Government turned a blind eye to water system failure. Infrastructure was neglected, pollution went unchecked and public trust was betrayed. This White Paper draws a line under that era. It lays the groundwork for our upcoming water Bill and puts us on a new path; a path where water companies act responsibly, where customers get the service they deserve, where investors can invest with confidence, and where we can all enjoy clean rivers, lakes and seas. The British public voted for change, and we are delivering that change by building a system fit for the future. I commend this statement to the House.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani)]

I call the shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

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[Emma Reynolds]

I agree with my hon. Friend. That is why the main focus of our reforms is to create a single, more powerful and integrated regulator. At the moment, as I said in my statement, we have duplication as well as gaps. We have consumers who are not being served well, so we need a regulator that gets a grip on the investment in maintaining our water infrastructure and on bearing down on pollution incidents. We have already made a start on that, but the new regulator will have more teeth and more power to do that. My hon. Friend is right to say that we need that single, more powerful and integrated regulator to ensure we deliver better outcomes for consumers and the environment.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani)]

I call the Liberal Democrat spokesperson.

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[Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani)]

Order. Much shorter questions, please.

[Emma Reynolds]

Either myself or the Water Minister would be happy to meet the hon. Member. I heard about the incident of the chips on the beach. In the White Paper we are looking more broadly at other sources of pollution, including those from transport and agriculture, but we would be happy to have a meeting with him to discuss the issue.

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[Emma Reynolds]

We will set up the water ombudsman; we need the primary legislation to do that. The ombudsman will have statutory powers and will be able to take forward consumer complaints and disputes.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani)]

I call Liz Saville Roberts.

Financial Services Reform

Debate between Nusrat Ghani and Emma Reynolds

Wednesday 16th July 2025 Commons Chamber

[Emma Reynolds]

I thank my hon. Friend for that thoughtful question. I am happy to talk to the Committee about that in more detail. What I will say is that the Leeds reforms regulate for growth instead of seeking to eliminate risk from the system altogether. We know that in order to get greater returns, there is a need to take informed risk. The reforms will enable firms and consumers to take informed risks. But we will always support the regulators and legislate in a way that protects consumers from bad practices and bad actors.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani)]

I call the Liberal Democrat spokesperson.

[Daisy Cooper (St Albans) (LD)]

There is much to welcome in the statement. I hope that it sends a strong signal to the fintech sector and sustainable finance that UK plc is open for business, but it is important to get the balance right between growth and risk.

We Liberal Democrats welcome the announcement of a scale-up unit. Will it have a mandate to look at liquidity and valuation, which are two of the challenges that prevent British start-ups from scaling up here at home?

On the retail investment culture, we welcome plans to reform financial advice and guidance and to launch a national advertising campaign. We believe that we should trust people to weigh up the risk and rewards of investment, if they are properly informed. But we also know that money habits are formed at a young age. Will the Minister advise whether the Government have any plans to introduce financial literacy as part of the school curriculum—indeed, from cradle to grave? Will the Government confirm when they will bring forward any reforms at all to cash ISAs? The uncertainty around the issue is undermining their own goal of incentivising more investment.

On mortgages, many renters have been crowded out of getting on to the housing ladder, so this announcement will sound exciting to them, but what reassurance can the Minister provide that this additional lending will not result in boom and bust? With inflation jumping today, how many of those up to 36,000 first-time homeowners will realistically get on the housing ladder in the next year?

We welcome the streamlining of checks on senior managers, but will the Government confirm that those changes will not expose financial firms and their customers to greater risk? If the Government want a step change in economic growth, this is a start, but they must go further and faster by having a better trading deal with the EU.

[Emma Reynolds]

We have a very good deal with the EU, which we agreed in May this year and will continue to build on. I was pleased to have invited the European Commissioner for Financial Services, Maria Luís Albuquerque, who was at the dinner last night at the Mansion House. I will try to get through all the hon. Member’s questions.

On liquidity and valuations, I point out that we have some of the deepest capital markets in the world. Last year, the amount of equity capital raised in London was larger than in the next three European exchanges put together. However, I recognise the issues she talked about.

On the advertising campaign, Chris Cummings of the Investment Association is leading the secretariat. He will also be looking at risk warnings. That is not to say there should not be risk warnings, but that there should be a balance in risk warnings to ensure that warnings are also informing people of the benefits of investing over the long term.

The hon. Member rightly talked about the importance of financial education and capability. We will put forward suggestions on that in the financial inclusion strategy, which we will publish in the autumn. However, as this is a cross-Government effort, I reassure her that I am speaking and meeting actively with the Minister for School Standards so that we are aligned with the Department for Education’s curriculum review.

The hon. Member asked about mortgages. May I reassure her? Obviously, we have had extensive regulations since the global financial crash and we are not going back to the bad old days when there were no verification checks on affordability and 125% mortgages. But the system we have got means that people on modest incomes are unable to get on the housing ladder. Nationwide has said that because of the Bank of England’s recent decision, it will be able to help an additional 10,000 people a year with its helping hand mortgage to fulfil their dream of home ownership. I think that is a great step forward and will mean that people across the country, like many in this House, can benefit from the security of home ownership, and particularly those on modest incomes and in generations that are being deprived of such opportunities.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani)]

I call John Grady, a member of the Treasury Committee.

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[Emma Reynolds]

As was said previously, the package that we announced yesterday, as well as the announcement by the Bank of England and the FCA’s discussion paper, go to the heart of making sure that we have the right balance between ensuring people have affordable mortgage products and ensuring that those products are accessible to more people up and down the country. As she will know—I am sure that she is referring to this—the Planning and Infrastructure Bill and some of the other planning reforms that we set forward are some of the most ambitious for a generation. They will unlock the potential for those homes to be built so that we can get more and more first-time buyers on to the housing ladder.

[Madam Deputy Speaker]

I call a Treasury Committee member, John Glen.

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[Emma Reynolds]

I reassure my hon. Friend that our agenda is to streamline regulation and make it more proportionate, and that there remain firm guardrails and affordability checks for mortgage providers. At the moment, the level of repossessions is very low and banks and other mortgage providers do all they can to avoid repossessing people’s homes. As I said before, we will not go back to the bad old days of 125% mortgages and no verification of affordability. This is about rebalancing the system to make sure that more people can afford to buy their own home, but it is also about striking the right balance between ensuring that we take more informed risk while ensuring financial stability. He is right to ask the question.

[Madam Deputy Speaker]

I call a Treasury Committee member, Bobby Dean.

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[Madam Deputy Speaker]

Order. You meant, “as the Minister hollows out”, not me. Minister—a swift response.

[Emma Reynolds]

Well, what do I say to that? I think there is, with the exception of the hon. Member, cross-party support for the twin peaks financial services regulation that we have. Of course, we need proportionate regulation to ensure that there are protections in place for consumers. He seems to be suggesting that we get rid of the regulators altogether, which I think most Members of this House would be opposed to. I have heard of the concept of caveat emptor, and I am suitably patronised by him.

Bank Resolution (Recapitalisation) Bill [Lords]

Debate between Nusrat Ghani and Emma Reynolds

Report stage & 3rd reading
Thursday 24th April 2025 Commons Chamber

[Emma Reynolds]

I beg to move, That the Bill be now read the Third time.

We can hopefully do Third Reading in a more relaxed fashion. As we have discussed through the Bill’s passage, the Bank Resolution (Recapitalisation) Bill will strengthen the UK’s bank resolution regime by providing the Bank of England with a more flexible toolkit for responding to the failure of banking institutions.

As volatility over recent weeks has shown, global uncertainty can have a real impact on financial markets across the world. That is why it is important that the UK remains equipped with an effective financial stability toolkit. The primary objective of the recapitalisation mechanism introduced by the Bill is to protect the taxpayer; it will provide more comprehensive protection for public funds when banks fail. I think both sides of the House can agree that this is of vital importance to ensure that our constituents are not left on the hook when a bank collapses. The Bill achieves that without placing new up-front costs on the banking sector, and therefore strikes the right balance between protecting financial stability and supporting the Government’s No. 1 priority of driving economic growth.

I would like to thank all those in this House and the other place who have contributed to the scrutiny of the Bill. In particular, I would like to thank the Opposition for their constructive engagement. As I said on Report, there is broad agreement on the primary objectives and principles of the Bill, but differing views have been expressed on the scope of the mechanism and certain finer details. I reiterate the Government’s position: it is important to learn the lessons from the case of Silicon Valley Bank UK, which demonstrates that the implications of a firm’s failure cannot always be anticipated, and things move very quickly. It is important that the legislation avoids overly restricting the Bank of England’s ability to use the mechanism in unpredictable and fast-moving failure scenarios, and can achieve its primary objective of protecting the taxpayer. I hope that those in the other place will agree with the Government’s position when the Bill returns there for their consideration.

I thank the shadow Minister, the hon. Member for Wyre Forest (Mark Garnier), the hon. Members for Dorking and Horley (Chris Coghlan) and for Wokingham (Clive Jones), and others who were on the Committee. I thank the right hon. Member for North West Hampshire (Kit Malthouse), and the hon. Members for St Albans (Daisy Cooper) and for Bridgwater (Sir Ashley Fox), for their contributions on Second Reading. I thank the Minister with responsibility for pensions, my hon. Friend the Member for Swansea West (Torsten Bell), who assisted me on Second Reading, and my hon. Friend the Member for Newcastle-under-Lyme (Adam Jogee) for his input. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Hendon (David Pinto-Duschinsky) for his speech on Report.

I would like to extend my gratitude to my officials in the Treasury for their hard work in developing this highly technical Bill, which could not easily be rushed, and for supporting me throughout the Bill’s passage. I am also grateful to the House staff, parliamentary counsel and all other officials involved in the passage of the Bill.

This Bill supports the UK economy’s resilience to the risks posed by bank failures. We all remember the damage caused by the financial crisis, and the Bill, alongside other measures that allow failures to be managed in an orderly way, upholds the economic and financial stability that will deliver on the Government’s growth mission. I am pleased that the Bill has received broad cross-party support in this House and the other place, and I look forward to its enactment. I commend it to the House.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani)]

I call the shadow Minister.

Bank Resolution (Recapitalisation) Bill [Lords]

Debate between Nusrat Ghani and Emma Reynolds

2nd reading
Wednesday 22nd January 2025 Commons Chamber

[Emma Reynolds]

I agree with the hon. Gentleman, who puts it very well. He will know that there was a different order in the case of Credit Suisse, but the then Government said at the time that that would not be their order of priority. We are seeking to protect the taxpayer in this Bill, and he is right: had there been a cost associated with the transfer of SVB, it would have fallen first to those people before falling to the taxpayer. If we pass this legislation, for which I hope there is cross-party support, we will avoid that eventuality, because if we follow the order of priority and get to the financial services compensation scheme, the cost will be paid through a levy on the banks in that scheme. I thank the hon. Gentleman for his question.

The resolution regime is a critical source of stability when banks fail, because it ensures that public funds and taxpayer money are protected. This Bill delivers a proportionate and targeted enhancement to the resolution regime to ensure that it continues to provide that important stability. As I said at the start of this debate, it is therefore an important Bill that underpins the Government’s vision for economic growth, and I commend it to the House.

[Madam Deputy Speaker]

I call the shadow Minister.

Winter Fuel Payment

Debate between Nusrat Ghani and Emma Reynolds

Tuesday 10th September 2024 Commons Chamber

[Madam Deputy Speaker]

Members are guided to talk about any such conflict before they speak on the Floor of the House. I am not sure that this has a direct impact on proceedings, but the right hon. Gentleman’s point has been noted.

[Emma Reynolds]

Again and again, the Conservatives are dividing working people and pensioners, and that is disgraceful.

In conclusion, means-testing the winter fuel payment is a difficult decision. [Interruption.] I receive no funding from ASLEF, so the right hon. Gentleman can withdraw his comment. We are targeting support at the poorest pensioners, boosting the uptake of pension credit, maintaining the triple lock for pensioners, extending the household support fund and the warm homes discount and, in the longer term, introducing a warm homes plan to insulate people’s homes. These are the right decisions to take. This Government are determined the fix the foundations of our economy so that we can deliver the change on which we were elected, and which this country and our pensioners so desperately need. Bringing down NHS waiting times—