Spring Forecast

Debate between Rachel Reeves and Gideon Amos

Tuesday 3rd March 2026 Commons Chamber

[Rachel Reeves]

It was a real pleasure after the Budget last year to join my hon. Friend at a community centre in Rugby, where I was able to talk to his constituents about the benefits of the £150 cut in energy bills. The conversation I remember most from my hon. Friend’s constituency was with a woman who had lost her husband just six months before. She had four children and will benefit from the changes we made by getting rid of the two-child limit. That is a conversation I will not forget, and it is the difference we are making in government.

[Gideon Amos (Taunton and Wellington) (LD)]

Monkton Elm garden centre, with its 400-cover restaurant employing 120 staff, has been hit by a £70,000 increase in its business rates this year as part of £178,000 in costs put on by the last Budget. If the Government will not accept the 5% cut in VAT that the Liberal Democrats propose—we would fund that by a tax on banks, by the way, not from cutting services—those at the garden centre would like to know whether the Chancellor will none the less extend the 15% discount to pubs on their business rates to restaurants? That would give our local businesses the support they need and give everyone the boost they want to see in our economy.

[Rachel Reeves]

As the hon. Gentleman knows, we are conducting a review of how the Valuation Office Agency calculates business rates, including for our hospitality sector. The last time that the Liberal Democrats were in office and they had a choice over VAT policy, they increased it from 17.5% to 20%. I am not sure why the public should believe that this time it would somehow be different.

Spending Review 2025

Debate between Rachel Reeves and Gideon Amos

Wednesday 11th June 2025 Commons Chamber

[Rachel Reeves]

I thank my hon. Friend for raising those concerns about schools in the Forest of Dean and that school in particular. The state that schools are in after 14 years of Conservative Government is just not good enough. After what they did in the ’80s and ’90s, I did not think that even a Conservative Government would leave schools in this state. Many MPs will be able to talk about examples similar to my hon. Friend’s from their constituencies. I will ensure that the Department for Education and the Education Secretary hear about the specific case that he raises, because we want to improve the conditions that our young children are taught in.

[Gideon Amos (Taunton and Wellington) (LD)]

I thank the Chancellor for her statement. As well as freeing people up by tackling the social care crisis, the real way to get the growth we all want is a target for publicly funded social homes—albeit, I welcome the funding that has been found for housing—and funding for the infrastructure that communities want, which will unlock tens of thousands of homes. The Wellington and Cullompton stations project was something I raised with the Chancellor last summer. She said at the Dispatch Box that it would be going ahead, because it had started. That project will bring £180 million of growth to the Cardiff-Bristol-Exeter corridor and generate hundreds of new jobs. Are my constituents right—a genuine question to the Chancellor—to be dismayed that there is no mention of any south-west projects in the statement today?

[Rachel Reeves]

Last week, we set out additional money for the Mayor of the West of England, and today we have announced a fourfold increase in local transport funding, which will be available for communities across the country. The hon. Member says that he wants to grow the economy—it is disappointing that the Liberal Democrats voted against the Planning and Infrastructure Bill yesterday, which will do exactly that.

Public Spending: Inheritance

Debate between Rachel Reeves and Gideon Amos

Monday 29th July 2024 Commons Chamber

[Rachel Reeves]

My hon. Friend speaks powerfully on behalf of his constituents in York Outer. They voted for change because they were sick and tired of unfunded commitments, broken public services and the deterioration in living standards after 14 years of Conservative Government. Today, they found the legacy the previous Government left is even worse than we could have anticipated, with a £22 billion black hole in the public finances.

[Mr Gideon Amos (Taunton and Wellington) (LD)]

I congratulate you on your post, Madam Deputy Speaker, and the right hon. Lady on her position as Chancellor. Does the Chancellor share the anger of the people of Taunton and Wellington in finding that not only is the whole new hospital promised by the Conservatives not funded, but that apparently, as we now discover, even the maternity unit might not be funded. On the restoring your railways programme, will the cancellation of projects also apply to those, such as Wellington station, which have already begun funding and have had GRIP—governance for railway investment projects—stage 4 approval?

[Rachel Reeves]

I can fully understand why the hon. Gentleman’s constituents are so angry with the previous Government for leaving this mess and making unfunded commitments. I assure him that projects that have already started, such as the station he mentions, will go ahead.