Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Roberta Blackman-Woods and Nia Griffith

Monday 13th October 2014 Commons Chamber

[Nia Griffith (Llanelli) (Lab)]

2. What progress her Department has made on setting up its recently announced inquiries into child abuse; and if she will make a statement.

[Roberta Blackman-Woods (City of Durham) (Lab)]

12. What progress her Department has made on setting up its recently announced inquiries into child abuse; and if she will make a statement.

Finance Bill

Debate between Roberta Blackman-Woods and Nia Griffith

Tuesday 28th June 2011 Commons Chamber

[Nia Griffith]

I am saying that any fiscal measure is interdependent on other fiscal measures and the Government need to decide how their growth strategy will work and how the VAT rate will fit into that, in addition to any other fiscal measures they wish to take. I am not promoting any one particular measure, but there needs to be some form of stimulus because at the moment we are spiralling downwards and seeing increases in the debt and the deficit, in the benefits bill and in the number of people who are out of work. We would like to see increases in the number of jobs and in the number of businesses that are picking up and we would like to see the deficit come down so that we can get Britain back to work and get people back into jobs. The problem at the moment is that the policies with which we are being presented seem to do precisely the opposite, as was ably explained by my hon. Friend the Member for Coventry North West (Mr Robinson) a moment ago.

We need a proper assessment and we need proper decisions to be made on the basis of it to help our economy to grow.

[Roberta Blackman-Woods]

I want to support new clause 10. It is very important that the assessment of VAT considers the effects of the rise on both individuals and businesses. We need to consider both categories to understand fully the impact that the rise could have on economic growth. I know from sitting through the last debate that the Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties have no understanding and no idea of the pressures that are being placed on family budgets. This debate seems to be showing that they do not have any understanding of the stresses and strains being put on businesses in constituencies such as mine. In fact, as my hon. Friends have said, the Government seem to have very little understanding of what is happening to businesses across the north of this country.

I know from my constituency postbag and I hear from my local citizens advice bureau that more and more people are looking for advice not only because they are concerned that they might lose their jobs, which is affecting a large number of people in my constituency and the neighbouring areas, but because those who are in work are experiencing increasing rises in food, energy and petrol prices while facing a cut in wages in order to keep themselves in employment. If we add those factors together, we can see that consumers are concerned about the future, which is affecting what they purchase on the high street. That has a huge impact on all our constituencies and we have heard tonight of many examples of businesses in the retail sector that are falling daily.