Inheritance Tax Relief: Farms

Sam Rushworth Excerpts

Monday 10th February 2025 Westminster Hall

[Sam Rushworth (Bishop Auckland) (Lab)]

I am here to speak up for the farmers in my constituency of Bishop Auckland, which is a Labour farming community. Farmers in my area are worried. They put their trust in us at the general election, and why did they do so? Because they had been so badly let down for 14 years and they knew that the previous Government could have done more on things like trade deals, supply chains, flood defences and crime.

Let me tell the House what farmers in my constituency are telling me. They say that they have no problem with the principle that we should be closing tax loopholes. To quote the Telegraph, they want to stop billionaires “hoovering up agricultural land”, which they know is pushing up land prices. They even support the principle of paying tax and raising revenue for the Treasury, because they know that Treasury revenue is necessary to improve the NHS and improve schools in their communities, as well as having a strong agricultural budget. They are not asking for a full U-turn, by the way; they are asking for some meaningful tweaks that will help the policy to better target the goals that it intends to achieve.

[Chris Hinchliff (North East Hertfordshire) (Lab)]

We have heard quite a few suggestions already of ways in which this policy could be tweaked or amended. Will my hon. Friend join me in urging the Minister to get Treasury officials to at least model some of those changes, to help to advance the debate in the coming months?

[Sam Rushworth]

I welcome that intervention. There are two areas in particular on which I think farmers in my constituency would like some answers. One is thresholds. Because the policy still keeps the 50% agricultural property relief, it does not actually close a tax loophole at all for the very wealthiest. My constituents would like to see the modelling from the Treasury that says that it would. Meanwhile, because the threshold is quite low, it means that sadly some of the family farms in my constituency will really struggle to pay their inheritance tax bill. They would like to see what modelling has been done around the thresholds; they are not asking for a U-turn, because they understand that it should be neutral for the Treasury, but they would be interested to know whether we could lift the threshold but go to 40% tax at another threshold. Would that better protect the small family farms and do a better job of closing the tax loophole at the same time?

Another point on which my constituents would welcome some consideration is the proposal for a clawback. Someone who inherits a £5 million farm is not a millionaire; they are the custodian of agricultural land, with a responsibility to farm it to produce food for the nation. If they sell a £5 million farm they become a millionaire, but they do not become one simply by inheriting it. Farmers in my constituency would be interested to look at the proposal, and it would be helpful for them to understand the modelling that the Treasury has done. Among that Labour farming community, there is good will for this Government on many things we are trying to achieve. That good will can be retained. There would be no shame in looking at this again.

[Andrew George (St Ives) (LD)]

The hon. Gentleman is making a very thoughtful contribution. He is clearly looking at ways in which the policy can be amended to make it more palatable to the farming community. That may be the reality that we are looking at, rather than getting rid of it altogether. Does he therefore agree that we should look at changing the transitional arrangements so that succession planning can be properly undertaken, which at present it clearly cannot, or indeed that we should look at leaseback arrangements to enable viable farms to continue?

[Sam Rushworth]

There are a variety of things that could be looked at. I met the NFU this morning and we discussed various points. I feel that these are all things that should be considered. I reiterate that I believe that the community I represent still has good will toward this Government and the intentions of this Government, but there are aspects of the policy that could be tweaked to better achieve their intentions.

--- Later in debate ---

[Graham Stuart (Beverley and Holderness) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to participate in this debate, but I have a sense of déjà vu: a month ago, I stood in my place, the Minister sat in his, and we hoped that the Government would listen. They did not listen. I suppose that we should try to be optimistic. That time, apart from the Minister’s aide, there was not a single Labour MP to be found, but they are all here today. Their approaches have varied. I do not mean to rude to the hon. Member for South Norfolk (Ben Goldsborough), but in nearly 20 years in Parliament, I have never heard a speech that expressed no opinion on the subject in hand. He gets the vanilla award.

The hon. Member for Bishop Auckland (Sam Rushworth) was perhaps tentative and timid, but none the less wanted to hint that it was possible that the perfect selection of policies put forward by Labour might need a little tweak—congratulations on that. However, the award should go to the hon. Member for North Northumberland (David Smith), who was pretty clear that he does not think this policy is right and that it needs to be changed. Praise the Lord that someone on the Government Benches was prepared to come out and say so! That is what they were sent here for—not to do whatever the Prime Minister tells them to.

As I mentioned earlier, when the 2012 Budget proposed the caravan tax, which would have devastated the industry in East Yorkshire—it happens to be based there—and down the coast, because that is where caravans are deployed, we stood against it and opposed it.

[Sam Rushworth]

Will the right hon. Member give way?

[Graham Stuart]

I am delighted to see that the hon. Gentleman is going to stand up and find his inner rebel.

[Sam Rushworth]

There is absolutely nothing timid about what I am telling the right hon. Gentleman: farmers in my community were massively let down by the previous Government.

[Victoria Atkins (Louth and Horncastle) (Con)]

You voted for this policy.

[Sam Rushworth]

I do not know why the right hon. Lady keeps saying that. We have not voted on the policy yet. There was a vote against a motion that was put forward by the Opposition. It was a cynical motion that was designed to make us want to vote against it, because it was so ridiculous.

[Graham Stuart]

I am afraid that the hon. Gentleman shrunk inside his shell, and the farmers in his constituency will have heard that.

It is possible to challenge one’s Government. I said to my Whips then that the best service we could do the Government was to prevent them from doing something stupid, harmful and alienating to voters. I hope that Government Members can see that, because the Opposition cannot change this. People outside say to me, “Can we get this changed?” It is actually up to Labour MPs. They have the majority. Democracy is not about having a majority and doing what one likes. Democracy is about listening and doing what the now Prime Minister told the NFU when he said:

“You deserve a Government that listens, that heeds early warnings”.

There are one or two warnings about. Listen, change: if the Government change, four years on, no one will remember the U-turn. Whatever civil servants say—they are always very keen to stick with a policy—if it is wrong, stop doing it. And this is wrong. In the minute and 20 seconds I have left, let me say why it is so wrong. We have touched on the various elements, but I am not sure we have pulled it all together.

We have a really peculiar group of businesspeople in this country; they are called farmers. They take a return on capital—the millions they have invested in their farms—that is typically less than 1%. There is nobody that I am aware of—no business I was ever involved in—that would remotely consider continuing in an industry that paid less than 1%. These farmers take a pittance and get up at 4 o’clock in the morning for the privilege. They look after the animals and it does not matter if they are ill; they cannot carry their employment rights and go, “I’m not well, I shouldn’t have to go out,” because the cows do not care: they have to go out and look after them, and then they get less than 1% return. Those farmers, the most beneficent public-minded businesspeople in the whole country, then provide excellent food at among the lowest prices in Europe. If ever there were a business that we would not want to go and mess with, it is these—I should not say it, because I will make enemies of them.

--- Later in debate ---

[Dr Savage]

I thank my hon. Friend for a good point well made.

From waking up before the crack of dawn in the lambing and calving seasons, to often finishing the working day beyond midnight during the harvest, it is not hard to recognise the long and draining hours that farmers put in, the huge financial pressures that they work under and the toll that the lifestyle takes on their mental and physical health.

Farmers have to be able to plan for the long term, with their meteorological, financial, logistical and agricultural predictions having impacts for generations to come. Being such forward planners, and having been promised by the current Government when in opposition that there would be no change to APR, it came as a great and not pleasant surprise in Labour’s autumn 2024 Budget to hear that they would indeed be subjected to a change in inheritance tax. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Horsham (John Milne) for his point earlier about the injustice of retrospective legislation.

[Sam Rushworth]

The hon. Member is making an excellent speech, but some of the farmers in my constituents are concerned that the Liberal Democrats have talked about a land tax and a wealth tax. Will she tell us how that would affect the farmers in her constituency and mine?

[Dr Savage]

I thank the hon. Member for his intervention, but that is not Liberal Democrat policy any more.

The Government claim they are targeting the big wealthy landowners, not family farmers, and they say that once inheritance tax allowances are taken into account, most farms will not be affected, but here is what I do not understand: on the one hand the Government are saying they need to raise money to fill a big black hole, but on the other hand they are saying most farms will not be affected by the change. They cannot have it both ways.

Likewise, the Government say that only 25% of farms will be affected, while the National Farmers Union says that 75% of farmers will be. We seem to have two parallel realities, and never the twain shall meet. Persisting with this policy is bad for our family farms, our food security, nature and future generations. I beg the Government to reconsider and have the good grace to back down on this disastrous miscalculation.

Farming and Inheritance Tax

Sam Rushworth Excerpts

Wednesday 4th December 2024 Commons Chamber

[Tim Farron]

Yes, and the Government should have been thinking about these things. We heard from the Minister that lots of planning and diligence went into this before it came out of the Chancellor’s mouth on Budget day, but it does not feel like it, because there is a whole range of issues that could have been considered in advance.

There is something that will do more immediate harm to farming than even the inheritance tax changes, and that is the Government’s decision to summarily reduce basic payments by 76% in a single year. This will have a direct impact, in particular, on tenant farmers who rely on that money and will end up missing their rent payments. We will see evictions as a consequence.

The Government have trumpeted the £5 billion over two years, which my basic maths tells me is £2.5 billion a year. I am always careful, or nervous, about making confident predictions, particularly in this place, but my confident prediction is that they will not spend that budget. If the basic payments are cut by 76% without the new schemes being up and running to replace them, the Government will not spend that money. By underspending, this Government will end up in the same mess as the last one.

[Sam Rushworth (Bishop Auckland) (Lab)]

I have huge respect for the hon. Gentleman, my constituency neighbour, but I have a question. I think the hon. Member for North Cornwall (Ben Maguire) suggested a working farm tax, and it was not clear to me whether the hon. Gentleman accepted or rejected that suggestion. We have heard Liberal Democrats talk in recent weeks about land taxes and wealth taxes as alternatives to raise the revenue to fund their many, many spending commitments. Could the hon. Gentleman clarify that point?

[Tim Farron]

To clarify my response to my hon. Friend the Member for North Cornwall (Ben Maguire), the Government could have looked at a working farm exemption so that these people will never have to pay this inheritance tax. Who knows, the Government might consider putting people who are not active farmers under the HMRC microscope instead. That would be far preferable to what we have.

Grant payments are a significant issue. With the cut to basic payments and the Government’s failure to be as quick as they should have been on the new payments, I am pretty confident that we will see an underspend from this Government, just as we did from the last one.

In recent days we have seen the Government’s decision to pause capital grant payments, which will be a huge blow to our farmers. The areas that will end up being cut or paused include: hedging, walling and fencing; countryside stewardship grants to allow nature-friendly farming; work to prevent pollution of waterways; slurry storage; covered yards to clean up our rivers; peatland restoration; carbon storage; and being the cornerstone of natural flood management.

My constituent Matthew, who farms in Eden valley, explained yesterday that he has just finished installing 10,000 metres of fencing for a nature-friendly farming project. The pause in the grant funding means that he will not be able to buy any hedge plants to finish the work, and nor will he get the mid-tier countryside stewardship annual payment. He says:

“Some say it could be paused until June…this is a business-breaking issue.”

On top of that, the higher-level payment has not increased since I entered this House in 2005. It was £40 per hectare for moorland restoration in 2005, and it is £40 per hectare today. That is a brutal attack on hill farmers and those who farm our common land. Again, some of the sustainable farming incentive options on common land are good, and they should be applauded because doing more for nature is a good thing, but the SFI moorland options are currently closed to all common land because of technical issues online. We can see those consequences very clearly.

Among all this, farmers are struggling, often with their mental health. The isolation that people feel when their family have farmed a valley for generations and they might be the one who ends up losing the family farm is utterly devastating. However, farmers just crack on with the job, so our job is to be their voice.

Farming is a glorious vocation. Farmers work to protect our towns and villages from flooding, to promote biodiversity, to back the tourism economy, to tackle climate change, to underpin landscape heritage and to produce our food. The fundamental failure of both the last Government and this one is that they have brought together agricultural policies that actively disincentivise the production of food. That is criminal, and it is foolish. The first thing the Liberal Democrats would put right is a food strategy and an additional £1 billion a year for ELMs to back our family farmers.

It is time we listened to farmers such as Liz and Matthew Staley from near Kirkby Stephen, and their sons Luke and Lewis. I regularly talk to Liz, and she says:

“There is so much anguish out there for farmers.”

On the new schemes, she says:

“They aren’t working and there isn’t that crossover just yet… They’re just making it harder to make a living.”

I want to encourage people on all sides, especially in government, to listen to Liz. It is the vocation of farmers to save our planet and to feed our country. The least we can do is give them the value and the future they deserve.

--- Later in debate ---

[Sam Rushworth]

A moment ago, we heard talk from the Liberal Democrat Benches of a family farm tax and land taxes. It now seems that the right hon. Lady is suggesting we take up Dan Neidle’s suggestion. Will she confirm whether that is the case?

[Esther McVey]

It would be good if Members listened to what I said. I said it is not too late for Labour to reverse this policy; even their own tax advisers are saying, on closer inspection, it needs to be reversed. That is what I am asking those on the Government Benches to do.

We have heard today that farmers are asset-rich, but in reality they are cash poor, and that is the crux of the matter before us today. In the time I have left, I will mention a couple of farmers from my constituency. A seventh-generation farmer told me she was hoping to pass her farm on to the eighth generation, but that now does not seem possible because if they have to sell a proportion of the land, which they will, that will make the whole farm is unviable.

Another farmer of mine, Richard Shepherd, a few years ago built a state-of-the-art cow cubicle shed for their dairy herd, a piece of modern technology he believed would prepare the farm for the challenges of the 21st century, investing in methods to produce high-quality, affordable and nutritious food—the type of innovation this country will come to rely on for food security in the future. However, now, with this change from the Labour Government, he will owe between £600,000 and over £1 million in inheritance tax. He has said that, “Like any other business, we need confidence to invest in our farms. That’s what we wanted to do: we wanted to grow our farm, invest in it, and this will destroy this.”

Richard Barnett, an accountant who works with many farmers in my constituency, has warned of two immediate consequences of these proposed changes. First, there will be an increase in the number of individuals seeking to acquire farmland up to £1 million to mitigate inheritance tax, resulting in a reduction in the amount of tax that the Treasury can expect to generate from this policy, as well as an increase in land prices. Secondly, he expects a consequence of these changes to be that the financial industry will enter the land market with individuals investing up to £1 million in farmland, acquiring it and then we will see farmland being lost—

--- Later in debate ---

[Sam Rushworth (Bishop Auckland) (Lab)]

I came here today to speak up for upland farmers in my constituency. Although I am not a farmer myself, I grew up within smelling distance of a dairy farm, and coming from a working background, I have earned a living working outdoors in all weathers as a gardener, so I know what it feels like to have mud on my boots and frozen fingers. For a lot of our farmers, though, the physical strain is only part of the daily struggle; the other part is the anxiety of having so much invested in such a precarious business, and the burden of responsibility for keeping the farm alive in an era of shrinking profits.

Because farmers are working people who deserve secure livelihoods, and because food security is essential for our national security, I hold quarterly forums with the farmers in my area—I say that before anyone tries to intervene to ask me how many I meet with. I hold regular forums and, in fact, some of our council candidates are local sheep and cattle farmers. Of course, I have met with them more in the last few weeks than I had been doing. In the meantime, I am having conversations with fellow MPs and with DEFRA and Treasury officials and Ministers to push for the issues that matter to farmers in our area.

As such, when I went to the Bill Office last night to receive the motion for today’s debate, I was genuinely unsure how I would vote. I read it with an open mind, but when I saw it, I thought, “What a load of tripe.” By the way, I thank the right hon. Member for Salisbury (John Glen) for taking a much more constructive tone in his speech a moment ago. The Opposition could have come to the Chamber today and presented a constructive motion that many rural MPs on the Government Back Benches would have sympathised with. Instead, this motion seems calibrated to make us want to oppose it. It seems to me that the Opposition are more interested in playing party politics and cosplaying as the friends of farmers with this motion than they are in genuinely addressing issues that they both ignored in government and are now ignoring in opposition.

Some legitimate concerns about the policy have been expressed to me by farmers in my constituency. By the way, many farmers in my constituency sympathise with its aims and with what the Government are trying to achieve. One told me recently that he cannot stand the James Dysons of this world who are hoovering up agricultural land. However, they are concerned that there remains a tax incentive to invest in agricultural land, and I would be grateful if the Treasury reported on some of that modelling. For example, we know that 7% of wealthy claimants account for 40% of the cost of APR, but that means that 93% are costing only £382 million. It would be interesting to know how much money it would cost to slightly lift the thresholds or to address the concerns about life insurance.

[Several hon. Members rose—]

[Sam Rushworth]

I will not take any interventions, but only because other colleagues want to get in.

There are concerns, but I must say that when I met farmers in my constituency recently, they agreed with me that a bigger concern for them, as many colleagues have said, is profitability. The motion could have talked about economic stability for lower inflation and interest rates, and it could have talked about cutting rural crime, which would also cut insurance premiums. If I may say so, I welcome the Equipment Theft (Prevention) Act 2023 from the hon. Member for Mid Buckinghamshire (Greg Smith), but there needs to be secondary legislation.

[Greg Smith]

I agree.

[Sam Rushworth]

Thank you. Let us work together.

I am pleased that the Government are defending against floods and disease. I am pleased that we are committed to protecting standards in trade deals. I am pleased that we are committed to getting a veterinary agreement with the EU to cut red tape. I am pleased with the public sector procurement targets. However, we need to do something on rules about food labelling in order to prevent “farmwashing.” We also need to do more to strengthen farmers’ bargaining power with supermarkets. I am pleased with the changes to planning laws that will allow a lot of farmers to invest.

I would just say to my own party and to the Government that we need to bring these forward faster. Farming in my constituency is on life support. There is, in fact, good will towards this Government and what we are trying to do, but we cannot afford to wait another 18 months, particularly for the basic payment scheme transition. We need upland farmers to be able to access the sustainable farming incentives. I know the SFIs are in the pipeline, but they cannot wait 18 months to receive them.

[Several hon. Members rose—]

VAT: Independent Schools

Sam Rushworth Excerpts

Tuesday 8th October 2024 Commons Chamber

[Sam Rushworth (Bishop Auckland) (Lab)]

I have come here today to speak on behalf of the children and young people in my Bishop Auckland constituency. I recently spent half a day at an independent school in my constituency, where I spoke with the students, and I have also hosted them here in Parliament. I found them thoughtful and polite, and a credit to their parents and the school. I recognise the role that the school plays in my community. I think it is right that the school retains charitable status, which allows it to claim gift aid on donations and to reinvest surplus revenue without paying tax. I am fully committed to the school and to its fundraising efforts. That is because I want all children in my constituency, whether they attend state schools or fee-paying schools, to have the best opportunities to develop their talents and intellect, no matter their background.

I wish I could say the same of Conservative Members, but their actions in government tell a different story. At a recent roundtable with primary school headteachers in my constituency, I heard stories of school dinner debts of £1,000 per school because they are having to feed hungry children. I heard of children coming into school with wet uniforms because there is no glass in their windows. One teacher talked about having to support children who had experienced horrific abuse but were not getting support through CAMHS. I also heard about children who arrive at school behind where they should be because of the closure of Sure Start.

On social mobility, is it not the truth that the Conservatives scrapped child trust funds? Under them, Sure Start centres were closed down, school playing fields were sold off and the education maintenance allowance was abolished. Apprenticeships are down, youth services have been cut by 73% since 2010 and there is a five-year waiting list for CAMHS. A decade has been lost because every school budget has less funding per pupil today than it had in 2010. Is that not the truth?

Here is another truth—[Interruption.] Opposition Members do not like hearing it, but in the past 20 years, private school fees have increased by 55%. I checked Hansard to see whether we had a debate with them all expressing their concern for the state education sector and about the impact of that increase, but it turns out that when the increase is to make elite education even more elite, they are silent. I see no reason why private schools cannot absorb the cost.

[Gregory Stafford]

The hon. Gentleman talks about the elite, but does he understand the impact of the policy he is advocating, which is essentially that the elite, the rich, will still be able to afford independent education, while those who are making sacrifices to be there will be the ones who fall out, especially those with special educational needs?

[Sam Rushworth]

I was coming on to that, and if anybody in an independent school is struggling to cut their cloth accordingly as the state sector has done, I could introduce them to headteachers in my constituency who have had to do that because of cuts imposed by the previous Government.

I also suggest that independent schools look at social tariffs and other ways to raise revenue. Nobody wants to be doing this; this is not about the politics of envy. Conservative Members have so far opposed every measure that we are taking to increase revenue or cut spending, and perhaps they need to realise that that is why they are on the Opposition Benches and we are on the Government Benches, as we try to fix state education, which is essential for our children.

Winter Fuel Payment

Sam Rushworth Excerpts

Tuesday 10th September 2024 Commons Chamber

[Sam Rushworth (Bishop Auckland) (Lab)]

I have not written a speech—I have written down a few points—because, like many colleagues, I have spent the past week agonising over how to vote today. In the end, I decided to vote with my conscience, which meant that I voted with the Government. [Interruption.] Conservative Members laugh, but I will tell them why.

Today I listened sincerely to contributions from Conservative Members, and this is what I have learned. First, there were several interventions in which they criticised the Government’s efforts to improve the take-up of pension credit. [Interruption.] Well, they did—Members can go and read Hansard if they want to dispute that. There have been several criticisms of that, almost to the point that, when they talk about who is vulnerable, I wonder whether they have a blind spot for some of our most vulnerable constituents.

Secondly, I have learned about Conservative Members’ disdain for hard-working people, because we have learned that, in their spending plans, they intended to reject the pay recommendations of their own pay body.

[Harriet Cross (Gordon and Buchan) (Con)]

Does the hon. Member appreciate that some of the hardest working people are the pensioners we are now standing up for, and who we are trying to stop freezing in the winter to come and those ahead?

[Sam Rushworth]

I absolutely do, and Members may recall that I came to this House last week and asked the Chancellor a question about my own constituents. I represent the snowiest and coldest constituency in England, and I have had deep concerns about those pensioners. However, I have studied the detail and listened to pensioners in my constituency. In the last week alone, it has turned out that several people who have come forward to me expressing concerns about this policy are people who could be claiming pension credit but are not.

I want to make a broader point about the winter fuel allowance. The winter fuel allowance was introduced under the last Labour Government in 1997, when the state pension was £3,247 a year. If that had increased at the rate of inflation, today it would be £6,200 a year. Thankfully, it is more than twice that. [Hon. Members: “Because of us.”] Conservative Members say that it is because of them, but, again, they may want to look at the record. In fact, under both the previous Labour Government and the previous Conservative Government, the state pension increased at above the rate of inflation, and I absolutely welcome that. The winter fuel allowance, however, has not increased for 20 years. So the winter fuel allowance, in real terms, has become less and less year after year. The point I am making is that we need to consider our people. If the Conservatives’ argument is that, after 14 years in government, people on the full state pension are £100 away from death and destitution, what have they been doing for 14 years?

We need a new settlement for the economy, and this Government are actually answering the concerns of my constituents, who live in cold, stone-built, badly insulated homes, and who lost out when the previous Government chose to cut the funding available to insulate homes. This Government are setting up Great British Energy, which will help to cut bills over the long term. People are poor and struggling to pay their bills not because we do not give away enough taxpayers’ money in small pockets of benefits here and there. What we need are higher wages and better pensions, and I have been convinced by the Chancellor’s arguments that, under this Government, the pension will rise at or above the rate of inflation year on year, while energy bills will fall.

Finally, my constituents would not thank me if I did not take steps to stabilise the economy, because we need to get NHS waiting lists down and we need—

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Caroline Nokes)]

Order.

Oral Answers to Questions

Sam Rushworth Excerpts

Tuesday 3rd September 2024 Commons Chamber

[Rachel Reeves]

I welcome the hon. Lady to her place. Pensioners in South Devon, in common with pensioners in all our constituencies, will receive a basic state pension that is worth £900 more than it was a year ago, and energy prices are lower this winter than they were last winter. Many of her constituents will be entitled to pension credit but, because of a failure to act by the last Government, are not currently receiving it. We all need to play our part in ensuring that everybody gets the help they are entitled to. We should all ensure that our poorest pensioners get that support from both pension credit and the winter fuel payment associated with it.

[Sam Rushworth (Bishop Auckland) (Lab)]

The village of Copley, in my constituency, is the snowiest in England and we have many pensioners in receipt of the basic state pension who are, none the less, in fuel poverty. They are not entitled to pension credit. They live in cold, stone-built houses. What assurance can the Chancellor give to those pensioners that this Government will help to warm their homes and ensure they do not struggle to heat their homes this winter?

[Rachel Reeves]

This Government have committed to insulate an additional 5 million homes during the course of this Parliament to ensure that energy bills are as low as possible, saving people money and ensuring that their homes are warmer. That will help my hon. Friend’s constituents in Copley and constituents across the country.