Asked by: Saqib Bhatti (Conservative - Meriden and Solihull East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she plans to reform Air Passenger Duty to prevent passengers travelling in a Premium Economy cabin from paying the same rate as passengers travelling in a First Class and Business Class cabin.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
Air Passenger Duty (APD) applies to airlines, not individual passengers, and is the principal tax on the aviation sector. It is expected to raise £4.2 billion in 2024-25 and it aims to ensure that airlines make a fair contribution to the public finances, particularly given that tickets are VAT free and aviation fuel incurs no duty. The distance-based band structure ensures that those who travel furthest, and in the greatest comfort, incur a greater tax liability.
There are three rates of duty for each destination band depending on the class of travel. The reduced rate applies to all travel in the lowest class of travel available on the plane for seat pitches less than 1.016 metres. The standard rate applies to travel in any non-economy class of travel or where the seat pitch is more than 1.016 metres (40 inches). This includes premium economy, as well as first class and business class.
When making changes to taxes the Government has to consider a wide range of factors, including administrative burdens and complexity. The Government keeps all taxes under review.
Asked by: Saqib Bhatti (Conservative - Meriden and Solihull East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she plans to take steps with the Valuation Office Agency to introduce new valuation methods for business rates for grassroots music venues.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
As set out at Autumn Budget 2024, the Government intends to introduce permanently lower tax rates for retail, hospitality, and leisure (RHL) properties, including those on the high street, from 2026-27. This permanent tax cut will ensure that they benefit from much-needed certainty and support.
In the interim period, for 2025-26, we have prevented the current RHL relief from ending in April 2025, extending it for one year at 40% up to a cash cap of £110,000 per business.
Music venues are valued in the same way as any other class of non-domestic property; through applying the statutory and common law principles that apply across non-domestic rating. The valuation approach adopted by the Valuation Office Agency follows one of the established three methods of valuation for rating - rentals, receipts and expenditure, or contractors (cost based). In most cases, the method adopted will be derived from rental evidence directly from the property, or from similar properties that share comparable physical characteristics.
Asked by: Saqib Bhatti (Conservative - Meriden and Solihull East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of permanently reducing business rates for grassroots music venues.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
As set out at Autumn Budget 2024, the Government intends to introduce permanently lower tax rates for retail, hospitality, and leisure (RHL) properties from 2026-27 for properties with rateable values below £500,00. This permanent tax cut will ensure that they benefit from much-needed certainty and support. The Government intends to fund this by introducing a higher multiplier on all properties with a rateable value (RV) of £500,000 and above.
In the interim period, for 2025-26, we have prevented the current RHL relief from ending in April 2025, extending it for one year at 40% up to a cash cap of £110,000 per business.
The Culture, Media and Sport (CMS) Committee’s report on grassroots music venues recommended that RHL relief should not be wholly withdrawn in April 2025. The Committee’s report also highlighted the sector's desire for certainty and long-term stability. That is why the Government intends to introduce permanently lower tax rates for high street RHL properties from 2026-27.
The Government’s full response to the CMS Committee’s report was published on 14 November 2024 and is available online: https://committees.parliament.uk/work/8227/grassroots-music-venues/publications/.
Asked by: Saqib Bhatti (Conservative - Meriden and Solihull East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of higher bond yields on mortgage repayments.
Answered by Darren Jones - Minister for Intergovernmental Relations
The government does not comment on specific financial market movements. Gilt yields are determined by a wide range of international and domestic factors, and it is normal for the price and yields of gilts to vary when there are wider movements in global financial markets.
The Chancellor has commissioned the Office for Budget Responsibility for an updated economic and fiscal forecast for the 26th of March, which will incorporate the latest data.
The pricing of mortgages, which is influenced by a number of factors, is a commercial decision for lenders in which the Government does not intervene. It is worth noting that, at present, average mortgage rates are well below the recent peaks seen in Summer 2023 and Autumn 2022.
Asked by: Saqib Bhatti (Conservative - Meriden and Solihull East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of increased borrowing costs on the UK's debt repayments.
Answered by Darren Jones - Minister for Intergovernmental Relations
The government does not comment on specific financial market movements. Gilt yields are determined by a wide range of international and domestic factors, and it is normal for the price and yields of gilts to vary when there are wider movements in global financial markets.
The Chancellor has commissioned the Office for Budget Responsibility for an updated economic and fiscal forecast for the 26th of March, which will incorporate the latest data.
Asked by: Saqib Bhatti (Conservative - Meriden and Solihull East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of increased borrowing costs on the UK's debt repayments.
Answered by Darren Jones - Minister for Intergovernmental Relations
The government does not comment on specific financial market movements. Gilt yields are determined by a wide range of international and domestic factors, and it is normal for the price and yields of gilts to vary when there are wider movements in global financial markets.
The Chancellor has commissioned the Office for Budget Responsibility for an updated economic and fiscal forecast for the 26th of March, which will incorporate the latest data.
Asked by: Saqib Bhatti (Conservative - Meriden and Solihull East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of cash deposit regulations in the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 on (a) the ability of SMEs to accept cash payments and (b) people who experience difficulty in conducting transactions via means other than cash.
Answered by Andrew Griffith - Shadow Secretary of State for Business and Trade
The government recognises that cash continues to be used by millions of people across the UK, including those who may be in vulnerable groups. Furthermore, businesses need access to cash deposit services in order to keep accepting cash and, therefore, support people’s ability to continue to transact using cash.
The government legislated through the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 to establish a new legislative framework to protect access to cash. This establishes the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) as the lead regulator for access to cash and provides it with responsibility and powers to seek to ensure reasonable provision of cash withdrawal and deposit facilities.
The government considers that this legislation will support organisations, including local businesses, to continue accepting cash by ensuring that they have reasonable access to cash deposit facilities.
Following the passage of this legislation, the government published a Cash Access Policy Statement, which sets out the government’s policies on access to cash. The FCA is required by law to have regard to these policies when determining its regulatory approach in this area. The FCA will publicly consult on its regulatory approach in due course. The government’s policy statement is available on gov.uk: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cash-access-policy-statement/cash-access-policy-statement
Asked by: Saqib Bhatti (Conservative - Meriden and Solihull East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has made an assessment of the potential impact of trends in the number of staff in HMRC working from home on the (a) average time taken to process cases and (b) quality of service provision.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
HMRC takes the quality of customer service very seriously.
HMRC’s approach to hybrid working is in line with many private and public sector organisations.
HMRC’s workforce plan includes the effective use of hybrid working where this meets business needs; staff are held to the same standards if they are working from an HMRC building or from home.
On average, HMRC advisers answer the same number of calls whether they are in the office or at home and process more customer correspondence when working from home. HMRC constantly monitor call volumes to ensure they deploy available staff where they need them. They use a flexible workforce model, where staff may switch between answering phone calls, processing correspondence, and replying to webchat enquiries throughout the day as needed.
Asked by: Saqib Bhatti (Conservative - Meriden and Solihull East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what fiscal steps he is taking to support households in Meriden constituency with their energy bills.
Answered by Gareth Davies - Shadow Minister (Business and Trade)
The government took action at Spring Budget 2023 to support struggling families in all constituencies, including by maintaining the Energy Price Guarantee support rate at £2500 per year until July 2023. This measure, alongside the £400 Energy Bills Support Scheme, brings total government support for energy bills to £1500 for the typical household since October 2022. The government is also removing the premium paid by 4 million households using prepayment meters (PPMs), bringing their costs into line with those paid by comparable households on Direct Debits (DD).
These measures are in addition to the uprating of benefits and Cost of Living Payments in 2023-24, which will help more than 8 million UK households on eligible means tested benefits, 8 million pensioner households and 6 million people across the UK on eligible disability benefits. Taken together, support to households to help with higher bills and cost of living is worth £94 billion, or £3,300 per household on average across 2022-23 and 2023-24.
Asked by: Saqib Bhatti (Conservative - Meriden and Solihull East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what fiscal steps he is taking to support small and medium-sized businesses in Meriden constituency with energy prices.
Answered by Gareth Davies - Shadow Minister (Business and Trade)
The Government remains committed to supporting the whole business sector including small and medium sized businesses. The Energy Bills Discount Scheme (EBDS) provides all eligible businesses and other non-domestic energy users with a discount on high energy bills for 12 months from 1 April 2023 until 31 March 2024. It also provides businesses in sectors with particularly high levels of energy use and trade intensity with a higher level of support.
This follows the unprecedented package of support for non-domestic users last winter provided through the Energy Bill Relief Scheme. The Government has been clear that such levels of support, unprecedented in its nature and huge scale, were time-limited and intended as a bridge to allow businesses to adapt.