Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the effect of the Budget on families where parents are unable to work in long-term employment.
Answered by Simon Clarke
The government is committed to helping low-income families with the cost of living. Support provided includes the new £500m Household Support Fund to help vulnerable households with costs for essentials such as food, clothing and utilities over this Winter. The fund is ringfenced so at least 50% will be spent on households with children.
Within the welfare system, the government is maintaining the increase to Local Housing Allowance rates for private renters on Universal Credit and Housing Benefit in cash terms in 2021-22. This increase was worth over an extra £600 on average in 2020-21 for more than 1.5 million households.
The government is also providing over £200 million per year through the Spending Review to continue the holiday activities and food programme, providing healthy food and enriching activities for disadvantaged children in England.
Further support has been put in place through the twelfth consecutive year of freezing fuel duty in 2022-23, with the average car driver paying around £15 less fuel duty per tank and saving a cumulative £1900 since 2011, compared to the pre-2010 escalator.
Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he made of the impact on credit scores (a) across different age groups, (b) in Feltham and Heston constituency and (c) England of the increase in debt from buy now, pay later products.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
HM Treasury does not hold information on the impact of Buy-Now Pay-Later product usage on credit scores.
On 21 October, the Government published a consultation document outlining its proposed approach to the regulation of Buy-Now Pay-Later products. The consultation document can be found at the following link, including details on how to respond: www.gov.uk/government/consultations/regulation-of-buy-now-pay-later-consultation.
The consultation closes on 6 January. Once the consultation has concluded, the Government will review responses and consider next steps.
Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment his Department has made of the potential effect of a higher rate of VAT on debt repayment by businesses in the hospitality and retail sectors.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The temporary reduced rate of VAT was introduced on 15 July 2020 to support the cash flow and viability of around 150,000 businesses and protect over 2.4 million jobs in the hospitality and tourism sectors. As announced at Budget 2021, the Government has extended the temporary reduced rate of VAT of 5% for the tourism and hospitality sector. This relief ended on 30 September. On 1 October 2021, a new reduced rate of 12.5% was introduced to help ease affected businesses back to the standard rate. This new rate will end on 31 March 2022.
This relief will cost over £7 billion and, while all taxes are kept under review, there are no plans to extend the 12.5% reduced rate of VAT. The Government has been clear that this relief is a temporary measure designed to support the cash flow and viability of sectors that have been severely affected by COVID-19. It is appropriate that as restrictions are lifted and demand for goods and services in these sectors increases, the temporary tax reliefs are first reduced and then removed in order to rebuild and strengthen the public finances.
Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many businesses are awaiting confirmation of their rateable value so that they can receive a rate demand from their local authority; and how many of those awaiting confirmation received a visit from the Valuation Office Agency in (a) 2019, (b) January to March 2020 and (c) since March 2020.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The table below shows the number of cases the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) had outstanding in England at 31 December 2020 for properties that were new or required a split or merger (reconstitution). It also includes the number of property inspections undertaken on any of these outstanding cases.
When assessing properties the VOA have access to a variety of information sources, which means it is not always necessary to visit a property to complete a case. The VOA will inspect where they need to gather additional information or confirm facts.
The VOA’s systems are property based, rather than occupier based, and therefore the information is by case/property, rather than by business.
| Outstanding |
New Assessments(1) | 4,854 |
of which had either a full, partial or external inspection in: |
|
Jan 2019 - Dec 2019 | - |
Jan 2020 - Mar 2020 | - |
Apr 2020 - Dec 2020 | 55 |
|
|
Reconstitution(1) | 5,678 |
of which had either a full, partial or external inspection in: |
|
Jan 2019 - Dec 2019 | 0 |
Jan 2020 - Mar 2020 | - |
Apr 2020 - Dec 2020 | 12 |
(1) New Assessments and Reconstitutions represent all cases of these types in either a Check, Challenge or Assessment Review.
For disclosure reasons, numbers above 0 and below 5 are denoted with a ‘-‘.
Statistics on all outstanding Checks, Challenges and Assessment Reviews are published on a quarterly basis at www.gov.uk/government/statistics/non-domestic-rating-challenges-and-changes-2017-and-2010-rating-lists-december-2020.
Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many staff were employed by the Valuation Office Agency in (a) 2016, (b) 2017, (c) 2018, (d) 2019 and (e) 2020; and how many staff are currently employed by that office.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The VOA publish staff numbers in their Annual Reports. Reports from 2016 onwards can be found at: https://bit.ly/3t9cTdg.
The VOA publish the latest staff figures in the Workforce Management Information report, which can be found at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/hmrc-and-voa-workforce-management-information-january-2021.
Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he is taking to support long term R&D innovation (a) for all regions and nations of the UK and (b) to support the industries and jobs of the future.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade
Looking ahead, this Government is determined to build back better with an ambitious target to raise total investment in research and development to 2.4% of UK GDP by 2027.
Already this year, to forge the UK’s future as a global scientific superpower, the government is investing £14.6bn in research and development in 21-22. This funding will be allocated on a UK-wide basis and will therefore help locations across the UK, by:
As much of this will be allocated competitively, it is difficult to predict beneficiaries, however:
Further information on allocations will be determined in due course.
Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of a targeted extension of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme for the (a) aviation sector and (b) other sectors in the event that those sectors are subject to covid-19 restrictions after April 2021.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The Government recognises the challenging circumstances facing the aviation industry as a result of COVID-19, and firms experiencing difficulties can draw upon the substantial package of measures announced by the Chancellor, including schemes to raise capital and flexibilities with tax bills. The aerospace sector and its aviation customers are being supported with almost £11 billion made available through loan guarantees, support for exporters, the Bank of England’s Covid Corporate Financing Facility and grants for research and development. This includes £8 billion of UK Export Finance Guarantees.
The Chancellor has always been clear that the Government would keep the situation under review, adapting its approach as the context evolved. The Government will set out the next phase of the plan to tackle the virus and support jobs at Budget.
Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate he has made of the number of jobs that will be created in the UK in 2021.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade
In its November Economic and Fiscal Outlook, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) forecast employment to be 31.9 million in 2021. The OBR noted that the extension of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS), along with other new measures, was expected to reduce the level of unemployment by around 300,000 in the second quarter of this year, relative to what would have happened in their absence.
The Government’s Plan for Jobs aims to both create and protect jobs, through packages such as, a £3 billion green investment package that could help support around 140,000 green jobs, a £1 billion public buildings programme, and £5.8 billion for shovel-ready construction projects.
The Government has also launched a £2 billion Kickstart Scheme, creating hundreds of thousands of new, fully subsidised jobs for young people at risk of long-term unemployment, as well as a guaranteed foundation of support for young people on Universal Credit.
The Budget on the 3 March will set out the next phase of the plan to tackle the virus and protect jobs.
Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many complaints the Financial Conduct Authority received on financial promotions issued by the firms with company numbers 743416 and 622666, currently known as Lendy Ltd, in each year since 2014.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
As you may be aware, there is an ongoing Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) enforcement investigation into the collapse of the firms known as Lendy Ltd. It is important to stress that the independence of the FCA’s investigation, and its wider supervision of firms, is vital to its role. The FCA’s credibility, authority and value to consumers would be undermined if it were possible for the Government to intervene in such operational matters.
As such, it is not appropriate for the Government to publicly discuss the FCA’s discharging of their supervisory duties in respect of Lendy’s financial promotions. However, I have passed your requests onto the FCA for them to respond to directly. A copy of the letter will be placed in the Library of the House.
Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many times the Financial Conduct Authority intervened with firms with company numbers 743416 and 622666, currently known as Lendy Ltd, to ask them to modify or withdraw a financial promotion in each year since 2014.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
As you may be aware, there is an ongoing Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) enforcement investigation into the collapse of the firms known as Lendy Ltd. It is important to stress that the independence of the FCA’s investigation, and its wider supervision of firms, is vital to its role. The FCA’s credibility, authority and value to consumers would be undermined if it were possible for the Government to intervene in such operational matters.
As such, it is not appropriate for the Government to publicly discuss the FCA’s discharging of their supervisory duties in respect of Lendy’s financial promotions. However, I have passed your requests onto the FCA for them to respond to directly. A copy of the letter will be placed in the Library of the House.