Oral Answers to Questions

Stephen Hammond Excerpts

Wednesday 13th December 2023 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I think the right hon and learned Gentleman missed that I paid tribute to our emergency workers at the beginning of the session. But let us see, because I think it is important. He talked about working families. Of course I want to make sure that we support working families, and that is what we are actually delivering. All he has to offer them is borrowing £28 billion a year. All that will do is push up their mortgage rates and push up their taxes. Meanwhile, what have we done? We have delivered tax cuts for millions of working families, boosted the national living wage, recruited 50,000 more nurses and 20,000 more police officers, improved our schools, cut the cost of net zero for working families, cut the boat crossings by a third and halved inflation. That is the difference: we are getting on and delivering for working Britain.

[Stephen Hammond (Wimbledon) (Con)]

Q7.   As the world struggles to agree the future of the 1.5° commitment, in Wimbledon we are keen to do our bit. To help my campaign to make electric vehicle charging access more widespread, can I ask my right hon. Friend for two early Christmas presents? Will he speak to our right hon. Friend the Chancellor to ask him to look again at the unfair differential rates of VAT on public and private charging points? Will he ask our right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities to look at the byelaws that stop local councils making on-street parking and charging more accessible?

[The Prime Minister]

I am happy to tell my hon. Friend that the Chancellor has already authorised more than £2 billion of investment to support our transition to zero-emission vehicles, and that we are well on track to reach our target of 300,000 charge points by 2030. I can also tell him that we will consult on amending the national planning policy framework to ensure that it prioritises the roll-out of charge points, on top the funding of almost £400 million to support local authorities to spread them out so that all our families have access to them when they need it.