Stephen Timms
Main Page: Stephen Timms (Labour - East Ham)Department Debates - View all Stephen Timms's debates with the HM Treasury
(12 years, 6 months ago)
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Stephen Timms (East Ham) (Lab)
The Minister is now telling us that the Government do not need the money that would have been raised by the measures that he has scrapped, so why were they announced in the first place?
Mr Gauke
Let us put this into context. In the last year of the forecast period, the Budget measures that we announced in March would have resulted in an additional £1.14 billion for the Exchequer. As a consequence of these changes, that figure will now be £1 billion. These are relatively small items, but we have listened to the specific cases that have been made on the three elements. We had already made it clear that we wanted to consult carefully with charities and philanthropists on one of them. We have listened to the arguments and we have made changes. In the overall scope of the public finances, however, they will not make a significant difference.