Steve Barclay
Main Page: Steve Barclay (Conservative - North East Cambridgeshire)Department Debates - View all Steve Barclay's debates with the HM Treasury
(3 years, 3 months ago)
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Chris Bryant (Rhondda) (Lab)
The Chief Secretary to the Treasury (Steve Barclay)
Treasury Ministers regularly speak to their ministerial colleagues on all matters of public spending. Remediation of coal sites is a devolved policy and responsibility lies with the devolved Administration through their Barnett funding.
Chris Bryant [V]
Well, that was a depressing start, because the truth is that 40% of all the disused coal tips in the whole United Kingdom are in Wales, which is much higher than the Barnett formula would normally allow for. Ninety per cent. of all the disused coal tips in England and Wales are in the poorest communities, so if the Government really stick to this policy of “It’s down to the local authority, which has to find the funding for this”, they are going to see the poorest communities in Britain pay for the legacy of an industry that made this country rich. I urge the Minister, please, to think again about how we can make sure that communities are safe and that the money and the funding are there to make sure that the coal slides, which are likely to come more frequently, do not provide long-term financial and economic problems for those communities.
Steve Barclay
I am a little surprised by the hon. Gentleman’s response because the last time that he raised this issue at Treasury questions, the UK Government responded extremely constructively, with £31 million of financial support, including £22 million to address the flooding of coal sites and £9 million for coal tip repairs, which I thought he might at least have welcomed. Notwithstanding that, at the request of the Welsh Government, the Coal Authority is supporting work to undertake a safety review of all the small tips in Wales, regardless of ownership, but he should also recognise that it is a devolved matter.
Tracey Crouch (Chatham and Aylesford) (Con)
The Chief Secretary to the Treasury (Steve Barclay)
Sport and wellbeing is of major importance to this Government as we manage the effects of the pandemic. That is why we announced the £300 million sport winter survival package to protect major spectator sports, why we have supported clubs through covid business support schemes, such as the furlough scheme, and why we have introduced the £100 million national leisure recovery fund to support publicly owned leisure facilities through this crisis.
Tracey Crouch [V]
The Chief Secretary shares my passion and enthusiasm for sport, and I know that he appreciates the consequences of good physical and mental health on the wellbeing of individuals, but he may also be aware that poor physical health and wellbeing cost the Treasury tens of billions of pounds per annum. Given that covid-19 has had a negative impact on both, does he agree that our recovery strategy should put sport, physical activity and wellbeing at its heart, and will he consider the merits of a wellbeing budget that looks at shifting the focus away from GDP as the only measure of economic growth?
Steve Barclay
I agree with my hon. Friend that sport and wellbeing should be at the heart of our recovery plans and pay tribute to the work that she has done not just on football but on sport and loneliness in championing these issues. There are lessons from other countries that we can look at as well. One of the areas that I am very keen to work with her on are the opportunities around social prescribing, where the role of sport and wellbeing—in terms of how we treat people with regard to mental health and recovery from covid—has a lot to offer, and I know that she will continue to champion that.
Stuart C. McDonald (Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East) (SNP)
David Linden (Glasgow East) (SNP)
The Chief Secretary to the Treasury (Steve Barclay)
I have frequent discussions with the Scottish Government’s Finance Minister, and may I take this opportunity to add my congratulations on the announcement yesterday of her engagement?
Stuart C. McDonald [V]
I think every Member will join me in congratulating Scotland’s Finance Minister, Kate Forbes, on her happy news. A decade of UK austerity delivered unprecedented declines in living standards and incomes, especially to those already struggling. Now even the OECD says that making cuts instead of investment after the financial crisis was the wrong approach. With the Scottish Budget set for Thursday, will the Minister confirm that this time the UK Government will invest to stimulate economic recovery, or will more Tory cuts put Scotland’s recovery at risk?
Steve Barclay
It is a little odd, in a year when Scotland has received £44 billion through the Barnett formula, to be talking of cuts. The hon. Gentleman refers to the Scottish Budget, and he will be aware that there are opportunities with the powers that the Scottish Government have, whether that is to exercise their flexibilities on elements of universal credit, to top up benefits and create new ones, or to introduce new tax powers. The Scottish Parliament has powers, and we wait to see how the Scottish Government use them.
David Linden
In asking the public to stay at home, protect the NHS and save lives, there must be an understanding that in doing so consumers are running up higher electricity and gas bills. Does the Minister understand that 2.1 million people are behind in their energy bills at the moment, and that one way to help them would be to reduce VAT temporarily on home energy bills?
Steve Barclay
The hon. Gentleman makes a fair point; there are household costs. That is why my right hon. Friend the Chancellor, through the package of measures, has supported the incomes of the poorest. The distributional analysis from the Treasury shows that the poorest working households have benefited most from the measures introduced by my right hon. Friend. The best way of supporting those families is through schemes that the UK, through its broad shoulders, is able to offer, such as the furlough scheme and the self-employed income support scheme, which have supported so many jobs across Scotland.
Alison Thewliss (Glasgow Central) (SNP) [V]
The Chancellor’s chaotic stop-start approach to furlough last autumn undoubtedly cost jobs. Failing to continue the £20 universal credit uplift and extend it to legacy benefits is set to plunge struggling families into hardship, and now the Conservatives are signalling tax rises and a return to austerity. To what extent does the Minister believe that that approach has contributed to 20 consecutive polls in favour of Scottish independence?
Steve Barclay
There is a factual error in the hon. Lady’s question, in saying that there was a stop-start approach to furlough—
Steve Barclay
It continued throughout; that is just a statement of fact. In terms of the wider package, I would refer the hon. Lady to the fact that the UK Government have provided £280 billion-worth of support and that bodies such as the International Monetary Fund have said that the UK’s economic response has been one of the best examples of co-ordinated action globally. We are able to do that because we are working as one United Kingdom acting together and using the broad shoulders of the UK.
Lucy Powell (Manchester Central) (Lab/Co-op)
Mr David Jones (Clwyd West) (Con)
The Chief Secretary to the Treasury (Steve Barclay)
As healthcare is devolved, it is for the Welsh Government to ensure that the NHS in Wales has enough funding, using the over £20 billion of funding they receive from the UK Government through the Barnett formula.
Mr Jones [V]
The covid-19 vaccination programme in Wales is unfortunately lagging behind England, but despite that, the Welsh First Minister has announced that he intends to slow the release of vaccine to avoid, as he puts it, vaccinators
“standing around with nothing to do”.
Can my right hon. Friend confirm that there are no financial constraints that he is aware of that would justify this perverse and irrational policy decision or prevent the Welsh Government from deploying the vaccine as quickly in Wales as in any part of the country?
Steve Barclay
I am happy to confirm to my right hon. Friend that there are not financial constraints. The UK Government have guaranteed that the Welsh Government will receive at least £5.2 billion in additional resource to deliver their coronavirus response, including the vaccine deployment activities.
Graham Stringer (Blackley and Broughton) (Lab)
Craig Tracey (North Warwickshire) (Con)
The Chief Secretary to the Treasury (Steve Barclay)
The Government have committed more than £10 billion to support local authorities in dealing with covid in this financial year and the next, including an unprecedented guarantee to compensate them for their income losses as a result of the pandemic.
Craig Tracey [V]
I welcome the considerable support that has already been given to local councils during the pandemic. However, I recently had discussions with leaders of North Warwickshire Borough Council, which is an incredibly well-run council, and they are still finding a shortfall of about half a million pounds against an annual budget of £10 million, due to a mix of lost revenue and providing additional services to residents, such as extra home waste collection services. What more can be done to ensure that we give councils the full backing they need to continue providing services?
Steve Barclay
North Warwickshire has received more than £1 million to meet its expenditure pressures this year, exceeding the expenditure pressures that it has reported to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. I urge my hon. Friend to express any further concerns to MHCLG at the earliest opportunity. As he recognises, a comprehensive package of support has already been provided, and that support continues.
Tracy Brabin (Batley and Spen) (Lab/Co-op)
Lilian Greenwood (Nottingham South) (Lab) [V]
The Chief Secretary to the Treasury (Steve Barclay)
The hon. Lady is right to draw attention to the commitment the Government have made to infrastructure, including in the forthcoming integration infrastructure plan, but the levelling up is not just about rail, as the Chancellor said; it is also about the £4 billion levelling up fund and, most importantly, about the review of the Green Book. As Lord O’Neill and others have commented, that ensures that a whole range of projects better address the levelling up alongside the significant investment in rail and other transport infrastructure.
Sarah Atherton (Wrexham) (Con)
James Sunderland (Bracknell) (Con)
Given the current imperative to forge new trade deals worldwide, and also to make the new EU trade deal work, what incentives are being considered by the Treasury to both attract new companies to the UK and retain those that are already here?
Steve Barclay
As my right hon. Friend the Chancellor set out a moment ago, the Office for Investment, led by Lord Grimstone, is focused on exactly that issue, working in tandem with the Build Back Better Business Council, which the Prime Minister and the Chancellor chair.
Mr Speaker
Order. I now suspend the House for three minutes to enable the necessary arrangements to be made for the next business.