Oral Answers to Questions

Steve Yemm Excerpts

Tuesday 21st January 2025 Commons Chamber

[Rachel Reeves]

We inherited a £22 billion black hole in the public finances, and we set out the detail of that at the time of the Budget. It was essential to close that gap to bring stability back to the public finances. That required difficult decisions, but they were the right decisions to ensure that our country has the stability that it lacked for so many years and under so many different Prime Ministers and Chancellors under the Conservative party.

[Steve Yemm (Mansfield) (Lab)]

T3.   My constituency of Mansfield has more members of the British Coal staff superannuation scheme than any other constituency in the country. Will the Chief Secretary outline the process and questions that need to be satisfied to release the investment reserve fund to the surviving beneficiaries of the scheme?

[The Chief Secretary to the Treasury (Darren Jones)]

I thank my hon. Friend for raising this issue, which clearly is important to him and his constituents. I confirmed to the House today that the Minister for Trade in the Department for Business and Trade is working with the trustees of the BCSSS to consider options. I will meet the Minister to look at those options and provide further updates to the House in due course.

Oral Answers to Questions

Steve Yemm Excerpts

Tuesday 3rd December 2024 Commons Chamber

[The Economic Secretary to the Treasury (Tulip Siddiq)]

The FCA is held to account by the Government and Parliament, but Treasury Ministers cannot comment on individual cases, and the Treasury has no stake in the operational issues of the FCA. I am very happy to meet with the right hon. Lady and the FCA to discuss that matter, but let me be clear: the FCA is an independent regulator.

[Steve Yemm (Mansfield) (Lab)]

T9.   What measures are the Government taking to support small independent retail businesses in town centres such as mine in Mansfield, and will the Chancellor join me in congratulating Mansfield business improvement district on its successful renewal ballot, which was announced last Friday?

[Rachel Reeves]

I happily join my hon. Friend in welcoming Mansfield’s success. We have launched a revamped fair payment code, under which signatories commit to paying their suppliers on time, and the disability finance code for entrepreneurship. That comes on top of reforms announced at the Budget to protect small businesses, such as doubling the employment allowance to £10,500, and our commitment to maintaining the small profits rate and marginal relief at their current rates and thresholds, as well as to freezing the small business multiplier for 2025-26—

Non-Domestic Rating (Multipliers and Private Schools) Bill

Steve Yemm Excerpts

2nd reading
Monday 25th November 2024 Commons Chamber

[Steve Yemm (Mansfield) (Lab)]

Last week I visited Jacqueline, a franchise owner who, through sheer hard work and working her way up through the ranks, now runs a number of restaurant outlets in and around Mansfield. I witnessed at first hand her dedication to her business through the manner in which she motivates her staff as a business leader. For leisure and hospitality businesses such as Jacqueline’s, trading is tough, and has been made harder by the circumstances they were trading in—namely, the uncertainties surrounding business rates under the previous Government.

Locally, I stood on a platform to focus on five specific issues across Mansfield and Warsop, one of which was to help improve our town centre. Many in my local town centre are represented by the Mansfield business improvement district, and when I meet up with them, as I often do—sometimes together with representatives of the Shopkeepers’ Campaign—business rates come up time and again. It is clear that we need a fairer system that does not put an unreasonable burden on the small businesses that power our high streets, and that is why I welcome the reforms to business rates that are being made through the Bill.

The Bill will bring certainty and fairness to the retail, hospitality and leisure businesses that have been disproportionately disadvantaged by the current system. I am further pleased to see that the Bill creates the powers needed to ensure that we can make good on our promise to introduce permanently lower rates for those retail, hospitality and leisure properties that make up the backbone of our high streets, including in my constituency of Mansfield, and to pay for this with a higher multiplier for the most valuable properties.

As well as speaking with local businesses every week, I also visit schools across my constituency. Last week I visited a primary school that has not turned on the heating in the main part of its building for over 18 months and is reliant on the benevolence of local businesses to provide an essential breakfast club. It simply should not have to be that way, with schools relying on local businesses, and I am sure that it will not be that way under this Labour Government.

In my Mansfield constituency, more than one in four pupils are eligible for and claiming free school meals, and the schools they are taught in are crying out for additional resources to help those young people. We cannot afford to offer tax breaks to private schools operating as businesses when our children’s state education system, which is relied on by over 95% of the children in my constituency, is crumbling. That is why I will be voting to support this Bill, which will end those tax breaks on private schools and help to raise the revenue needed to fund this Government’s education priorities.

Financial Services: Mansion House Speech

Steve Yemm Excerpts

Monday 18th November 2024 Commons Chamber

[Tulip Siddiq]

I reassure the hon. Gentleman that boosting return for savers is at the very heart of this agenda, which is why we are pursuing this pensions review. We want these reforms to increase security and boost people’s pension pots, and we want to unlock about £80 billion of productive investment. The Government’s reforms are already in the pension schemes Bill, and they could boost a typical defined contribution saver’s lifetime pension pot by £11,000. I do not want the hon. Gentleman to worry, because we have our eye on how to protect pensioners and savers.

[Steve Yemm (Mansfield) (Lab)]

In my constituency of Mansfield, our member-owned mutual organisation, Mansfield building society, provides essential banking services. It is a significant local employer and invests in projects to support my community. What is the Minister doing to unlock the full potential of the sector and organisations such as Mansfield building society?

[Tulip Siddiq]

I have already mentioned our first step with the two SIs laid on 14 October, which try to modernise the Building Societies Act, and I am happy to send my hon. Friend further information on that.

The main thing we will do is carefully consider the findings of the Law Commission reviews to understand whether reform of the legislation is needed to ensure that businesses are better supported and grow more in the future. The response to the calls for evidence will be carefully considered by myself and others, and any potential reform will require formal consultation. I want to make sure that my hon. Friend knows that at the top of our agenda is trying to unlock the full potential of this important sector after 14 years of that not having happened.