Oral Answers to Questions

Tim Farron Excerpts

Tuesday 9th September 2025 Commons Chamber

[Rachel Reeves]

Just this September, new construction colleges have started opening around the country to train up the next generation of builders, plumbers and engineers, so that we can build both the housing infrastructure and the other infrastructure our country desperately needs. We have reformed the apprenticeship system, so that we can have more foundation apprenticeships for a shorter period of time to quickly get people the skills they need. Not requiring people to have a grade C or equivalent in maths and English to access an apprenticeship programme is also so important for young children who maybe did not get the grades they wanted in their GCSEs, but deserve a chance of a good apprenticeship and a job offering a decent wage.

[Tim Farron (Westmorland and Lonsdale) (LD)]

There is planning permission in this country for 900,000 properties that are as yet unbuilt, so maybe the issue is not that the planning laws are too restrictive but that they are not prescriptive enough. In my constituency, the average income needed to buy the average house is £71,000 a year—11 times the average income in my communities. Is it not right to ensure that, if the Chancellor changes planning law, we have to build more genuinely affordable homes in communities like ours, rather than giving developers carte blanche?

[Rachel Reeves]

That cannot be an excuse, though, for blocking developments and blocking people who own land from building more homes on that land. In the end, the simple law of supply and demand means that if we are not building homes, prices will continue to be unaffordable for the hon. Gentleman’s constituents. We are not allowing builders to build carte blanche and he absolutely knows that. We put the biggest investment into the affordable homes programme that has ever been seen, because it is important that the homes being built are affordable for families in his constituency and in mine. We must not just always block things, whether they be airports, housing or other infrastructure; we have got to back the builders.

Property Taxes

Tim Farron Excerpts

Wednesday 3rd September 2025 Commons Chamber

[Sir Mel Stride]

If the right hon. Lady wants to make the rules, she should live by them. That message will go out to businesses and families up and down the country. There is no way that they can avoid the juggernaut of taxes that are coming down the track.

[Tim Farron (Westmorland and Lonsdale) (LD)]

In return for the right hon. Member’s generosity in giving way, I will say something pleasant about the last Conservative Government. [Interruption.] I know—wait for it! It will be just one thing.

The last Government allowed councils like Westmorland and Furness, run by the Liberal Democrats, to double council tax on second homes. It is right to do that because excessive second-home ownership annihilates communities in the lakes and the dales, the west country and elsewhere. But can I encourage the Conservatives and the party in government now to do something that would do much more to limit the number of second homes than that: bring in a new planning category of use, so that national parks and councils can manage the numbers and save communities?

[Sir Mel Stride]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for his kind words about the Conservative party—I am sure that they are deeply felt and very genuine. What the Deputy Prime Minister should be doing is delivering more homes. It is quite clear that the target of 1.5 million homes, which the Government claim they will deliver at the rate of 300,000 a year, will not be met. I am quite happy to be proven wrong, but I very much suspect that I will not be, unfortunately.

We have ended up in a situation in which a huge black hole is looming. The National Institute of Economic and Social Research puts it at possibly as much as £40 billion. The economic mismanagement of the Labour party is a recurrent theme. In the October Budget—the Government’s first—there was headroom of about £10 billion against the fiscal rules. That, plus £4 billion more, was blown by the time of the spring statement—the emergency Budget. Once again, it appears that considerably more has been blown all over again.

That is no surprise. The U-turns on winter fuel payments and on welfare reform, which we have already discussed in this debate, led to unfunded commitments of around £6 billion—unfunded commitments after the Chancellor had said that the Labour party would never find itself in that position. What she said has simply not happened. What signal does it send to the markets when the Government cannot control spending? In the long-term, it will be interesting to see what the Office for Budget Responsibility has to say about its forecasts for growth. In recent times, 30-year bond yields have hit a 27-year high. We are paying more to borrow than Greece. There is a potential debt crisis looming, and this country could be on the brink—all on Labour’s watch.

--- Later in debate ---

[Tim Farron (Westmorland and Lonsdale) (LD)]

Will the Minister give way?

[James Murray]

I am going to make some progress, because a few moments ago I said I would do so. I have been gently reminded by Madam Deputy Speaker that I really must live up to my promise on that front.

The right hon. Member for Central Devon asked me questions in his opening remarks—indeed, his colleagues have their sheets from the Whips, and they have been dutifully following up in their comments—but they are on matters that we cannot talk about today. There are of course other important facts that the right hon. Gentleman does not want to talk about, but the British people have not forgotten them. There is the £22 billion black hole in our public finances, which the previous Government hid from the light. There is the disastrous mini-Budget, which caused damage to households across the country and to our reputation around the world. We had stalled housing, unfinished infrastructure and public services brought to their knees by under-investment and disinterest. The Conservatives do not want to talk about those things because that is the legacy of the last Government. We found out just today that the right hon. Gentleman does not even want to talk about things happening in Conservative councils, as my hon. Friend the Member for Basingstoke (Luke Murphy) raised so importantly in his contribution earlier.

Now that the Conservatives are in opposition, the right hon. Gentleman’s party and Reform Members are talking Britain down. They want to claim that Britain is broken, but I believe that Britain is unbreakable. Our country is full of potential. It is home to hard-working people, brilliant businesses, world-leading universities and research institutions, cultural giants and the promise that if people work hard and contribute to the country, it will be a place where they can succeed. Yet undeniably, after 14 years of Tory mismanagement, far too many working people feel that the economy is stuck.

--- Later in debate ---

[James Murray]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right; economic growth is of course critical to our plans. She points to the trade deals that we secured. She and other hon. Members will know that the UK was the fastest-growing G7 economy in the first half of this year. There is much more for us to do, but we are showing that because of the right decisions that we have taken we are starting to move in the right direction.

[Tim Farron]

Will the Minister give way?

[James Murray]

I probably should. I will give way one more time.

[Tim Farron]

I do not want the Minister to speculate, but I want him to consider something. We talked about people not paying taxes. A significant minority of owners of second homes in my constituency let their property out for just a few days a year; as a result, they can claim to be a small business and pay no council tax or business rates. People on the minimum wage in my constituency are subsidising those people who pay no council tax at all. Will he change that situation to protect our communities?

[James Murray]

I congratulate the hon. Gentleman on an inventive way of encouraging me to speculate on tax measures. I am aware of the issue that he points to, and I thank him for raising it in this context, but I am not able to make any decisions on taxation at the Dispatch Box today.

Let me go back briefly to the broader context. It is absolutely crystal clear from the opening remarks of the right hon. Member for Central Devon, and from what all his colleagues have said so far, that Conservative Members are still in total denial about any responsibility they have for the situation that the country finds itself in. They act as if being behind the wheel for 14 years is irrelevant to where we find ourselves now. It may be that they think that if they do not talk about it, the British people may forget the last Government’s responsibility for getting us into the current situation, but the British people know that the Conservatives did this to our country. That is why the British people put their faith in us at the last election.

While there is clearly more to do to bring down inflation and the cost of borrowing, it is clear that we have turned a corner by taking the right decisions for our country. We have taken the decisions to address the black hole in the public finances, fix our foundations and clear up the mess that we inherited from the previous Government. As a consequence, as I mentioned a moment ago, in the first half of this year we were the fastest-growing economy in the G7; we outpaced France, Germany, Japan and the United States.

Since taking office, this Government have welcomed around £100 billion in investment into the UK, with 384,000 jobs being created over the same period. We have cut red tape and changed planning regulations to deliver 1.5 million new homes over the course of this Parliament. We already have nearly 100,000 new homes on large developments that were previously stuck in the planning system or simply not progressing as fast as they should be; they are now being given the support that they need to make that progress quickly. In just over a year, the Bank of England has cut interest rates five times, which means that someone on a tracker mortgage of just over £200,000 will be better off by around £100 a month. Crucially, real wages have risen more in the time since the last election than they did in the first 10 years of the previous Government.

The choice at the next Budget is clear. Over 14 years, the last Government made wrong choices time and again. They, their many Prime Ministers and many Chancellors all embraced the cycle of austerity, debt and decline, and we will never repeat that. We will continue to invest in Britain’s renewal, using every power at our disposal to drive forward an economy that works for working people. As I said, the Government do not respond to speculation, especially ahead of a Budget, and in any case we are not writing a Budget this far out.

The Budget that the Chancellor delivers in November will be carefully considered and designed to get the balance right between making working people better off and raising enough money to fund our public services and getting the country moving once again through investment and growth. Of course, it will also undergo proper scrutiny by the OBR. I was going briefly to address the taxes mentioned in the motion, but I suspect that I should skip over that part of my speech. [Interruption.] I am getting a gentle indication from you, Madam Deputy Speaker, that I have come to the right conclusion.

If we are to get this country moving again, investment from both businesses and Government is essential. We must therefore strike the right balance in our tax system, so that we can put more money in the pockets of working people while supporting the private sector to invest and grow and funding our public services. Members on both sides of the House will have their own views on what the right balance is, and I look forward to hearing those views today. I thank all hon. and right hon. Members in advance for their contributions.

--- Later in debate ---

[Daisy Cooper]

I could not agree more with my hon. Friend. I would love to see that registration programme, although we Liberal Democrats have repeatedly said that it is only the first step. Registration is something that the Airbnb-type platforms actually want, because it enables them to pinch properties from other platforms. It does not solve the problem we have of lots of additional homes being used as Airbnbs, not by young people—or, in fact, by anybody who wants to be able to rent a property in their area. It is important that local authorities have the power to strike the right balance between tourism and enabling the people they need in their local area to afford to live there.

[Tim Farron]

My hon. Friend makes an extremely good point. In my constituency, we have seen a collapse in the long-term private rented sector, which has pushed hundreds of people out of our communities—they are not able to contribute, to be part of the workforce, or to send their children to our schools. Surely, an answer would be the ability to create short-term lets as a separate category of planning use, just as we are calling for with second homes. That would allow councils and national parks to make sure there are enough homes for local people to live in.

[Daisy Cooper]

Again, I absolutely agree with my hon. Friend. I recall—as I am sure he does—that in the previous Parliament, we Liberal Democrats tabled a number of amendments to legislation introduced by the Conservatives, to try to make that happen. Unfortunately, those amendments were not accepted by the now official Opposition.

In principle, a land value tax could help address land banking. All of us in this House say that we want to build on brownfield first, but of course, part of the problem is that big developers can land bank. We Liberal Democrats have repeatedly tried to table amendments to ensure that local authorities could buy that land at land value, rather than hope value. In principle, there are some merits to at least considering a land value tax, but the devil will be in the detail. If the Government bring forward any such proposals, we will scrutinise them closely.

There are a couple of major omissions from the official Opposition’s motion, one of which—as I have already outlined—is business rates. Business rates are a property tax facing small businesses, and the business rates system is broken. We have heard repeated promises, both from the previous Government and this one, that business rates will be fixed, so it is incredibly disappointing that as yet, we have not seen an ambition to replace the business rates system. Instead, we have seen tinkering around the edges, and the Government’s proposals will potentially make business rates a little bit worse, particularly as they will target hospitality. There is another major omission: the motion should refer to giving local authorities real power to regulate the location and number of short-term lets, particularly in the south-west and Cumbria, but also in many other areas.

Oral Answers to Questions

Tim Farron Excerpts

Tuesday 1st July 2025 Commons Chamber

[Rachel Reeves]

My hon. Friend will know that nobody currently receiving personal independence payments will see any reduction in the support they get. In terms of supporting women into work, recognising some of the intersectionalities she mentioned, the Government have increased the national living wage by 6.7%—sadly, it is still too often women who are paid the lowest wages—and our Employment Rights Bill will offer more security and dignity in work. We are also rolling out more childcare, including new nurseries at primary schools, and my right hon. Friend the Business and Trade Secretary will today make a statement announcing the launch of a review of parental leave, which could benefit all working parents, but particularly mums.

[Tim Farron (Westmorland and Lonsdale) (LD)]

Does the Chancellor accept that cancer is a major driver of poverty? That is not only because people who are ill cannot work during their treatment, but because sometimes people who are happily cured find that they have collateral damage that means they cannot work at a full level throughout the rest of their life. Does she recognise that radiotherapy plays a huge part in making sure that people are cured and then able to be productive in society? Given that the international average for people with cancer having radiotherapy is 53%, while in the UK it is only 36%, will she look at the economic advantages of investing in radiotherapy?

[Rachel Reeves]

In the spending review, we invested an additional £29 billion every year for day-to-day spending in the national health service, as well as a record uplift in capital spending in the NHS so that there is more money for the equipment to do that vital work, including in cancer treatments, which the hon. Gentleman mentioned. In our first year in office we have delivered 4 million additional appointments in the NHS and reduced waiting lists by 250,000. That is only possible because of the decisions we took in the Budget last year—those included increasing taxes on non-doms, as well as the increase in national insurance contributions—which have gone into funding our national health service.

UK Infrastructure: 10-year Strategy

Tim Farron Excerpts

Thursday 19th June 2025 Commons Chamber

[Darren Jones]

I agree with my hon. Friend on our extremely ambitious plans for council houses—or social and affordable houses, as we call them now. He will know that I, too, grew up in a council flat. I now represent the constituency of Bristol North West, and over 20,000 people in the city of Bristol are waiting for secure housing. I am very confident that our £39 billion commitment on building affordable and social housing will make a huge difference to the lives of people across the whole country.

My hon. Friend asks about unlocking private capital. The good news is that plenty of investors want to invest private capital in the UK, but they have told us through the British infrastructure taskforce and other vehicles that they did not invest for many years because they thought that we had lost the plot in this country, whereas we now have a clear strategy. We have stability both politically and economically, and we will now work with those investors to provide opportunities across the country to bring money to communities that have missed out for too long.

[Tim Farron (Westmorland and Lonsdale) (LD)]

I welcome the Chief Secretary’s comments on maintenance. He may be aware that a huge maintenance project is about to begin on the most beautiful stretch of motorway in the country, the M6 at Lune Gorge. Eight bridges under and over that motorway will need replacing in the coming years. Will he have a look at the resource that is being made available to mitigate the impact on the local community? The plan is to close the northbound exit and the southbound exit consecutively for three years, and to close the A685 bridge connecting Kendal to Tebay. Will he make sure that there is resource to ensure that there are temporary slip roads, so that local communities are not cut off?

[Darren Jones]

I am sure that the hon. Gentleman makes a very good case, which Ministers in the Department for Transport will need to answer, but I am pleased to know that the Liberal Democrats think maintenance is sexy after all.

Spending Review 2025

Tim Farron Excerpts

Wednesday 11th June 2025 Commons Chamber

[Rachel Reeves]

I hope that my hon. Friend can already see the impact of our changed attitude and our changed perspective at the Treasury with our putting this record investment of £15.6 billion, which we announced last week, into eight mayoral combined authorities to better connect towns and cities. Because of the changes we have made, we have been able to put more money into the trans-Pennine route upgrade and the midlands hub, as well as significant investment in trains in Wales.

[Tim Farron (Westmorland and Lonsdale) (LD)]

My communities in Westmorland will be outraged by a 17% reduction in farm funding. We are perplexed, because we were told to expect a decision today on the vital scheme to dual the A66 from Penrith to Scotch Corner. That is crucial to east-west connectivity, to the northern economy and to saving lives. There was no mention in the statement or in the accompanying documents at all. Will the Chancellor confirm that the A66 upgrade will take place?

[Rachel Reeves]

The allocation has now been made to the Department for Transport. We have not set out every project that that will fund, but I am sure the Transport Secretary will come to this House or the relevant Select Committee in due course.

Regional Growth

Tim Farron Excerpts

Wednesday 4th June 2025 Commons Chamber

[Darren Jones]

I congratulate my hon. Friend on securing this investment in his constituency. The key difference of course being that when he started campaigning for it, we were under a Conservative Government, and now, under a Labour Government, we are delivering. On his question about working with combined authority mayors, he is right to point out that the most effective combined authority mayors in England are those who work in partnership with their local Members of Parliament to ensure that every part of their authority area is heard and involved in decision making, and I encourage the Mayor of Teesside to do just that.

[Tim Farron (Westmorland and Lonsdale) (LD)]

People in Cumbria, North Yorkshire and Durham are deeply concerned to see no mention at all in the Chancellor’s announcement of the A66 dualling project, which is vital to boosting the economy of the north and, more importantly, to saving lives. There is not a penny for the northern two thirds of the north-west of England, so will the Chief Secretary to the Treasury allay Cumbria’s fears and commit now to the A66 upgrade?

[Darren Jones]

I think the hon. Member is slightly confused. The statement today is about devolved transport funding to mayors for intra-city transport. He is asking me questions on the broader spending in the Department for Transport, which will be announced in the spending review next Wednesday.

Oral Answers to Questions

Tim Farron Excerpts

Tuesday 20th May 2025 Commons Chamber

[Rachel Reeves]

My hon. Friend is a proud champion of the towns and villages of Rossendale and Darwen. We will make sure that we use our Green Book review to properly assess the benefit of all this Government’s investments. On top of that capital investment, the people of Rossendale and Darwen are benefiting from the 3 million additional appointments that we have delivered, which have led to reductions in NHS waiting lists, and also the increase in the national living wage, which will make working people in his constituency and across the country better off.

[Tim Farron (Westmorland and Lonsdale) (LD)]

The towns and villages of the lakes and the dales in Cumbria are proud to host 20 million visitors every single year—we are the UK’s biggest visitor destination outside of London—yet we get almost no support whatsoever for the costs incurred by those visitors on our highways and other infrastructure, health services and police. Will the Chancellor look at funding allocations to make sure that those services that support the residents and the visitors are properly funded?

[Rachel Reeves]

The Green Book reforms will ensure that we properly assess the benefits of investments in different parts of the UK, but the people of Cumbria and the lakes will benefit from the record investment in the NHS, the roll-out of nurseries and free breakfast clubs at primary schools, as well as the increase in the national living wage, from which many workers in sectors such as hospitality and retail in the hon. Member’s constituency will directly benefit.

Oral Answers to Questions

Tim Farron Excerpts

Tuesday 8th April 2025 Commons Chamber

[Rachel Reeves]

It is incredibly important to retain cool heads at this moment. The tariffs have been imposed, and we are working closely with our friends and counterparts in the United States to reduce the impact from those, not just in the UK but around the world as well. As I said in my opening remarks, at the same time we are looking to secure better trading relationships with some of our biggest trading partners around the world. Of course, as we did yesterday, we are looking at some of the sectoral responses, including on life sciences, automotives and steel, but the fiscal rules are very important for giving our country the stability it needs. We saw what happened when the previous Government lost control of the public finances: it resulted in interest rates going through the roof, meaning higher costs for businesses and for working families. We will not make those mistakes. That is why the fiscal rules are non-negotiable and stability for this Government is sacrosanct.

[Tim Farron (Westmorland and Lonsdale) (LD)]

Is now not the right time to start trying to make our own luck? In that light, would it not also be the right time for the Chancellor to give the green light to the upgrade of the A66 between Penrith and Scotch Corner? Some 25% of traffic on that A road is freight, which is twice the average for A roads across the country, and it is outrageous that so much of the road is single carriageway. Would it not be great for the economy, as well as save lives, if the Chancellor gave the upgrade the green light today?

[Rachel Reeves]

Impressive. We will be considering all such schemes as part of the spending review, but I agree with the hon. Gentleman that we need to go further and faster to grow our economy. That is why we are spending £113 billion more on capital investment in this Parliament, compared to the plans that we inherited, which means that we can upgrade more roads, rail lines and energy infrastructure, and build the 1.5 million homes our country needs too.

Oral Answers to Questions

Tim Farron Excerpts

Tuesday 4th March 2025 Commons Chamber

[James Murray]

As my hon. Friend rightly points out, £100 million is being made available for hospices—£25 million in 2024-25 and £75 million from April 2025. That capital funding is intended to help charitable hospices in his constituency and elsewhere across the country to improve and modernise their facilities and physical estate.

[Tim Farron (Westmorland and Lonsdale) (LD)]

Britain is only 55% food secure. In these deeply uncertain times internationally, is it not time to change policy when it comes to agriculture? Is this not the day to get rid of the family farm tax, undo the 76% cut in basic payments and invest in the people who keep us food secure?

[James Murray]

As I have made clear to other hon. Members, the changes to agricultural property relief are a fair way to raise the money necessary to balance the public finances. Britain has excellent food security, and that is a priority for the Government.

Oral Answers to Questions

Tim Farron Excerpts

Tuesday 21st January 2025 Commons Chamber

[The Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury (Torsten Bell)]

My hon. Friend is a powerful advocate for his constituents, and particularly for those who have suffered in recent weeks, including others across Greater Manchester. As I set out earlier, the Government have put in £2.4 billion to ensure flood resilience over the next two years; as he will be aware, future decisions on flood defence funding will be taken in the spending review in the normal way. I know that he will continue to be a powerful advocate for his constituents.

[Tim Farron (Westmorland and Lonsdale) (LD)]

Schools in Westmorland have been told that they will have to meet the costs of teacher pay rises next year, at least in part, from existing funds and by making efficiencies. Does the Chancellor not understand that all that is available to schools in my constituency is sacking teachers and merging classes? Will she instead commit to fully funding the teachers’ pay rise and other cost increases, so that our schools can do the job that they are meant to do?

[Darren Jones]

The hon. Gentleman knows that in order for us to restore public finances and put them on a firm foundation, departmental settlements have to reflect the cost of the civil servants they employ; that is how the Departments are working. As the Chancellor has previously confirmed, the Department for Education has received money to cover the cost of running the education system, and the details will be provided to schools in the normal way in due course.