Oral Answers to Questions

Tony Lloyd Excerpts

Tuesday 1st November 2011 Commons Chamber

[Miss Smith]

I shall, by reference to correspondence, that my hon. Friend will be well able to delve into, between the Chancellor and the Governor of the Bank of England, but I note at this point that the Government believe that low and stable medium-term inflation is a prerequisite for economic growth, and that is what drives our policy.

[Tony Lloyd (Manchester Central) (Lab)]

T1. If he will make a statement on his departmental responsibilities.

[The Chancellor of the Exchequer (Mr George Osborne)]

The core purpose of the Treasury is to ensure the stability of the economy, promote growth and employment, reform banking and manage the public finances so that Britain lives within her means.

[Tony Lloyd]

Will one of the Treasury Ministers confirm that public sector workers who work part-time earning less than £15,000 will still pay the 3% income tax? Is this fair, and should not the Government negotiate in good faith, and not simply try to ram this through?

[Mr Osborne]

The Chief Secretary will shortly set out the full details of our pension offer to the public sector. When people see it, they will see that it is fair to the public sector—people in the public sector will get a much more generous pension than is available in almost any part of the private sector—but it is also fair to the taxpayers. It is, of course, based on the work of John Hutton, a former Labour Pensions Secretary.

Eurozone Crisis

Tony Lloyd Excerpts

Thursday 27th October 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Osborne]

My hon. Friend’s first point is a good one. The write-down of Greek debt ultimately has an impact on people who invest in Greek debt, either directly or—as is more likely for the general population of this country—through their pension funds and the like. Thankfully, British institutions were not that heavily exposed to the Greek banking system and economy, compared with other European countries such as France and Germany, but he is right that people will have taken losses. In Britain, the institutions that he mentioned all provisioned for Greek loss many months ago, so it will come as no shock to them. More broadly, he asked about confidence in the stock of debt, which is of course one of the challenges. The first loss guarantee that the agreement talks about is only for newly issued debt. We will have to see how the special purpose vehicle works as well, but in general, if there is confidence that there is a sufficient set of mechanisms in place to stand behind the euro and countries that are in trouble, that will also increase confidence in the stock of debt.

[Tony Lloyd (Manchester Central) (Lab)]

The Chancellor might be surprised to know that if limited treaty changes are necessary to set up the inner 17, there would be support from the Opposition Benches for the limited changes needed to protect Britain’s interests and for the capacity to build a coalition among the 10 non-eurozone members. However, a very real political question is whether the Chancellor and the Prime Minister will be able to withstand the pressure from their Back Benches for much more fundamental reform of the treaty.

[Mr Osborne]

I would hope that we would persuade all parties in this House. There is certainly strong agreement on the Conservative Benches that we want to rebalance the responsibilities and repatriate some powers. The Liberal Democrats and the Liberal Democrat leader have talked about rebalancing responsibilities—he did so earlier this week. [Interruption.] The shadow Treasury Minister, the hon. Member for Nottingham East (Chris Leslie), seems to forget the position set out by his party leader this weekend. When he was asked whether he thought that Brussels had too much power, he said no. That is the official position of the Labour party going into these negotiations. I know that Opposition Members look pretty glum about it, but that is what the leader they chose—or rather, they did not choose—has done for them.

Oral Answers to Questions

Tony Lloyd Excerpts

Tuesday 6th September 2011 Commons Chamber

[Danny Alexander]

I am sure that that was part of his reasoning and I very much welcome his endorsement, alongside that of all the other business organisations in the UK that continue to back the deficit reduction plan we have set out. It is worth observing that the proposals put forward by the outgoing director of the British Chambers of Commerce and other proposals are also being taken forward by this Government. There is very strong alignment between small businesses and this Government.

[Tony Lloyd (Manchester Central) (Lab)]

At what point, though, will Treasury Ministers realise that this austerity programme is damaging growth and that what the Government should be doing is beating a track round the world to make sure that there is an international commitment to putting growth back into the economy? That is the way we will get rid of the deficit in our economy.

[Danny Alexander]

This deficit reduction plan is essential to restoring credibility to British public finances, which is critical to keeping interest rates low, as low interest rates help to keep people in their jobs and in their homes. That is the argument for the plan.

Summer Adjournment

Tony Lloyd Excerpts

Tuesday 19th July 2011 Commons Chamber

[Tony Lloyd (Manchester Central) (Lab)]

The hon. Member for South West Devon (Mr Streeter) makes the House a better place with his story about Ben. I am delighted to follow him on that basis.

I, too, want to talk about care homes, particularly in relation to Southern Cross. The House will know that not so long ago Southern Cross announced its intention to go into liquidation—to cease trading. That means that the 750 Southern Cross homes in this country now face a varied and uncertain future. Some 250 of those homes will pass automatically to landlords who intend to continue to offer care, but that means that the majority of homes, and therefore the majority of residents, are still in a kind of limbo as to what their future is. In my own city of Manchester, where the local authority has already made contact with one of the care home owners who intends to carry on the process of caring for the residents, things are proceeding in a sensible way. However, my local authority has found it difficult to have any dialogue with some of the offshore companies, which are merely rentiers, that own the property in the Southern Cross homes system but seemingly have no interest in pursuing the care packages involved.

Everyone on both sides of the House would agree that the care of the 31,000 elderly people affected should be the paramount consideration. It should not be a question of the profits of these companies. The care element must come first and foremost. A secondary issue, which was mentioned by the hon. Member for South West Devon, is the important employment base involved. These homes do not exist to create employment, but they do have employees who are entitled not only to reasonable working conditions but to some certainty about continuity of employment. However, the primary need must be to give reassurance to the 31,000 care home residents that their future is secure.

In previous exchanges in the House, the Minister has rightly said that the regime that allowed Southern Cross to operate as it did was not the right one, and that people need to look back and accept responsibility for that. I absolutely agree with him.

I would ask the Minister to do two things. First, up and down this land there are people who are genuinely concerned. They want to know that the offshore landlords will not simply take the roofs from over their heads, and that there will be continuity of care. We need an absolute statement that that will be the case. I know that things have progressed with NHP, one of the property owners, and that it made a statement yesterday. We need a much more positive approach that tells people home by home, or residence by residence, that their future is secure, who their landlord will be, and how their care will work.

Looking to the future—the Minister has hinted that he is sympathetic to this—we need a system that locks in a process whereby in all circumstances the needs of the residents, not the needs of the private operator, are the paramount driving force. We must not have the kind of unseemly operation that applied with Southern Cross, where profit was filtered from the homes and some people made an awful lot of money. Those people are long gone, and the people facing uncertainty are the elderly people and their carers. I hope that they are not facing too much uncertainty, and that the Minister can put the uncertainty to rest today. We have to move on, and I hope that the Minister will be able to give some clarification.

Oral Answers to Questions

Tony Lloyd Excerpts

Tuesday 22nd March 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hoban]

My hon. and learned Friend is absolutely right, and a number of organisations, both at home and abroad, have criticised the lack of ambition of the previous Chancellor’s plans. That is why the Obama Administration, the International Monetary Fund, the OECD, the Institute for Fiscal Studies, the CBI, the Governor of the Bank of England, 35 leaders of British businesses, the European Commission, the World Bank, three major credit rating agencies and the world’s biggest bond trader have been backing our plans—the only person the shadow Chancellor can find to back his is The Guardian.

[Tony Lloyd (Manchester Central) (Lab)]

Public expenditure is to be matched by revenue in 2015, but has the Treasury made any estimate of the amount of growth and employment that will have been forgone by these policies of making too-deep cuts too quickly?

[Mr Hoban]

The hon. Gentleman should pay attention to the forecast produced last year by the OBR indicating that the economy would continue to grow in each year of this Parliament.

Bank Bonuses

Tony Lloyd Excerpts

Tuesday 11th January 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Osborne]

The financial transaction tax is something that the international community is looking at and it is on the agenda for the G20 discussions. Almost everyone who looks at the idea accepts that it would have to be done internationally or else business would probably disappear overnight. It is on the international agenda and we are engaging in that discussion.

[Tony Lloyd (Manchester Central) (Lab)]

The Chancellor should realise that the public will be angry at a Government who do not take action against the bankers who caused the financial crisis and have got back to bonuses as usual. Can he, for the record and in a moment of transparency, tell the House whether there is any disagreement in the Cabinet about the Government’s policy?

[Mr Osborne]

The Cabinet is completely agreed. [Interruption.] I know that the Labour party finds the idea of a united Cabinet difficult, but there is a united Cabinet that wants to see the banks lending more than they did under the previous Government and paying less in bonuses than they did under the previous Government, with more transparency, more shareholder involvement and more contributions to the community. That is what we seek to negotiate and I am doing that with the Business Secretary on behalf of the Cabinet.

Oral Answers to Questions

Tony Lloyd Excerpts

Tuesday 16th November 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mr Osborne]

Yes, absolutely. The Treasury is working with the Department for Work and Pensions on potential pension reform that could simplify pensions and provide a boost to pensioners for many years to come.

[Tony Lloyd (Manchester Central) (Lab)]

Pensioners, including many of those on low incomes, spend a disproportionate amount of their income on fuel. The Chancellor made the point about the winter fuel allowance, which was very welcome, but will he make it clear to the gas and electricity suppliers that, when they raise fuel costs above anything justified by wholesale prices, as they always do, the Government will take action, hopefully by threatening them with fiscal measures, including taxing them?

[Mr Osborne]

I agree with part of what the hon. Gentleman said. It is important that the utility companies—the gas companies—are as quick to pass on to their customers the cuts in the wholesale price of gas as they seem to be in passing on increases. We are looking at the whole electricity market—because, of course, many pensioners receive their heating through electricity—and considering what we can do to better insulate people from price fluctuations that can cause havoc to family budgets.

Oral Answers to Questions

Tony Lloyd Excerpts

Tuesday 13th July 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mr Gauke]

My hon. Friend is right. We cannot rely on the public sector for growth, simply because we have run out of money.

[Tony Lloyd (Manchester Central) (Lab)]

How many businesses—perhaps the Minister could name them given that there are so few—will do better because of the national insurance cut and will not suffer because of the VAT increase and the cutback in demand, which will be disastrous for businesses in the north-west?

[Mr Gauke]

The fact is that businesses would much rather we focus on dealing with the jobs tax, which our predecessors brought in. We recognise that we have to reduce the deficit and that tax has to play a role in that, but what we can do to create jobs in the private sector is reduce the burden from national insurance contributions. This particular policy, directed at areas where the public sector is largest and where we need a stronger private sector, has to be the way forward.

Oral Answers to Questions

Tony Lloyd Excerpts

Tuesday 8th June 2010 Commons Chamber

The Chancellor of the Exchequer was asked—

[Tony Lloyd (Manchester Central) (Lab)]

1. What assessment he has made of the effect on economic growth of the programme of expenditure reductions announced on 24 May 2010.

[The Chancellor of the Exchequer (Mr George Osborne)]

The Treasury’s assessment is that the effect will be positive. The in-year reductions in spending are part of the Government’s efforts to bring down the budget deficit, the level of which threatens the recovery. This weekend the G20 stated:

“Those countries with serious fiscal challenges need to accelerate the pace of consolidation. We welcome the recent announcements by some countries”—

including Britain—

“to reduce their deficits in 2010”.

[Tony Lloyd]

I welcome the Chancellor to his place, but will he have the candour to admit that his strategy is very risky, because it risks putting this country back into a double-dip recession? In any case there will be losers, so will he say who they will be?

[Mr Osborne]

Let us be clear about who the losers would be if we did not deal with this record budget deficit. The whole country would lose out, because there would be higher interest rates, more businesses would go bust and international investor confidence would be lost. The hon. Gentleman needs to examine what is happening in the rest of the world, and realise that because Britain has the largest budget deficit of any advanced economy, we have to get on and deal with it.

Government Spending Cuts

Tony Lloyd Excerpts

Wednesday 26th May 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mr Laws]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for his comments. We quite understand the distress and concern that has been caused in the ports and elsewhere by that situation. The Chancellor of the Exchequer announced earlier this week that we would freeze the existing obligations for the rest of the financial year, and we are currently looking very carefully indeed at what action we can take to resolve the matter which, as my hon. Friend will be aware, affects not only the ports, but many other businesses across the country. That is why we are determined to move swiftly, but also to take time to get things right, and to consult in a proper way.

[Tony Lloyd (Manchester Central) (Lab)]

Will the Chief Secretary give a very straightforward answer to this question? What estimate did his officials give him of the number of people who would lose their jobs either directly or indirectly because of the cuts, and of what that will cost?

[Mr Laws]

It is impossible to pick a figure out of the air, but I can tell the hon. Gentleman—he will be delighted to hear this—that Treasury officials and the Governor of the Bank of England pointed out the beneficial effects of this package in keeping interest rates down and stopping the tax on jobs that would otherwise eliminate them. It is therefore likely that over time the net effect of taking such action will be to support employment and the economy rather than to eliminate jobs.