Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the value is of financial guarantees provided by the National Wealth Fund to support social housing retrofit loans provided by (a) NatWest Group, (b) Barclays UK Corporate Bank, (c) Lloyds Banking Group and (d) The Housing Finance Corporation since October 2024.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The National Wealth Fund (NWF) has committed £1.3bn total guarantees for social housing retrofit to help mobilise private capital into the social housing sector at scale. As of July 2025, the NWF has committed to providing guarantees of up to:
a. £400m for NatWest Group
2. £350m for Barclays UK Corporate Bank
3. £400m for Lloyds Banking Group
3. £150m for The Housing Finance Corporation.
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps she is taking to ensure that the whole financial services sector is involved in the delivery of the Financial Inclusion Strategy.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The development of the Financial Inclusion Strategy is being informed by a committee of industry and consumer representatives I chair, (including banks), ahead of its publication later this year. The strategy will examine the barriers consumers face and further action what more industry and Government can take in partnership to address them, including a focus on how to increase access to affordable credit. This workstream is being considered by a dedicated sub-committee which includes both financial services firms and consumer representative organisations.
Action to improve financial inclusion will require a joined-up approach across the Government, the financial services sector, and civil society. The Government is engaging extensively on this agenda to ensure the strategy is informed by a wide range of expertise and frontline perspectives.
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what discussions she has had with mainstream banks on the supply of affordable credit.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The development of the Financial Inclusion Strategy is being informed by a committee of industry and consumer representatives I chair, (including banks), ahead of its publication later this year. The strategy will examine the barriers consumers face and further action what more industry and Government can take in partnership to address them, including a focus on how to increase access to affordable credit. This workstream is being considered by a dedicated sub-committee which includes both financial services firms and consumer representative organisations.
Action to improve financial inclusion will require a joined-up approach across the Government, the financial services sector, and civil society. The Government is engaging extensively on this agenda to ensure the strategy is informed by a wide range of expertise and frontline perspectives.
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what progress she has made on developing a national financial inclusion strategy.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
I have convened a Financial Inclusion Committee of industry and consumer representatives to develop the Government’s Financial Inclusion Strategy, which will be published later this year.
The strategy will tackle a range of issues, including access to affordable credit, digital inclusion, and financial capability and education. I am meeting with the Committee in June to discuss potential strategy interventions.
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of removing VAT from children's bikes on levels of take up of cycling among children and young people.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
VAT is a broad-based tax on consumption and the 20 per cent standard rate applies to most goods and services. Taxation is a vital source of revenue that helps to fund vital public services.
Evidence suggests that businesses only partially pass on any savings from lower VAT rates. In some cases, reliefs do not represent good value for money, as there is no guarantee that savings will be passed on to consumers.
The Government has no plans to remove VAT on children’s bikes.
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps she is taking to support (a) credit unions and (b) other responsible lenders.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The Government has made clear its strong support for the credit union sector, recognising the value that credit unions bring to their members in local communities across the country in providing products and affordable credit. In her Mansion House speech on 14 November, the Chancellor announced new measures to support the growth of the credit union and mutuals sector. This included publishing a call for evidence on the potential to reform common bonds for credit unions in Great Britain, asking the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) to produce a report on the mutuals landscape by the end of 2025, and welcoming the establishment of an industry-led Mutual and Co-operative Business Council.
The Government recognises that credit, when provided responsibly, can be crucial for people facing unexpected expenses or managing their cash flow. Alongside continuing to engage with the banking and mutuals sector, HM Treasury is considering access to affordable credit more broadly as part of the financial inclusion strategy work announced last year.
Additionally, Community Development Finance Institutions (CDFIs) play an important role in the provision of credit to SMEs and individuals, promoting access to finance, and offering an alternative to mainstream lenders. The Government has a renewed commitment to the CDFI sector and launched the Community ENABLE Funding programme through the British Business Bank in November 2024. This has the overall purpose of increasing the supply of debt finance to smaller businesses by supporting CDFIs.
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 18 November 2024 to Question 13623 on Agriculture: Inheritance Tax, whether she has made a comparative assessment of the potential impact of (a) agricultural property relief and (b) business property relief on tenant farmers in Scotland compared to the rest of the UK.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The Government published information about the reforms to agricultural property relief and business property relief at www.gov.uk/government/publications/agricultural-property-relief-and-business-property-relief-reforms.
It is expected that up to around 2,000 estates will be affected by the changes to APR and BPR in 2026-27, with around half of those being claims that involve AIM shares. Almost three-quarters of estates claiming agricultural property relief (or those claiming agricultural property relief and business property relief together) are expected to be unaffected by these reforms.
In accordance with standard practice, a tax information and impact note will be published alongside the draft legislation before the relevant Finance Bill.
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the Institute of International Finance and OECD's debt transparency initiative; and whether she has had discussions with relevant stakeholders on the adequacy of the information on lending activities provided by private creditors to that Initiative.
Answered by Tulip Siddiq
The UK is a strong advocate for enhancing debt transparency including for private sector debt. As part of this, we supported the Institute of International Finance (IIF) and OECD Debt Transparency Initiative, set up in 2021, and the IIF’s Voluntary Principles for Debt Transparency, which underpinned it. The UK has taken a lead in ensuring its own lending is transparent and meets G20 best practice, publishing details of all new direct lending quarterly and the stock of debt owed to the UK annually.
The UK continues to engage closely with the private sector and other relevant stakeholders through international fora, such as the Global Sovereign Debt Roundtable, to promote the importance of transparency, and to explore ways to build on and improve existing efforts.
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the average waiting time was for processing a new application for Child Benefit in the latest period for which data is available.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
In May 2023 HMRC launched a new digital service for child benefit claims.
The details requested by the Hon. Member are published by HMRC at: https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/42980/documents/213810/default/
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent estimate he has made of when the online system for (a) checking the completeness of National Insurance records and (b) paying top ups will be launched.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
After a period of internal testing, we launched the service in private beta on 22nd April 24 to a small number of users. Over the period 22nd April 24 until the 29th April 24 we have gradually increased number of users in private beta. We made the service available to everyone in a public beta on 29th April 2024.