Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between William Bain and Danny Alexander

Tuesday 10th March 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr William Bain (Glasgow North East) (Lab)]

For hard-pressed taxpayers, the real test of whether the Government are committed to cracking down on tax evasion and avoidance will be whether this month’s Finance Bill contains legal penalties for breach of the general anti-abuse rule. Will the Financial Secretary tell us whether those will feature in the Finance Bill—yes or no?

[Danny Alexander]

The hon. Gentleman will have to wait for the Finance Bill to be published and to hear the Budget statement next week. He should reflect on his party’s record in office on these matters. Frankly, when the coalition Government came to office, we inherited a tax system like a Swiss cheese: it was so full of holes that tax was leaking all over the place. We have plugged a lot of those holes and there is more work to be done, but I do not think that he should give us any lectures.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between William Bain and Danny Alexander

Tuesday 4th November 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr William Bain (Glasgow North East) (Lab)]

T6. The Institute for Fiscal Studies has forecast that under the Chancellor’s current policies 900,000 more children will be in relative poverty by 2020 compared with 2011. Is his real attitude towards the working poor in this country too much stick and too little carrot?

[The Chief Secretary to the Treasury (Danny Alexander)]

The hon. Gentleman raises an important point about child poverty, which under this Government is down. That does not in any way reduce the need for us to continue taking steps to reduce child poverty, the most important of which is having an economy that creates jobs. In the end, for most people the best route out of poverty is to get back into employment.

Finance (No. 2) Bill

Debate between William Bain and Danny Alexander

Tuesday 1st April 2014 Commons Chamber

[Danny Alexander]

That is an important question. The measures to lift the personal allowance, from a little over £6,500 when we came into office to £10,500 as it will be in April next year, will mean that about 3 million people in this country—most of the people to whom he refers—are lifted out of paying income tax altogether. That is a serious benefit to those individuals. It also helps to improve incentives to work and to progress in work in this country and bears some responsibility for the stronger employment performance that we have seen in recent years.

[Mr Bain]

On that point, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury has omitted to mention thus far that the Government will freeze the work allowance in universal credit for the next three years. That means that a person on a low income will not benefit in full from the rise in the personal allowance. Is it not the case that he is giving with one hand and taking with the other?

[Danny Alexander]

The way that universal credit is structured means not only that we have a much simpler system, but that most people in the benefits and tax credits system will keep more of their additional earnings as they progress in work than they would have done under the extremely complicated, confusing system that we inherited from the hon. Gentleman’s party. The work incentive clearly has a positive effect overall.

National Infrastructure Plan

Debate between William Bain and Danny Alexander

Wednesday 4th December 2013 Commons Chamber

[Danny Alexander]

I wholeheartedly agree with my hon. Friend and I pay tribute to him, because he has made a fantastic contribution to making the argument for the project to Ministers, which has led to its inclusion in the infrastructure plan. He is right: road improvements are not just about dealing with congestion for motorists, but about unlocking growth opportunities for the whole country, and I think that is precisely what the A50 investment will do.

[Mr William Bain (Glasgow North East) (Lab)]

Given the pitiful rate of housing construction in Scotland presided over by the Scottish Government, Scotland faces a shortfall of 160,000 properties by 2035, but is the Chief Secretary able to point to a single announcement in his statement that would help contribute to alleviating a housing crisis across the United Kingdom?

[Danny Alexander]

Housing is not, of course, directly part of the national infrastructure plan—it never has been—but I can say a word about it. A number of the infrastructure projects will directly unlock housing developments. For example, the investment in the A14 will unlock sites for 10,000 or more new homes in that part of England. That is precisely the sort of project we need to see more of.

Our Help to Buy scheme, which is enabling people who cannot afford large deposits to get a mortgage and to get on the housing ladder, is helping people in the hon. Gentleman’s constituency and mine, as well as across England and Wales, to access the housing market. That, in turn, will help to stimulate house construction in Scotland as well as in other parts of the UK.

Investing in Britain’s Future

Debate between William Bain and Danny Alexander

Thursday 27th June 2013 Commons Chamber

[Danny Alexander]

I very much agree with my hon. Friend’s point. As the Member of Parliament for Inverness, I am all too aware of the importance of air connectivity for remote areas of the country. This fund will help to ensure that for all parts of the UK there is support available when those projects can be justified.

[Mr William Bain (Glasgow North East) (Lab)]

Given that the Chancellor has had to admit that the spending round did not bring forward a single penny of new public capital investment for 2015-16, can the Chief Secretary tell the House when we will have the judgment of the Office for Budget Responsibility as to whether his statement today will make any difference whatsoever to growth this year, next year or the year after?

[Danny Alexander]

The OBR will publish a new growth forecast at the time of the autumn statement. At the Budget this year we allocated an additional £3 billion of capital in 2015-16 and for the remaining years of the decade, and the announcements today are partly about how we will use that money.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between William Bain and Danny Alexander

Tuesday 14th May 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr William Bain (Glasgow North East) (Lab)]

The youth employment rate is lower now than in 2009, with a shortfall of nearly 400,000 jobs, so why are the Government continuing to resist a tax on bank bonuses that would help put young people back into work?

[Danny Alexander]

As I said in answer to earlier questions, the Government have taken forward a package of measures. The Youth Contract, which is helping half a million young people, the massive expansion and improvement in the quality of apprenticeships, helping young people all around the country, and the Work programme make up a proper package of measures to do what the hon. Gentleman and I agree about—try to help more young people off benefits and into work. The problem has been building up for many years, and he should be a bit more humble about it.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between William Bain and Danny Alexander

Tuesday 11th December 2012 Commons Chamber

[Danny Alexander]

Like my hon. Friend, I want to build a strong economy and a fair society where everyone has a chance to get on in life. The commitment to raise the income tax threshold was a commitment that he and I and all our colleagues made at the general election, and we are delivering on it in Government. There is a tax cut for working people cumulatively over this Parliament, and next year it will be worth £50 a month to people on low and middle incomes. That is real help for hard-working families at what is a difficult time.

[Mr William Bain (Glasgow North East) (Lab)]

Average wages in Scotland have fallen by 7.4% under this Chief Secretary, and from next year 182,000 couple-families in work with children will stand to lose money through tax credits. Why are this Government always standing up for millionaires while hammering the strivers?

[Danny Alexander]

I will not take any lectures on millionaires from the Labour party, which thought it appropriate that a millionaire private equity fund manager should pay less on his income than the person who cleans his office. Labour’s record on taxing the wealthy, dealing with tax avoidance and closing tax loopholes is nothing to be proud of, and the hon. Gentleman should stop raising that point.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between William Bain and Danny Alexander

Tuesday 6th November 2012 Commons Chamber

[Danny Alexander]

My hon. Friend is right to highlight the work that we are doing to increase manufacturing through, for example, the advanced manufacturing technology institute and investment from the regional growth fund. We have had a number of representations from the north-west, not least from my hon. Friend the Member for Burnley (Gordon Birtwistle), who has made representations on capital allowances for businesses.

[Mr William Bain (Glasgow North East) (Lab)]

T2. Nearly three in 10 workers in my constituency, including half of all part-time workers, earn less than the living wage of £7.45 an hour. Does the Chief Secretary, unlike the Prime Minister, back the living wage? Is he not wrong to boast about a recovery that is not being felt in the pay packets of millions of people on low and middle incomes?

[Danny Alexander]

Labour Members had 13 years to introduce a living wage; if they believed in it so much they could have done something about it when they were in office. This Government are increasing the income tax personal allowance towards the goal of £10,000 set in the Liberal Democrat election manifesto. As of next April, the amount of income tax paid by someone working full time on the minimum wage will have been halved under this Government. I would have thought that the hon. Gentleman would want to welcome that.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between William Bain and Danny Alexander

Tuesday 8th February 2011 Commons Chamber

[The Chief Secretary to the Treasury (Danny Alexander)]

The Chancellor announced measures in the Budget on corporation tax and national insurance breaks, particularly for companies in the regions. We have set up local enterprise partnerships, which enable local authorities and businesses to work together to promote their own economic interests, and in due course we will announce the first round of decisions on the regional growth fund, which will help to support exactly the sort of initiatives the hon. Gentleman is concerned about.

[Mr William Bain (Glasgow North East) (Lab)]

Does the Chancellor agree that any credible strategy for growth must include proposals for a fully capitalised, properly independent green investment bank? Will he assure the House that the Treasury has ceased to act as a roadblock to the creation of such a bank?