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Lets see what happens in the next few hours. Let's join Huw Edwards | :00:00. | :00:00. | |
for our special programme. It is the first budget for Philip | :00:07. | :00:16. | |
Hammond, as the government takes and welcome to our live coverage | :00:17. | :00:55. | |
of The Budget. It's Philip Hammond's | :00:56. | :00:59. | |
first as Chancellor and it's also likely | :01:00. | :01:02. | |
to be his only Spring Budget because after today the Budget | :01:03. | :01:04. | |
will move to the Autumn. And it's the last Budget | :01:05. | :01:07. | |
before the Government triggers Article 50 | :01:08. | :01:08. | |
and starts the formal process of leaving the EU, | :01:09. | :01:11. | |
possibly as early as next week. A few minutes ago the Chancellor | :01:12. | :01:18. | |
emerged, Red Box in hand, from his official residence, | :01:19. | :01:20. | |
Number 11 Downing Street, alongside him the Treasury ministerial team, | :01:21. | :01:27. | |
including his number 2, David Gauke, who we'll be speaking | :01:28. | :01:29. | |
to a little later on. The red box was made for David | :01:30. | :01:44. | |
Osborne in 2011. The Chancellor posing for the traditional photo for | :01:45. | :01:48. | |
the ranks of the photographs in Downing Street on Budget Day and | :01:49. | :01:51. | |
later he will be making to the House of Commons and he is expected to get | :01:52. | :01:56. | |
to the Despatch Box in around an hour's time because we have a little | :01:57. | :02:01. | |
bit of talking to do and then we'll have Prime Minister's Questions, as | :02:02. | :02:03. | |
usual on a Wednesday and then the Chancellor will get to his feet. | :02:04. | :02:09. | |
Stay with us as we'll have all the Budget detail and reaction. | :02:10. | :02:11. | |
I'm outside Parliament where the focus recently has been on Britain's | :02:12. | :02:21. | |
future outside the EU I will be getting reactions from politicians | :02:22. | :02:24. | |
across the political spectrum. I'm in Hull the UK City of Culture for | :02:25. | :02:30. | |
2017 and I'll be getting reaction from businesses, large and small to | :02:31. | :02:34. | |
the Chancellor's statement. What does the Budget mean to you and your | :02:35. | :02:39. | |
family's finances? I will respond to your e-mails, text and tweets about | :02:40. | :02:49. | |
the measures announced today. Plenty of voices, not just from Westminster | :02:50. | :02:51. | |
but beyond Westminster which is crucial on a day like today. | :02:52. | :02:54. | |
To help me make sense of it all, we're joined by our political | :02:55. | :02:57. | |
editor, Laura Kuenssberg, our economics editor, Kamal Ahmed, | :02:58. | :02:59. | |
They'll all be providing plenty of thoughts on social | :03:00. | :03:09. | |
media as things happen, if you want to join | :03:10. | :03:11. | |
the twitter conversation, use the hashtag #Budget2017. | :03:12. | :03:18. | |
Use the hashtag and the comments can go into the same area and you can | :03:19. | :03:23. | |
e-mail us as well: We'll try and put some | :03:24. | :03:27. | |
of your tweets and emails to our experts and guests | :03:28. | :03:30. | |
during the programme. So it's Chancellor, | :03:31. | :03:36. | |
Philip Hammond's, big day and the Treasury released these | :03:37. | :03:38. | |
images of Mr Hammond hard at work last night, putting | :03:39. | :03:40. | |
the finishing touches to his speech before it's | :03:41. | :03:49. | |
locked up in the Red Box. As expected, he's facing plenty | :03:50. | :03:52. | |
of demands from the Opposition to increase spending | :03:53. | :04:01. | |
in quite a few ares - He's had increased tax | :04:02. | :04:04. | |
receipts recently. So I'm not asking him to go out | :04:05. | :04:09. | |
on a huge spending spree. I'm asking him to tackle | :04:10. | :04:10. | |
the crisis that's here now. It's all well and good saying you're | :04:11. | :04:13. | |
saving money for later There is a crisis in our NHS | :04:14. | :04:15. | |
at the moment, there's a He's got top understand | :04:16. | :04:19. | |
what people are going through. John McDonnell there. He will talk | :04:20. | :04:25. | |
to us again later. He will probably join us in the studio to give his | :04:26. | :04:29. | |
response. Laura, can I turn to you. The content of any Budget is | :04:30. | :04:33. | |
interesting. Any Budget is important but in such a turbulent and | :04:34. | :04:36. | |
uncertain political time, really the context is - we have never seen | :04:37. | :04:41. | |
anything like it. Absolutely not. When Philip Hammond steps out of the | :04:42. | :04:46. | |
shiny black door of Number 11 this morning what has been on his smind | :04:47. | :04:50. | |
that the country is stepping into an uncertain future, probably the most | :04:51. | :04:53. | |
uncertain pattern any Chancellor has had to deal with for a very, very | :04:54. | :04:57. | |
long time. I think today, therefore, we won't hear a very palatable | :04:58. | :05:00. | |
message from him, really. There are going to be spending cuts and we | :05:01. | :05:04. | |
expect some tax rises, too. Sure, the picture is likely to look a bit | :05:05. | :05:09. | |
better than it did since the Autumn Statement, the last big event from | :05:10. | :05:12. | |
the Chancellor but he is not prone to what he calls "lurches of | :05:13. | :05:17. | |
sentiment", kind of careering from one thing to another, saying | :05:18. | :05:20. | |
everything is fine and therefore I can splash the cash, that's not what | :05:21. | :05:25. | |
we are going to see. There's a trio of tasks he has to achieve to keep | :05:26. | :05:29. | |
his his and Theresa May's agenda. First, showing he is committed to | :05:30. | :05:33. | |
balancing the books in a long term albeit at a slower rate than had | :05:34. | :05:36. | |
been predicted. Second of all, always important on a Budget day, | :05:37. | :05:41. | |
try to do that without any big political blunder. That's always at | :05:42. | :05:48. | |
the back of every Chancellor's mind. Think last year and George Osborne | :05:49. | :05:55. | |
made a big mistake and I think talking about solving some long-term | :05:56. | :05:57. | |
problems that the country faces. Whether that's social care, we | :05:58. | :06:01. | |
expect an announcement of a long-term review and additional cash | :06:02. | :06:05. | |
now. But also things the Treasury are interested in, how do we make | :06:06. | :06:09. | |
the tax system work better, for example, how do we confront the | :06:10. | :06:13. | |
changes in technology? He has to deal with short-term pressures but | :06:14. | :06:16. | |
he will provide clues to a long-term vision at a time which is really | :06:17. | :06:20. | |
uncertain. . I think it is fair to say some of his colleagues didn't | :06:21. | :06:25. | |
like the fact he used a phrase like "a roller coaster ride ahead of us", | :06:26. | :06:30. | |
he used that last year. Are we likely to get that signal in those | :06:31. | :06:33. | |
terms? I think the tone will certainly be, shall we say, very, | :06:34. | :06:37. | |
very careful. Philip Hammond is not prone to behave in a way some of his | :06:38. | :06:42. | |
Cabinet colleagues do, with the hints of a buck inneering future, | :06:43. | :06:48. | |
Brexit Britain out, promising a land of milk and hobby. He is a caution | :06:49. | :06:53. | |
politician in anyway case but it is no secret that the Treasury is at | :06:54. | :06:57. | |
the concerned end of the spectrum around Whitehall at the potential | :06:58. | :07:00. | |
impact of us leaving the European Union. That is why, rather than | :07:01. | :07:04. | |
using a little bit of the headroom that he's got stored up, he's | :07:05. | :07:09. | |
basically going to keep that back in case there are big bumps in the road | :07:10. | :07:12. | |
as we head towards leaving the European Union. Remember, it's not | :07:13. | :07:17. | |
the case that he suddenly has tens of billions sitting around in a bank | :07:18. | :07:20. | |
account. It's that the country is predicted to be borrowing less. | :07:21. | :07:23. | |
Therefore, there has been pressure on him to say - flash the cash now, | :07:24. | :07:28. | |
get on with it, please a few more people but he's not going to do | :07:29. | :07:31. | |
that, I don't think. That leads me to Kamal. That's the context. When | :07:32. | :07:35. | |
he gets to the despatch box, today, what is the economic landscape we | :07:36. | :07:40. | |
should be thinking of? Absolutely. I think the two big things to always | :07:41. | :07:46. | |
look at, as Laura says, over the Budget, are borrowing and growth. | :07:47. | :07:50. | |
Those are the two big issues. So so let's look back first of all on the | :07:51. | :07:56. | |
borrowing numbers. If we go back to the November and the predictions in | :07:57. | :08:02. | |
the Autumn Statement, this was the time of what you might describe as | :08:03. | :08:04. | |
"peak bloom." Most economic forecasters thought at this stage | :08:05. | :08:07. | |
that the economy could be seeing real headwinds because of the | :08:08. | :08:08. | |
uncertainty around Brexit. that the economy could be seeing | :08:09. | :08:11. | |
real headwinds because of the uncertainty around Brexit. The | :08:12. | :08:12. | |
Office for Budget Responsibility, the Government's official economic | :08:13. | :08:14. | |
watchdog, predicted, last November, that this would be what our | :08:15. | :08:18. | |
borrowing looked like over the next five years. So 2016-17, you can | :08:19. | :08:24. | |
seeiour yoking at around ?68 billion a year, falling every year, down to | :08:25. | :08:31. | |
about ?20 billion in 2020-21, but, not hitting that idea of balancing | :08:32. | :08:35. | |
the books until sometime after that date, into the next Parliament. | :08:36. | :08:40. | |
Despite it being, as Laura says, a key Government pledge. | :08:41. | :08:45. | |
Since then the economic news is cheerier and things are looking | :08:46. | :08:50. | |
better and here are the predictions for what borrowing may look like, | :08:51. | :08:54. | |
given the slightly higher tax receipts which means the Government | :08:55. | :08:57. | |
has a little more headroom on borrowing, this are numbers from the | :08:58. | :09:02. | |
Resolution Foundation. They suggest by 2021, the Government may | :09:03. | :09:06. | |
understood its its target by about ?29 billion. So, just as I say, it | :09:07. | :09:12. | |
is not money in a bank account that he can take out and stick into the | :09:13. | :09:16. | |
NHS or whatever but it means slightedly less borrowing. | :09:17. | :09:17. | |
he can take out and stick into the NHS or whatever but it | :09:18. | :09:18. | |
slightedly less borrowing. So that's borrow, you mentioned | :09:19. | :09:22. | |
growth as well. Tell us about that? Again, if we go back to what was | :09:23. | :09:26. | |
predicted last November, the Office for Budget Responsibility said | :09:27. | :09:29. | |
growth for this year would be a very cautious and pretty miserable, | :09:30. | :09:33. | |
frankly, 1.4%. But since then we have had, again this better economic | :09:34. | :09:38. | |
news. The consumer has been more resilient and kept spending. The | :09:39. | :09:42. | |
Bank of England, you, a couple of months ago suggested, or a month | :09:43. | :09:46. | |
ago, suggested the growth this year would be 2%. A much more robust | :09:47. | :09:53. | |
figure and I'm sure today the OBR will upgrade that growth forecast, | :09:54. | :09:56. | |
better news for Philip Hammond as he stands up to deliver the Budget but | :09:57. | :10:00. | |
as important is what will happen after that? Is this pain cancelled | :10:01. | :10:04. | |
or delayed? I think the OBR will suggest it is pain delayed possibly | :10:05. | :10:09. | |
until next year, possibly, 2018. It originally estimated that in 2018 | :10:10. | :10:14. | |
growth would be around 1.7%. Lower than the Bank of England's growth | :10:15. | :10:21. | |
forecast for this year. And the Bath has said in growth for 2018, it | :10:22. | :10:26. | |
would blow in growth compared to this year. So it is likely that in | :10:27. | :10:31. | |
growth - these are the two economic forecasters, the Bank of England and | :10:32. | :10:47. | |
OBR, will say there is likely to be a slowing in growth in 2018, of | :10:48. | :11:03. | |
course when we will be in the teeth of the Brexit negotiations. #7 | :11:04. | :11:04. | |
forecasters, the Bank of England and OBR, will | :11:05. | :11:04. | |
course when we will be in the teeth of the Brexit negotiations. #7 I'm | :11:05. | :11:05. | |
wondering, given the traditional focus on Budget Day is to do with | :11:06. | :11:08. | |
tax measures and other benefits, what is he likely to do there? Well, | :11:09. | :11:13. | |
I think what is easy to forget on Budget Day, we have had previous | :11:14. | :11:16. | |
Budgets and there are changes coming down the road which will be | :11:17. | :11:18. | |
challenging for some of the groups that the Government says it wants to | :11:19. | :11:21. | |
help, the just about managing, an economy that works for everyone. | :11:22. | :11:23. | |
Let's look at what the Government has already announced in terms of | :11:24. | :11:26. | |
what might be described as tax give-aways, to help some of the | :11:27. | :11:28. | |
groups it wants to help. The tax-free personal allowance is going | :11:29. | :11:31. | |
up to ?11,500. We'll probably see some more moves on that. That can be | :11:32. | :11:40. | |
seen as a tax cut particularly for those on higher numbers. And they've | :11:41. | :11:47. | |
raised the threshold to ?45,000 and it maybe easier for people to save | :11:48. | :11:50. | |
what little money they have. But on the other side there is some of the | :11:51. | :11:54. | |
pain that we mustn't forget. This is still a situation where the | :11:55. | :11:56. | |
Government is constraining spending, it is not adding to spending. And if | :11:57. | :12:02. | |
we look at some of the welfare changes already in place, we mustn't | :12:03. | :12:06. | |
forget there is already the cut in working-age benefit which is still | :12:07. | :12:11. | |
going through the system. The public sector pay freeze is still there at | :12:12. | :12:15. | |
1%, despite inflation going up. What is called the Employment Support | :12:16. | :12:18. | |
Allowance, an allowance for people who are ill or disabled going back | :12:19. | :12:23. | |
into work. That is being cut back as well. As are child tax credits. So I | :12:24. | :12:29. | |
think one of the big messages from the Chancellor today, is that, yes, | :12:30. | :12:33. | |
things are looking a little better, possibly only in the short-term but | :12:34. | :12:38. | |
still that drive towards balancing the books via austerity, is still | :12:39. | :12:41. | |
very much front and central of the Government project. Plenty for us to | :12:42. | :12:51. | |
think about. Simon you have been busy this week in Geneva, I'm | :12:52. | :12:54. | |
wondering what is the business focus for you today? Businesses have been | :12:55. | :12:58. | |
on a journey with this Government. When Theresa May arrived she came | :12:59. | :13:01. | |
out of the traps early warning businesses - you better create a | :13:02. | :13:04. | |
fair economy that works for everyone, if you don't I will step N | :13:05. | :13:09. | |
it scared the horses a bit. -- step in. But the Chancellor needs | :13:10. | :13:18. | |
business. The economy is made up of a few things, consumer spending, who | :13:19. | :13:22. | |
have been keeping the economy afloat single handedly, and of Government | :13:23. | :13:25. | |
spending which we know is going to be cut and it is business spending. | :13:26. | :13:28. | |
He is going to want to try to stimulate that. I expect this Budget | :13:29. | :13:34. | |
to dove tail in the with industrial strategy we heard earlier in the | :13:35. | :13:39. | |
year to give people incentives to spend money, to take on new workers, | :13:40. | :13:44. | |
train them, invest in new plants. For smaller businesses, it is all | :13:45. | :13:48. | |
about business rates. Now three-quart earnings, two-thirds of | :13:49. | :13:50. | |
business also see their rates stay the same or fall for some in certain | :13:51. | :13:54. | |
areas of country, particularly snout east they face sharp prize -- | :13:55. | :14:01. | |
particularly in the south-east. The Federation of Small Businesses say | :14:02. | :14:04. | |
there are rises of up to 300%. I expect to see a bit of money top | :14:05. | :14:10. | |
soften the edges of that. But it'll only soften the edges. These letters | :14:11. | :14:13. | |
have been written, calculated they are on their way out the door from | :14:14. | :14:17. | |
the local authorities. There will not be the scope a massive redrawing | :14:18. | :14:23. | |
of the business rates. Small businesses under the cosh with the | :14:24. | :14:27. | |
living wage. And if we do get this big change in self-employment that. | :14:28. | :14:30. | |
Will be big. It'll be interesting to see whether we get the changes today | :14:31. | :14:39. | |
or whether he nods to a future consultation. Many self-employed | :14:40. | :14:43. | |
people pay less national insurance for people who are self-employed. | :14:44. | :14:48. | |
Troublesome if he does that, some may remember the 2015 Tory manifesto | :14:49. | :14:53. | |
pledge, not to raise, VAT, income tax and national insurance. But as | :14:54. | :14:56. | |
Simon is hinting, there is appetite in the Treasury for a whole sale | :14:57. | :15:00. | |
review of how this whole system works, which includes things like | :15:01. | :15:05. | |
big online retailers getting off relatively scot-free compared to | :15:06. | :15:08. | |
more traditional retailers in terms of taxation in the high street. The | :15:09. | :15:12. | |
number from the OBR last fr last year, suggested the Government could | :15:13. | :15:16. | |
be losing about ?3.5 billion a year in taxes because of the people's | :15:17. | :15:20. | |
move on to self-employment and the gig economy, it is undermining the | :15:21. | :15:24. | |
tax base where Philip Hammond has a real problem. | :15:25. | :15:28. | |
Lead's pause for a second because we are here on Budget day and this is | :15:29. | :15:34. | |
the focus our Westminster but we are getting reports that four people | :15:35. | :15:38. | |
have been injured in a stabbing attack in the West Midlands. Police | :15:39. | :15:43. | |
are telling of this. West Midlands Ambulance Service, I am being told, | :15:44. | :15:47. | |
saying they are at the scene of a serious incident in the Maryhill | :15:48. | :15:57. | |
area of Wolverhampton. -- Merry Hill area. It is being reported four | :15:58. | :16:04. | |
people being injured after a stabbing in the West Midlands and we | :16:05. | :16:07. | |
will keep you in touch with everything that is going on with | :16:08. | :16:10. | |
that as it develops on the BBC News Channel and also developments on the | :16:11. | :16:15. | |
BBC News Channel. We are focusing on Budget day and as Philip Hammond has | :16:16. | :16:18. | |
already made his way to the House of Commons to get ready for the speech, | :16:19. | :16:21. | |
we will have prime ministers questions in just under 15 minutes. | :16:22. | :16:24. | |
Lots of reaction throughout the day and now we join Jane Parliament. | :16:25. | :16:28. | |
But to Parliament and in a moment I will look at what Philip Hammond | :16:29. | :16:38. | |
might have in store with Lord Lamont and Chris Leslie but as you have | :16:39. | :16:41. | |
been reflecting on everything we're going to hear against 30 PM -- from | :16:42. | :16:45. | |
4:30pm is against the backdrop of the referendum, Britain's decision | :16:46. | :16:50. | |
to leave the EU. Before I talk to my guess, let's remind ourselves how | :16:51. | :16:51. | |
the economy has led since that vote. The British people have spoken | :16:52. | :16:54. | |
and the answer is - we're out. The Bank of England will not | :16:55. | :16:58. | |
hesitate to take additional measures, as required, | :16:59. | :17:01. | |
as markets adjust. If you're just managing, | :17:02. | :17:05. | |
I want to address you directly. I've been here 25 years | :17:06. | :17:09. | |
and I hope it's going to be We will pursue a bold and ambitious | :17:10. | :17:48. | |
free trade agreement The industrial strategy that | :17:49. | :18:37. | |
we've launched today sets I think Brexit is going | :18:38. | :18:45. | |
to be a wonderful thing. So that is where we are today, the | :18:46. | :19:13. | |
backdrop to what we will hear this lunchtime. Let's discuss Philip | :19:14. | :19:16. | |
Hammond's options. Joining me now is the former | :19:17. | :19:17. | |
Conservative Chancellor, Lord Lamont, and the former | :19:18. | :19:19. | |
Shadow Treasury Minister, Welcome to both of you. The tone of | :19:20. | :19:27. | |
this is going to be so interesting, Lord Lamont. We think things are a | :19:28. | :19:31. | |
little more rosy economically but because of Brexit, he's got to be | :19:32. | :19:37. | |
very cautious, hasn't it? I think that's right. I think it is | :19:38. | :19:41. | |
important he emphasises the opportunities as well as the | :19:42. | :19:44. | |
challenges but I think there are two things it has to do because of | :19:45. | :19:48. | |
Brexit. One is to keep a little bit back. Some people are saying tax | :19:49. | :19:52. | |
revenues are better but I think actually, he would be very wise to | :19:53. | :19:57. | |
keep a bit back just in case there are schools in financial markets | :19:58. | :20:01. | |
later. Secondly, in this Budget and in every other one that he does, the | :20:02. | :20:06. | |
emphasis has to be on making Britain competitive. This is going to be a | :20:07. | :20:10. | |
challenge for Britain outside the EU and we have do have everything | :20:11. | :20:16. | |
competitive, our costs, our tax rates, our degree of regulation, all | :20:17. | :20:21. | |
that. Those are the two themes, being competitive and actually | :20:22. | :20:24. | |
holding something in reserve. But you say that is the case for every | :20:25. | :20:27. | |
Budget but we are in uncharted territory. This is so different | :20:28. | :20:31. | |
because by definition, no one really knows what is coming down the track. | :20:32. | :20:35. | |
That's why I've said what I did! Chris Leslie, your thoughts on the | :20:36. | :20:40. | |
balance he has to strike between a degree of optimism, as Lord Lamont | :20:41. | :20:44. | |
says, but actually being cautious. Everyone is using that word this | :20:45. | :20:48. | |
morning. When you hear Lord Lamont saying it could be a challenge, for | :20:49. | :20:51. | |
that read there is a Harry Kane potentially on the horizon -- there | :20:52. | :20:59. | |
is a hurricane potentially on the horizon for the UK economy. Brexit | :21:00. | :21:02. | |
will dominate, lots of people talk about taxes here or there, spending | :21:03. | :21:07. | |
here or there but that storm, I personally think the government is | :21:08. | :21:09. | |
actively heading towards it because of its decision not to try to | :21:10. | :21:14. | |
salvage single market membership, is already affecting consumers because | :21:15. | :21:17. | |
sterling has fallen quite considerably, and inflation is | :21:18. | :21:21. | |
starting to head upwards and we're already seeing consumer spending | :21:22. | :21:25. | |
power begin to go on the wane. Retail sales down very much in the | :21:26. | :21:30. | |
last months. So where is the engine of the economy going to come from as | :21:31. | :21:35. | |
we head into this storm? For me, that is a serious problem. Where is | :21:36. | :21:41. | |
the engine? First of all, I don't think it is inevitable there will be | :21:42. | :21:46. | |
a storm or a hurricane coming down. Provided we can get, for most of the | :21:47. | :21:51. | |
UK economy, tariff free access and a free trade deal, it will be just as | :21:52. | :21:55. | |
good as the single market. You know, I think all of this myth about the | :21:56. | :21:58. | |
single market, that it is some kind of Chinese garden with a large wall | :21:59. | :22:02. | |
around it and we have do have a key to sell things in it, you know, the | :22:03. | :22:07. | |
top three partners, trading wise, of the EU have no special trade | :22:08. | :22:11. | |
arrangements with the EU. The idea we couldn't trade with them without | :22:12. | :22:15. | |
a trade agreement is an illusion, it's completely wrong. But I think | :22:16. | :22:18. | |
there is a very good chance of having a trade agreement and that is | :22:19. | :22:24. | |
what the government... It's just nonsense to harp on about membership | :22:25. | :22:26. | |
of the single market, which during the referendum, people advocating | :22:27. | :22:29. | |
for Gabi Mayne said it would not make any sense if we were outside | :22:30. | :22:33. | |
the EU to be part of it. On the other point you raised about the | :22:34. | :22:36. | |
economy, so far, the economy has been remarkably resilient. | :22:37. | :22:40. | |
Inflation, as Chris has said, has risen a bit but it is rising even | :22:41. | :22:45. | |
higher in Germany than it is here. It is not high by historical | :22:46. | :22:51. | |
standards. I don't think it is inevitable... Nothing is inevitable, | :22:52. | :22:53. | |
if the government does the right thing and tries to get, well, we had | :22:54. | :22:56. | |
better get a free trade agreement with Europe because without that, it | :22:57. | :23:01. | |
is not just the service sector which will suffer, it will be goods and | :23:02. | :23:05. | |
services, all of those companies, like Nissan, who have 5 million | :23:06. | :23:09. | |
parts per day, they have to get from this warehouse of the EU, they only | :23:10. | :23:15. | |
keep half a day's infantry on site. If you have friction in those goods | :23:16. | :23:19. | |
and services, that trade, we are going to have a real problem for our | :23:20. | :23:24. | |
business model in the UK, and so, we have do, I think, get the free trade | :23:25. | :23:28. | |
agreement but if we don't, not only will we have big tariffs and | :23:29. | :23:32. | |
potentially for components coming in, but also want the goods we want | :23:33. | :23:37. | |
to sell worldwide. So our exports potentially will be inhibited and so | :23:38. | :23:42. | |
I worry very much about where the living standards and the consumer | :23:43. | :23:45. | |
spending power is going to come from when things get more expensive and I | :23:46. | :23:50. | |
worry about the storm on the horizon with the trade issue, which could be | :23:51. | :23:54. | |
really severely impaired. Gentlemen, we have to leave it there. We will | :23:55. | :23:58. | |
find out in the next few hours. Chris Leslie and Lord Lamont, thank | :23:59. | :24:01. | |
you for being with us and more reaction when we have heard from | :24:02. | :24:04. | |
Philip Hammond outside Parliament. For now, back to you. | :24:05. | :24:09. | |
Thanks to you and your guests. Reaction beyond Westminster as well. | :24:10. | :24:14. | |
We'll be making several visits to Hull today, | :24:15. | :24:16. | |
where Jo Coburn is with a range of guests to talk about the main | :24:17. | :24:19. | |
Yes, I'm at a busy distribution centre which employs about 850 | :24:20. | :24:26. | |
people in Hull. It is a family firm, has been in the family for four | :24:27. | :24:30. | |
generations and is a success story in Hull but that does not mask the | :24:31. | :24:34. | |
fact it still has some of the most deprived districts in the whole | :24:35. | :24:38. | |
country. A man who is hoping to reverse that is the guy in charge of | :24:39. | :24:43. | |
the city of culture in Hull, Martin Greene, the director. What do you | :24:44. | :24:47. | |
want the Chancellor to do for you? I think we are proving more than ever | :24:48. | :24:51. | |
that cultural investment in cities reaps investment and economic | :24:52. | :24:56. | |
impact. To continue that process that we have seen, particularly in | :24:57. | :25:00. | |
the Northern Powerhouse in the last few years, of seeing cultural | :25:01. | :25:05. | |
investment is good investment for businesses and the Digital economy | :25:06. | :25:08. | |
would be a good thing. The fight Hull voted to leave the EU, how will | :25:09. | :25:12. | |
that impact what you are trying to do as the director of City Of | :25:13. | :25:18. | |
Culture? I don't think it impacts on what we do here. With the European | :25:19. | :25:25. | |
eye on it, you would like to see the money that currently comes into the | :25:26. | :25:28. | |
arts replaced but we have seen visitors going to America are going | :25:29. | :25:31. | |
down because they are not sure if they want to be there. It would be | :25:32. | :25:34. | |
more difficult for UK visitors to go to Europe so we will probably see a | :25:35. | :25:38. | |
rise in tourism at least which again, cultural investment into | :25:39. | :25:41. | |
cities will attract visitors which brings business in and money in. | :25:42. | :25:47. | |
Martin Green, thank you very much. Let's get a feel for local | :25:48. | :25:51. | |
businesses in Hull want to hear from the Chancellor. He said there are | :25:52. | :25:54. | |
going be no big surprises and no gimmicks in the Budget. Anita is | :25:55. | :26:02. | |
from Pays Communications. What is your biggest concern? What I would | :26:03. | :26:10. | |
like to see is fewer increases in corporation tax. We know it is | :26:11. | :26:15. | |
planning to reduce corporation tax by 2020 but it would be nice if they | :26:16. | :26:19. | |
could introduce something special for small businesses, some kind of | :26:20. | :26:21. | |
relief up to a certain threshold of profit would be very welcome. What | :26:22. | :26:26. | |
about you? Tell us about your business. We supply military games | :26:27. | :26:30. | |
and events internationally, so different to the average small | :26:31. | :26:34. | |
business. Where do you reach? You have some clients here. We have some | :26:35. | :26:38. | |
local clients but most of them are outside the UK Borders and we do a | :26:39. | :26:46. | |
lot of work in Australia and America is massive at the moment. In terms | :26:47. | :26:49. | |
of Brexit for you, will it have any impact on the business? It impacts | :26:50. | :26:52. | |
our imports because they have gone up in price from Europe, so things | :26:53. | :26:56. | |
like paper and toner. In terms of the export market, because we don't | :26:57. | :26:59. | |
translate anything into French, Dutch and German yet, it has not | :27:00. | :27:03. | |
impacted the export market into Europe at all. What impact will the | :27:04. | :27:10. | |
City of Culture have an hole? We already seeing a real positive | :27:11. | :27:13. | |
benefit around the city, people coming to the city for the first | :27:14. | :27:16. | |
time and they are impressed and they say we will come back. We are two | :27:17. | :27:19. | |
and a half months in and so far, so good. Business rates, one of the | :27:20. | :27:23. | |
issues that has been discussed and no doubt will be talked about by the | :27:24. | :27:26. | |
Chancellor is the business rates re-evaluation. Has it affected you? | :27:27. | :27:31. | |
Fortunately not because we are eligible for small business rate | :27:32. | :27:34. | |
relief but we were looking at expanding the office premises and | :27:35. | :27:37. | |
the next-door office is free but if we moved into it we would fall into | :27:38. | :27:41. | |
the small business rate and we can't afford it at all. In terms of | :27:42. | :27:45. | |
developing skills, how important is that if you are looking at the | :27:46. | :27:49. | |
future? Apprenticeships and entrepreneurs. Extremely important. | :27:50. | :27:53. | |
This region, like many in the UK, struggles to attract and retain | :27:54. | :27:57. | |
talent. If we can grow our talent and retain it in the region, and | :27:58. | :28:01. | |
there are a lot of initiatives with partners across the region to help | :28:02. | :28:05. | |
do that. Thank you for joining us. You will be watching the statement | :28:06. | :28:09. | |
with the rest of us, of course. Although Philip Hammond, Spreadsheet | :28:10. | :28:13. | |
Phil, as they call him, has that there are not going to be any bigger | :28:14. | :28:16. | |
voice, we know or suspect there will be an injection of cash into things | :28:17. | :28:19. | |
like social care and we've talked about business rates. But we will | :28:20. | :28:22. | |
also find out how he plans to pay for some of the things. Let's find | :28:23. | :28:26. | |
out some more with personal finance expert Ruth Alexander. | :28:27. | :28:31. | |
Yes, we are expecting to see some tax rises from the Chancellor. It is | :28:32. | :28:36. | |
rumoured national insurance contributions for self-employed | :28:37. | :28:44. | |
people could go up. At the moment, they pay about 9% on earnings of | :28:45. | :28:46. | |
just over ?8,000. That compares to employed people who pay 12%. We | :28:47. | :28:49. | |
could possibly see, there is speculation we will see a 3% rise on | :28:50. | :28:53. | |
national insurance contributions for the self-employed. Also, we could | :28:54. | :28:57. | |
see alcohol and tobacco duties going up. Maybe there will be a new tax on | :28:58. | :29:01. | |
e-cigarettes. If you have any questions about what you do in the | :29:02. | :29:04. | |
Budget, you can contact us in lots of ways, text 61124, e-mail | :29:05. | :29:13. | |
[email protected] or tweet. Back to London. | :29:14. | :29:20. | |
Thanks to the team in Hull because we will be back there later to get | :29:21. | :29:24. | |
lots of reaction to the speech itself. | :29:25. | :29:28. | |
You can also take advantage of the BBC's range | :29:29. | :29:30. | |
of expert analysis, and all the latest Budget | :29:31. | :29:32. | |
news on the BBC website - bbc.co.uk/budget. | :29:33. | :29:35. | |
And later today, there will be a calculator on the site | :29:36. | :29:38. | |
where you can work out the impact on your household's finances. | :29:39. | :29:42. | |
It's heading towards midday here at Westminster on Budget Day. | :29:43. | :29:49. | |
A magnificent sight, on the banks of the Thames, Parliament on Budget | :29:50. | :29:55. | |
day. Very soon, we'll be | :29:56. | :29:57. | |
in the House of Commons for Prime Minister's Questions, | :29:58. | :29:59. | |
with the Chancellor's Let's take a peek inside the | :30:00. | :30:10. | |
chamber. We have a session of departmental questions and I'm | :30:11. | :30:16. | |
delighted to sell you today that it is questions to the Secretary of | :30:17. | :30:19. | |
State for Wales. It doesn't get better than that as far as I'm | :30:20. | :30:23. | |
concerned! And I hope the speaker is very donors with his time allocation | :30:24. | :30:29. | |
-- generous with his time occasion. The Secretary of State for Wales | :30:30. | :30:32. | |
just taking questions there before the speaker calls for the Prime | :30:33. | :30:35. | |
Minister to take questions. Of course, the Chancellor is in place | :30:36. | :30:39. | |
already, ready for the Budget statement. We will keep a close eye | :30:40. | :30:41. | |
on the house. Is Laura, the Prime Minister has | :30:42. | :30:52. | |
already said from scam number Ten what she expects the themes to be? | :30:53. | :30:57. | |
Yes, she told the Cabinet this morning there would be "A strongp | :30:58. | :31:02. | |
hand on fiscal tiller." But it would also "Put the wheels in motion for | :31:03. | :31:14. | |
future growth and prosperity." The mixed metaphors are not mine. It | :31:15. | :31:20. | |
shows they are trying to balance the books but equip the economy for a | :31:21. | :31:23. | |
future outside the European Union, make it more dynamic and | :31:24. | :31:27. | |
competitive. In the Autumn Statement we saw investment in infrastructure, | :31:28. | :31:31. | |
roads, rails, if you like you have had the bricks and mortar in the | :31:32. | :31:34. | |
autumn, today we might see the human capital. Skills, schools, how we | :31:35. | :31:38. | |
actually look like an economy that's really gunning along, not in | :31:39. | :31:43. | |
2016-17, 18, but much further ahead. Let's join the Prime Minister for | :31:44. | :31:44. | |
question time. Thank you, Mr Speaker, I'm sure | :31:45. | :31:52. | |
members across the whole House will wish to join me in marking | :31:53. | :31:58. | |
International Women's Day as we celebrate the social, economic, | :31:59. | :32:01. | |
cultural and political achievements of women, both here and around the | :32:02. | :32:06. | |
world. But we also redouble our efforts to tackle the problems that | :32:07. | :32:11. | |
women all toop often still face. Mr Speaker, this morning, I had | :32:12. | :32:13. | |
meetings with ministerial colleagues and others N addition to my duties | :32:14. | :32:18. | |
in this House, I shall have further such meetings later today. -- in | :32:19. | :32:22. | |
addition. Can I join the Prime Minister in celebrating | :32:23. | :32:25. | |
International Women's Day. Since 2010, Conservatives in Government | :32:26. | :32:29. | |
have a proud record of protecting and supporting both those at risk | :32:30. | :32:33. | |
and the victims of domestic violence and abuse. I saw this myself when I | :32:34. | :32:38. | |
joined my local police and I would like to thank them for the difficult | :32:39. | :32:44. | |
job they do but even as far as too many women are still at risk and are | :32:45. | :32:49. | |
still suffering. What more account Prime Minister do to tackle this | :32:50. | :32:54. | |
abhorrent crime? My honourable friend raises a very serious issue, | :32:55. | :32:58. | |
one in which I have taken a particular personal interest and I | :32:59. | :33:01. | |
attach very great importance to this issue. Tackling domestic violence | :33:02. | :33:05. | |
and abuse is a key priority for the Government. And what we have done | :33:06. | :33:09. | |
already in Government, I think, has the potential to transform the way | :33:10. | :33:14. | |
in which we think and tackle these terrible crimes when they take | :33:15. | :33:17. | |
place. We've already committed to bringing forward new legislation and | :33:18. | :33:21. | |
today, I have confirmed an additional ?20 million to support | :33:22. | :33:24. | |
organisations working to tackle domestic violence and abuse. This | :33:25. | :33:29. | |
means the total funding available for our our strategy will be over | :33:30. | :33:36. | |
?100 million this Parliament. THE SPEAKER: Jeremy Corbyn Thank | :33:37. | :33:42. | |
you, Mr Speaker. Thank you, very much, Mr Speaker, could I start by | :33:43. | :33:47. | |
wishing all women a very happy International Women's Day today. And | :33:48. | :33:52. | |
I'm very proud that the Labour Party has more women MPs than all other | :33:53. | :33:56. | |
other parties combined in this House. And a Shadow Cabinet of which | :33:57. | :34:09. | |
half the members are women. A month ago go, Mr Speaker, I raised the | :34:10. | :34:16. | |
question of the leaked texts between the leader of Surrey council and | :34:17. | :34:19. | |
Government officials about social care. The Prime Minister's response | :34:20. | :34:25. | |
was to accuse me of peddling alternative facts. Could the Prime | :34:26. | :34:30. | |
Minister explain the difference between a sweetheart deal and a | :34:31. | :34:38. | |
gentlemen's agreement? First of all, the right honourable gentleman | :34:39. | :34:41. | |
references women in this House. I think I will point out to him that | :34:42. | :34:46. | |
actually the Conservative Party has taken a further measure in relation | :34:47. | :34:50. | |
to women in this House recently. We've replaced a Labour male MP with | :34:51. | :35:02. | |
a female Conservative. CHEERS AND JEERS | :35:03. | :35:10. | |
He has asked me about the issue in relation to Surrey County Council | :35:11. | :35:13. | |
and the substance of what he is asking is has there been a | :35:14. | :35:16. | |
particular deal with Surrey County Council that is not available to | :35:17. | :35:20. | |
other councils? And the answer to that is no. As I've said before - | :35:21. | :35:30. | |
the ability to raise a social care precept of 3% is available to every | :35:31. | :35:35. | |
council. The issue of the retention of 100% of business rates is | :35:36. | :35:40. | |
currently - is going to be available to a number of councils in ip a. | :35:41. | :35:44. | |
Let's look at them. Liver -- in April. Let's look at them. | :35:45. | :35:47. | |
Liverpool, Manchester, London, what do we know about those? Ah, they are | :35:48. | :35:53. | |
all under Labour control. So what he's actually asking me is - why | :35:54. | :35:57. | |
should a Conservative council have access to an arrangement that's | :35:58. | :36:01. | |
predominantly currently available to Labour councils? Mr Speaker, my | :36:02. | :36:10. | |
question was about the arrangements between the Government and Surrey | :36:11. | :36:19. | |
County Council. A recording has now emerged saying that the Leader of | :36:20. | :36:24. | |
Surrey County Council, David Hodge said there was a gentlemen's | :36:25. | :36:27. | |
agreement between him and the Government which meant they would | :36:28. | :36:30. | |
not have to go ahead with the referendum. My question is - what | :36:31. | :36:36. | |
deal was done with Surrey County Council? Because there is an acute | :36:37. | :36:40. | |
social care crisis that affects every council. 4.6 billion of cuts | :36:41. | :36:49. | |
made to social care since 2010. Can the Prime Minister tell every other | :36:50. | :36:53. | |
council in England what gentlemen's agreement is available for them? Can | :36:54. | :36:58. | |
I say to the right honourable gentleman, on today of all days, I | :36:59. | :37:02. | |
think if we could just be a little patient and wait half an hour for | :37:03. | :37:07. | |
the Budget, he will actually find out what social care funding is | :37:08. | :37:14. | |
available to all councils. If he's - I come back to it, if he is asking | :37:15. | :37:18. | |
me if there was a special deal for Surrey that was not available to | :37:19. | :37:23. | |
other councils, the answer is no. If he is looking to uncover a | :37:24. | :37:27. | |
conspiracy I suggest he just looks behind him. | :37:28. | :37:35. | |
Well, Mr Speaker, if all the arrangements were so clear and above | :37:36. | :37:42. | |
board, will the Prime Minister place in the library of the House a record | :37:43. | :37:48. | |
of all one-to-one meetings that have been held between the Communities' | :37:49. | :37:54. | |
Secretary and the Chancellor, with any council leader or chair of | :37:55. | :37:57. | |
social services anywhere in England? And can she explain, if there is no | :37:58. | :38:03. | |
special deal, why Surrey is the only county council to be allowed into | :38:04. | :38:10. | |
the business rates retention pilot when it's been denied to others? The | :38:11. | :38:19. | |
business rate retention pilot will be coming into force for a number of | :38:20. | :38:25. | |
councils this April. That includes, as I have already said in answer to | :38:26. | :38:31. | |
his earlier question, Liverpool, Greater Manchester, Greater London, | :38:32. | :38:35. | |
and some others. In 2019-20, it's going to be available to 100% of | :38:36. | :38:41. | |
councils. For 2018-19, councils are able to apply to the part of a | :38:42. | :38:46. | |
further pilot. That goes for all councils across the country. The | :38:47. | :38:53. | |
text, Mr Speaker, said there was a memorandum of understanding. The | :38:54. | :38:55. | |
Prime Minister said there was no deal. She now is unclear about this. | :38:56. | :39:06. | |
Did she actually know what arrangement was made with Surrey | :39:07. | :39:09. | |
County Council? She is unkeen on answering questions on that. There | :39:10. | :39:16. | |
is another area of deep concern over the whole country. Could the Prime | :39:17. | :39:22. | |
Minister tell us how many new school places will be needed by 2020? Can I | :39:23. | :39:29. | |
just say to the right honourable gentleman that really he should | :39:30. | :39:33. | |
listen to the answers I give before he asks the next question. He said I | :39:34. | :39:38. | |
didn't answer the question about a special deal for Surrey. I think | :39:39. | :39:43. | |
I've answered it now three times but I'll do it a fourth time tl.s no | :39:44. | :39:46. | |
special deal for Surrey that was not available to other councils. Mr | :39:47. | :39:54. | |
Speaker, the Prime Minister was also asked a question just a moment ago | :39:55. | :39:59. | |
about the number of new school places needed by 2020, perhaps she | :40:00. | :40:04. | |
could explain why we have a crisis in school places and class sizes | :40:05. | :40:07. | |
soaring, thanks to her Government? So what is the answer on the number | :40:08. | :40:11. | |
of new school places needed, Prime Minister? Well, this Government has | :40:12. | :40:21. | |
a policy, which is about increasing the number of school places but | :40:22. | :40:26. | |
doing more than that. I want to increase the number of good school | :40:27. | :40:30. | |
places, so that every child has an opportunity to go to a good school. | :40:31. | :40:33. | |
That's what the money we are putting into education is about. It includes | :40:34. | :40:40. | |
money for new free schools - those will be faith schools, university | :40:41. | :40:44. | |
schools, comprehensives, grammar schools, university schools I have | :40:45. | :40:48. | |
said, maths schools. There will be a diversity because what I want is a | :40:49. | :40:53. | |
good school place for every child and parents to have a choice. What | :40:54. | :40:57. | |
the right honourable gentlemanp wants is parents to take what | :40:58. | :41:06. | |
they're given, good or bad. Mr Speaker, the National Audit Office | :41:07. | :41:10. | |
tell us that a very large number of new school places are needed, | :41:11. | :41:14. | |
420,000, nothing she's said gets anywhere near to that. Instead, she | :41:15. | :41:19. | |
proposes a flagship scheme to build the wrong schools in the wrong | :41:20. | :41:23. | |
place, spending millions of vanity projects of grammar schools and free | :41:24. | :41:29. | |
schools, whilst at the same time per pupil funding is falling in real | :41:30. | :41:37. | |
terms. It is time that this colossal waste of money was addressed. It is | :41:38. | :41:42. | |
doing nothing to help the vast majority of children, doing not to | :41:43. | :41:48. | |
help with soaring class sizes. That's what this country wants, not | :41:49. | :41:52. | |
vanity projects from her Government. It is no vanity project to want | :41:53. | :41:56. | |
every child to have a good school place. The majority of free schools | :41:57. | :42:02. | |
- the majority of free schools that have been opened, have been opened | :42:03. | :42:06. | |
in areas where there is a need for school places and the majority have | :42:07. | :42:11. | |
been opened actually in areas of disadvantage, where they are helping | :42:12. | :42:14. | |
the very children we want to see get thep opportunity to get on in life. | :42:15. | :42:17. | |
But I have to say to the right honourable gentleman, this is about | :42:18. | :42:21. | |
a fairer society and on this Budget Day, what we see is we are securing | :42:22. | :42:25. | |
the economy Labour want it weaken it. We are working for a fairer | :42:26. | :42:32. | |
society. Labour oppose every single reform. We're fighting for the best | :42:33. | :42:37. | |
deal for Britain, Labour are fighting among themselves. That's | :42:38. | :42:42. | |
Labour, weak, divided and unfit to govern this great country. Thank | :42:43. | :42:57. | |
you, Mr Speaker. This week it is likely that in my area four people | :42:58. | :43:01. | |
will suffer a stroke. With this in mind and given that the highly | :43:02. | :43:09. | |
successful stroke strategy expires this year, will my honourable friend | :43:10. | :43:19. | |
update the stroke strategy which and put in place schemes that can | :43:20. | :43:24. | |
increase the outcomes. The NHS wants to continue to build on the success | :43:25. | :43:27. | |
he is of the current stroke strategy there. Have been huge improvements. | :43:28. | :43:32. | |
We all recognise huge improvements over the last decade in stroke care | :43:33. | :43:36. | |
and we want to deliver our ambition for truly world-leading care. On the | :43:37. | :43:40. | |
particular treatment she refers to, I understand the NHS has improved | :43:41. | :43:45. | |
the use of mechanical clot retrieval in specific cases. It does | :43:46. | :43:49. | |
rigorously audit the quality of stroke care across the country so we | :43:50. | :43:52. | |
can make sure we are delivering on our commitments and we have some of | :43:53. | :43:56. | |
the fastest improvement in hospital recovery rates for stroke and heart | :43:57. | :44:01. | |
attacks in Europe. On International Women's Day, we wish all campaigners | :44:02. | :44:09. | |
for equality well, including the Waspy campaigners. Mr Speaker, the | :44:10. | :44:14. | |
cross-parliamentary Brexit committee has recommended the UK must | :44:15. | :44:18. | |
guarantee the status of EU nationals living in the UK and act | :44:19. | :44:22. | |
unilaterally, if necessary. The committee then went on to say that | :44:23. | :44:27. | |
the current process for consideration of the permanent | :44:28. | :44:30. | |
residency applications is not fit for purpose and in the absence of | :44:31. | :44:34. | |
any contrary resolution to relieve the anxiety, felt by the #12i789ed 3 | :44:35. | :44:41. | |
million EU citizens resident in the UK, it is -- felt by the 3 million | :44:42. | :44:47. | |
EU citizens, it is untenable as it now stands. Given the positive | :44:48. | :44:50. | |
contribution thae. U nationals make to this country, what concrete plans | :44:51. | :44:53. | |
does the Prime Minister have to deal with this? As the right honourable | :44:54. | :44:57. | |
gentleman knows, we do want to have an early agreement, which will | :44:58. | :45:01. | |
enable us to guarantee the status of EU citizens living in the UK but | :45:02. | :45:09. | |
also, we need to guarantee the status of UK citizens living in the | :45:10. | :45:12. | |
European Union. As regards the process of application, the Home | :45:13. | :45:16. | |
Office are looking at this, as they always do, looking regularly at how | :45:17. | :45:18. | |
they can improve the systems and simplify them. | :45:19. | :45:24. | |
Mr Speaker, since 2010, the Home Office has seen its full-time staff | :45:25. | :45:31. | |
equivalent cut by 10% so at current rates of processing applications for | :45:32. | :45:34. | |
permanent residency, it would take the Home Office more than 50 years. | :45:35. | :45:40. | |
50 years to deal with 3.2 million European nationals in the UK. This | :45:41. | :45:46. | |
is clearly totally and utterly unacceptable. So will the Prime | :45:47. | :45:50. | |
Minister tell us how quickly she hopes to be able to guarantee all | :45:51. | :45:53. | |
European nationals permanent residence? I would say to the right | :45:54. | :46:00. | |
honourable gentleman, you can't just say and stand up because actually | :46:01. | :46:03. | |
the Home Office is getting more efficient, it's going to be longer | :46:04. | :46:06. | |
for answers to be given to these people. Yes, the Home Office is | :46:07. | :46:11. | |
getting more efficient at how it is dealing with these things. I don't | :46:12. | :46:15. | |
know if he's ever heard about technology but these days, actually, | :46:16. | :46:17. | |
people apply online and they are dealt with online. Following the | :46:18. | :46:26. | |
recent findings of the study on terror convictions in Britain, it is | :46:27. | :46:29. | |
clear there are serious problems with how communities integrate into | :46:30. | :46:34. | |
society, and the danger that this lack of integration, leading to acts | :46:35. | :46:38. | |
of terror. Will the Prime Minister update the house on the government's | :46:39. | :46:42. | |
counter extremism strategy and response to these findings? Again, | :46:43. | :46:46. | |
this is a very serious issue that my honourable friend has raised and the | :46:47. | :46:51. | |
government is taking a comprehensive approach to tackling terrorism, | :46:52. | :46:54. | |
violent extremism at source but also obviously through counter extremism | :46:55. | :46:58. | |
strategy, looking at extremism more widely. We want to defeat not just | :46:59. | :47:03. | |
terrorism and violent extremism but extremism wherever it occurs. We | :47:04. | :47:07. | |
will shortly publish a new counterterrorism strategy and in the | :47:08. | :47:10. | |
coming months, we will respond to Dame Louise Casey's report on | :47:11. | :47:14. | |
integration. But this is backed up by additional investment in the | :47:15. | :47:18. | |
security and intelligence agencies, 2.5 billion over five years and I | :47:19. | :47:21. | |
clear the government is doing everything it can to tackle issues | :47:22. | :47:24. | |
around integration, extremism and terrorism. I come from a Westminster | :47:25. | :47:34. | |
Hall debate on behalf of my young constituent, Sam, who is 11, who | :47:35. | :47:40. | |
developed narcolepsy as a result of receiving a vaccine to protect him | :47:41. | :47:44. | |
from swine flu. Sam's mother is in the gallery today. In rare and | :47:45. | :47:56. | |
devastating cases could the lease between pandemrix narcolepsy is | :47:57. | :47:59. | |
proven and yet families face a long legal battle with the government. | :48:00. | :48:02. | |
Will the Prime Minister today promised that no more of these | :48:03. | :48:04. | |
disabled children will be handing all the courts. -- handed through | :48:05. | :48:09. | |
the courts. Will she apologised to the families concerned and also | :48:10. | :48:12. | |
oversee payments to support the children's long-term care needs. Can | :48:13. | :48:17. | |
I first of all congratulate the honourable lady on securing the | :48:18. | :48:21. | |
Westminster Hall debate on this important topic. She referred to at | :48:22. | :48:24. | |
the end of her question to the issue of payments. Of course, I'm sure she | :48:25. | :48:30. | |
realises the vaccine damage payment scheme is not a compensation team | :48:31. | :48:33. | |
but a one-off tax-free lump sum which is paid to ease the burden of | :48:34. | :48:37. | |
those who are disabled as a result of vaccination and it is part of a | :48:38. | :48:41. | |
range of support provided. She has raised a very specific case and can | :48:42. | :48:45. | |
I suggest you learn that obviously, she's had that Westminster Hall | :48:46. | :48:48. | |
debate, we want to ensure the process is open and fair at every | :48:49. | :48:53. | |
stage. The DWP looks at every claim based on its own facts and if she | :48:54. | :48:57. | |
wants to write with the details, I'm sure my honourable friend the | :48:58. | :49:00. | |
Minister for disabled people, health and work will look into the specific | :49:01. | :49:05. | |
case she has raised. Closed question: Mr Michael Fabricant. | :49:06. | :49:11. | |
Question for, sir. While I won't speculate on the statement is my | :49:12. | :49:13. | |
right honourable friend the Chancellor will make very shortly, I | :49:14. | :49:17. | |
can assure my honourable friend that the fundamentals of our economy are | :49:18. | :49:22. | |
strong. Since 2010 from employment in the West Midlands has risen by | :49:23. | :49:26. | |
215000 and private sector employment alone grew by 80,000 over the last | :49:27. | :49:31. | |
year. We have also seen schools and police budgets being protected and | :49:32. | :49:34. | |
more doctors and nurses in his local hospitals. Michael Fabricant. And of | :49:35. | :49:40. | |
course, we have also witnessed the post Brexit vote of confidence from | :49:41. | :49:45. | |
Nissan, Boeing and Dyson, investing in other parts of the country. Good | :49:46. | :49:49. | |
my right honourable friend speak a bit more about firms like Jaguar | :49:50. | :49:55. | |
Land Rover in the West Midlands? I'm happy to say to my honourable friend | :49:56. | :49:59. | |
that of course in the wider sense, our plans for the Midland engine | :50:00. | :50:03. | |
show we want an economy that works for everyone. We have already | :50:04. | :50:08. | |
confirmed over 330 million in the Croasdale funding, money going to | :50:09. | :50:12. | |
the West Midlands engine investment fund, the Birmingham rail hub but it | :50:13. | :50:15. | |
is important to recognise the investment being made in the UK by | :50:16. | :50:19. | |
companies like Jaguar Land Rover who will be building their new range | :50:20. | :50:23. | |
Rover model in Solihull. That is very good news for the West | :50:24. | :50:27. | |
Midlands. It is also very good news for the British economy and is a | :50:28. | :50:30. | |
sign of the confidence Jaguar Land Rover has in the UK for the future. | :50:31. | :50:36. | |
Gordon Marsden. Mr Speaker, my casebook is now full of the anxiety | :50:37. | :50:40. | |
is the DWP and Home Office are imposing on the honourable | :50:41. | :50:45. | |
constituents, including officials' devs to overturn tribunal decisions | :50:46. | :50:48. | |
protecting benefits and residents, including a family settled here for | :50:49. | :50:54. | |
eight years and a man with a severe brain injury. Can I ask the Prime | :50:55. | :50:57. | |
Minister if she wants people to respect Brexit means Brexit, | :50:58. | :50:59. | |
shouldn't she respect that tribunal 's mean tribunal is, and not try to | :51:00. | :51:06. | |
block them with grubby regulations, affecting 164,000 disabled people? | :51:07. | :51:12. | |
If the right honourable gentleman is referring to the decision that has | :51:13. | :51:16. | |
been taken in relation to the courts and the personal independence | :51:17. | :51:19. | |
payments, as I explained in this house last week, as has been | :51:20. | :51:22. | |
explained by the Secretary of State, this is about restoring the system | :51:23. | :51:30. | |
to the state that it was intended to be when Parliament agreed it. It was | :51:31. | :51:35. | |
agreed by the coalition government, agreed by this Parliament, after | :51:36. | :51:39. | |
extensive consultation. Mark Menzies. Mr Speaker, in National | :51:40. | :51:43. | |
apprenticeship week, it is important to recognise this government's | :51:44. | :51:47. | |
commitment to investment and commitment in apprenticeships and | :51:48. | :51:51. | |
skills. Would the Prime Minister look at encouraging a greater | :51:52. | :51:53. | |
commitment to degree apprenticeships as part of the government strategy, | :51:54. | :51:59. | |
as championed in businesses in my constituency like BAE Systems who | :52:00. | :52:01. | |
have been at the forefront of developing these new programmes | :52:02. | :52:05. | |
through its engineering degree apprenticeships scheme? My right | :52:06. | :52:08. | |
honourable friend has raised a very important issue at, as we look to | :52:09. | :52:12. | |
the future, we want to ensure that people in the UK have the skills | :52:13. | :52:16. | |
they need for the economy of the future, degree apprenticeships will | :52:17. | :52:19. | |
be an important part of this and as he refers to specifically, there are | :52:20. | :52:22. | |
companies like BAE Systems which have been right at the forefront of | :52:23. | :52:26. | |
developing those new programmes. I am pleased to say that overall, if | :52:27. | :52:31. | |
we look at apprenticeships, the apprenticeship levy will take the | :52:32. | :52:35. | |
total investment in England, ?2.45 billion, double what was spent in | :52:36. | :52:39. | |
2010. That means it is more opportunities for young people to | :52:40. | :52:42. | |
gain the skills they need for the future. Dan Jarvis. Tomorrow, a | :52:43. | :52:47. | |
memorial will be unveiled to those men and women who served our country | :52:48. | :52:53. | |
in Afghanistan and Iraq. Does the Prime Minister agree that we should | :52:54. | :52:57. | |
all pay tribute to their service and commemorate their sacrifice? Not | :52:58. | :53:02. | |
just with a memorial but through a commitment to learn from the past | :53:03. | :53:09. | |
and do better in the future. The honourable gentleman raises a very | :53:10. | :53:13. | |
important point. This will be a very significant ceremony when this | :53:14. | :53:17. | |
memorial is unveiled and we should all, I think, across this house, | :53:18. | :53:20. | |
paid tribute to those whom that memorial will be recognising, for | :53:21. | :53:28. | |
the sacrifice they made. Those in our Armed Forces but also all those | :53:29. | :53:33. | |
civilians who worked to deliver aid and health care and education. It is | :53:34. | :53:36. | |
important that we recognise the sacrifices made by our Armed Forces | :53:37. | :53:42. | |
and also by their families. That will be a significant moment | :53:43. | :53:45. | |
tomorrow. We are very clear that we do need to learn the lessons from | :53:46. | :53:49. | |
the past and that is exactly what we will do. Johnny Mercer. Thank you, | :53:50. | :53:56. | |
Mr Speaker, and I was delighted with the Prime Minister's intervention in | :53:57. | :53:58. | |
that it was in January which I still feel has not had the attention it | :53:59. | :54:03. | |
deserves. -- intervention in mental health. In Plymouth, we are | :54:04. | :54:07. | |
completely reconfiguring services because we realise parity of esteem | :54:08. | :54:10. | |
means nothing without parity or provision. Will the Prime Minister, | :54:11. | :54:14. | |
visit Plymouth and see some of the pioneering work we are doing, and | :54:15. | :54:17. | |
perhaps in national mental health week in May where I am hoping | :54:18. | :54:21. | |
Plymouth will take a national lead? I thank my honourable friend because | :54:22. | :54:25. | |
I know this is an issue he has championed and it is very close to | :54:26. | :54:29. | |
his areas of concern. He's done a lot of lot of work on mental is | :54:30. | :54:39. | |
important as he talks about the parity of esteem, which the | :54:40. | :54:41. | |
government has introduced, and more money is going into mental health | :54:42. | :54:43. | |
provision than ever before. I would certainly be delighted to see the | :54:44. | :54:45. | |
work done in Plymouth provided my diary allows it. Julie Cooper. In my | :54:46. | :54:50. | |
constituency of Burnley, primary and secondary schools are severely | :54:51. | :54:55. | |
underfunded. Maintained nursery schools are struggling to survive. | :54:56. | :54:59. | |
Why that at this time, when we cannot adequately fund the schools | :55:00. | :55:03. | |
we already have, if the Prime Minister suggesting spending | :55:04. | :55:04. | |
millions of pounds creating new grammar schools that will help only | :55:05. | :55:11. | |
a minority of children? This is as unfair as the new funding formula | :55:12. | :55:14. | |
and will do nothing to help social mobility. Let's be clearer about | :55:15. | :55:21. | |
what the government has done. There are record amounts of funding going | :55:22. | :55:29. | |
into education in this country. The Conservative led government | :55:30. | :55:31. | |
introduced the pupil premium. The Conservative government has | :55:32. | :55:34. | |
protected the core schools Budget. When it comes to new money that will | :55:35. | :55:38. | |
be going into schools as a result of today's announcements, that money is | :55:39. | :55:42. | |
not about a return to a binary system of grammar schools and | :55:43. | :55:45. | |
secondary moderns. That is not what we are going to do. What we are | :55:46. | :55:51. | |
doing is ensuring we give a diversity of provision so yes, | :55:52. | :55:55. | |
grammar schools but comprehensives, faith schools, universities ghouls, | :55:56. | :55:59. | |
maths schools. What I want is a good school place for every child, and | :56:00. | :56:04. | |
more than that, the right school place for every child. Amanda | :56:05. | :56:10. | |
Milling. On this International Women's Day, it is absolutely | :56:11. | :56:14. | |
fantastic we have the highest female employment rate on record. We have | :56:15. | :56:19. | |
the highest percentage of women on FTSE 100 boards on record. The | :56:20. | :56:23. | |
gender pay gap is at the lowest on record. And we have an amazing | :56:24. | :56:34. | |
female Prime Minister. CHEERS AND JEERS. Never, Bill -- however, I'm | :56:35. | :56:45. | |
sure the Prime Minister will agree there much more to do, in particular | :56:46. | :56:49. | |
supporting women back to work after a career break. Can my right | :56:50. | :56:52. | |
honourable friend outline what more the government are going to do to | :56:53. | :56:59. | |
level the playing field? I thank my honourable friend for her question. | :57:00. | :57:03. | |
When I stood on the steps of Downing Street last July, and talked about a | :57:04. | :57:06. | |
country that works for everyone, I meant that and that is why we are | :57:07. | :57:12. | |
taking a number of measures... Including an International Women's | :57:13. | :57:17. | |
Day, today, and we will be setting up a new fund to help mothers | :57:18. | :57:20. | |
returning to work after a long career break. Returnships are | :57:21. | :57:29. | |
important and open to both men and women but it is important to | :57:30. | :57:32. | |
recognise the majority of those who take time out of a career women who | :57:33. | :57:35. | |
are devoting themselves for motherhood -- demanded for a period | :57:36. | :57:38. | |
and often getting back into employment is difficult and they | :57:39. | :57:41. | |
find it closed off which is why it makes economic sense but it is also | :57:42. | :57:44. | |
right unfair for those women that we provide for the returnships to get | :57:45. | :57:52. | |
them back in the workplace. Everyone agrees that early years education is | :57:53. | :57:56. | |
crucial for the welfare and future of our children. However, nurseries | :57:57. | :58:01. | |
in my constituency tell me that the funding for 30 hours for free | :58:02. | :58:04. | |
childcare is not sufficient and not enough and many of them will be | :58:05. | :58:09. | |
forced to close. What steps will the Prime Minister take to ensure those | :58:10. | :58:15. | |
nurseries don't close? Can I say to the honourable lady, she talks about | :58:16. | :58:18. | |
the 30 hours that is being introduced, if you just look at what | :58:19. | :58:22. | |
we are doing on childcare, we have introduced 15 hours free childcare a | :58:23. | :58:25. | |
week for three and four-year-old is already, 15 hours free childcare for | :58:26. | :58:31. | |
disadvantaged -year-olds and help win up to 70% of childcare costs for | :58:32. | :58:34. | |
people on low incomes and shared parental leave and we will spend a | :58:35. | :58:38. | |
record ?6 billion on childcare support by end of this Parliament. | :58:39. | :58:44. | |
It is this Conservative government, conservatives in government have the | :58:45. | :58:48. | |
record of supporting parents in relation to childcare needs. | :58:49. | :58:53. | |
Michelle Brooke. Does my right honourable friend agree with me that | :58:54. | :58:59. | |
it is indefensible for the police and crime commission in west | :59:00. | :59:01. | |
Yorkshire to be raising council tax precept when he's got ?120 million | :59:02. | :59:07. | |
in reserve and overspent this year's Budget by ?4 million? -- Alec | :59:08. | :59:12. | |
Shelbrooke. Can I say to my honourable friend, the decision | :59:13. | :59:14. | |
about what to do on the police precept on council tax is a matter | :59:15. | :59:18. | |
for the directly elected police and crime commission for West Yorkshire | :59:19. | :59:22. | |
as it is in every area that has a policing crime commission. But I | :59:23. | :59:24. | |
would encourage those commissioners to look at ways of introducing | :59:25. | :59:30. | |
efficiencies into their forces before looking to increase local | :59:31. | :59:33. | |
taxes. I think what we have seen over the last six years is that | :59:34. | :59:38. | |
police forces can find sensible savings and can reduce crime at the | :59:39. | :59:39. | |
same time. Brian Davis. Mr Speaker commune at the Royal | :59:40. | :59:51. | |
College of physicians have found that 40,000 people die prematurely | :59:52. | :59:54. | |
each year from diesel pollution at a cost of ?20 million to the economy, | :59:55. | :00:00. | |
and that YouGov have found 45% of diesel drivers are willing to | :00:01. | :00:04. | |
switch, given the right scrappage or tax incentive schemes. So will she | :00:05. | :00:08. | |
today commit to a fiscal strategy and a new clean air act to put us on | :00:09. | :00:16. | |
a new, cleaner, healthier trajectory, to take global | :00:17. | :00:19. | |
leadership rather than be dragged into the courts to fulfil basic EU | :00:20. | :00:25. | |
air quality standards? As the honourable gentleman will know, we | :00:26. | :00:28. | |
are looking at the measures that we need to introduced to improve air | :00:29. | :00:31. | |
quality. There has been improvements in recent years but we do need to go | :00:32. | :00:36. | |
further and that is what the government is looking at across | :00:37. | :00:40. | |
departments, obviously, with the Department for environment, food and | :00:41. | :00:44. | |
rural affairs actually paying most attention to that because it is in | :00:45. | :00:49. | |
their remit and we will bring proposals on air quality forward in | :00:50. | :00:51. | |
due course. International Women's Day is a | :00:52. | :01:00. | |
chance to reflect on how governments and democracies across the world | :01:01. | :01:02. | |
serve women. Will my right honourable friend confirm that when | :01:03. | :01:07. | |
it comes to female Prime Ministers, it's 2-0 to the Conservatives? | :01:08. | :01:22. | |
Well, I'm grateful to my honourable friend for having pointed that out, | :01:23. | :01:28. | |
which I refrained from doing earlier in response to questions but I think | :01:29. | :01:32. | |
it is very telling that the Labour Party spend a lot of time talking | :01:33. | :01:35. | |
about rights for women and giving support to women and getting women | :01:36. | :01:39. | |
on, whereas it's a Conservative Party that is the party, in this | :01:40. | :01:45. | |
House, that has provided two female Prime Ministers. | :01:46. | :01:49. | |
Thank you, Mr speaker. Will the Prime Minister give an undertaking | :01:50. | :01:56. | |
that any new Scotland Act will only be drafted after full consultation | :01:57. | :02:00. | |
with the people of Scotland, and with the consent of the Scottish | :02:01. | :02:10. | |
Parliament? I would say to the honourable lady, I'm not sure if | :02:11. | :02:13. | |
she's referring to discusses currently taking place about the | :02:14. | :02:19. | |
powers that might be available to the devolved administrations | :02:20. | :02:23. | |
available to the devolved administrations when we discuss to | :02:24. | :02:27. | |
leave the EU but we knows full well that we all... | :02:28. | :02:39. | |
Crowd Comms a business in my constituency operates out of its | :02:40. | :02:46. | |
small market down and has offices in Seattle and Sydney. And it has | :02:47. | :02:55. | |
high-quality jobs for people available themselves of fast | :02:56. | :02:57. | |
broadband and telephone communication. This is the recipe | :02:58. | :03:01. | |
for growing the rural economy. Will my right honourable friend ensure it | :03:02. | :03:05. | |
undertake her Government does all that it can to I will can the | :03:06. | :03:08. | |
blackspots in rural areas? I can assure my honourable friend that we | :03:09. | :03:12. | |
want to ensure we are doing that. My right honourable friend the | :03:13. | :03:14. | |
Secretary of State for Culture, media and sport is looking at our | :03:15. | :03:18. | |
digital strategy and ensuring broadband is available in rural | :03:19. | :03:22. | |
areas and indeed at good speeds in other areas which might be less | :03:23. | :03:25. | |
rural than my honourable friend's conzitcy. | :03:26. | :03:33. | |
-- constituency. THE SPEAKER: Finally, Mr Tim Farron. Thank you Mr | :03:34. | :03:43. | |
Speaker. Order, order. I don't know why honourable members are cheering | :03:44. | :03:47. | |
because it is finally or the popularity of the honourable | :03:48. | :03:50. | |
gentleman. You are very uncharacterically kind. Mr Speaker | :03:51. | :03:54. | |
on International Women's Day we stand with women and girls across | :03:55. | :03:58. | |
the world and note with resolve that we must take not for granted the | :03:59. | :04:01. | |
progress we have made towards equality over the last few decades. | :04:02. | :04:06. | |
Mr Speaker, yesterday we heard that hundreds of families of soldiers who | :04:07. | :04:11. | |
died in Iraq and Afghanistan have been denied seats at tomorrow's | :04:12. | :04:14. | |
unveiling of the memorial to our fallen troops. Inviting a relative | :04:15. | :04:19. | |
of each of those killed in Iraq and Afghanistan would have taken up | :04:20. | :04:24. | |
fewer than one-third of the 2,500 seats at that event. Will she now | :04:25. | :04:28. | |
apologise to those families for what I assume is a careless oversight and | :04:29. | :04:35. | |
rectify that mistake immediately to the so bereaved families can come | :04:36. | :04:39. | |
and pay their respects to their fallen loved ones? Can I reassure | :04:40. | :04:42. | |
the honourable gentleman to assure him that charitable groups | :04:43. | :04:46. | |
representing the bereaved were asked to put forward names I have a | :04:47. | :04:50. | |
tendees and we look forward to welcoming so we can acknowledge the | :04:51. | :04:53. | |
sacrifice their loved ones made. Over half of those attending | :04:54. | :04:57. | |
tomorrow are current or members of Armed Forces. No-one from the | :04:58. | :05:02. | |
bereaved community has been turned away and everyone who has applied | :05:03. | :05:06. | |
has been successful. I am' reassured if there are any bereaved families | :05:07. | :05:11. | |
who wish to attend the Ministry of Defence will make every effort to | :05:12. | :05:14. | |
ensure that they can do so. Speak speak order. | :05:15. | :05:18. | |
Prime Minister's Questions comes to a close, and we now | :05:19. | :05:20. | |
have a change in the Speaker's Chair. | :05:21. | :05:26. | |
We are now getting towards the Budget statement. | :05:27. | :05:32. | |
By tradition, the principal Deputy Speaker, currently | :05:33. | :05:34. | |
the Labour MP Lindsay Hoyle, also known as the Chairman of Ways | :05:35. | :05:37. | |
and Means, takes the chair for the Budget statement. | :05:38. | :05:40. | |
Proposals for raising taxation used to originate | :05:41. | :05:45. | |
So we are getting ready for the budget. | :05:46. | :05:57. | |
Thank you Mr Deputy Speaker. I report today on an economy that has | :05:58. | :06:03. | |
continued to confound the commentators with robust growth. A | :06:04. | :06:08. | |
labour market delivering record employment and a deficit down by | :06:09. | :06:12. | |
over two-thirds. As we start our negotiations to exit the European | :06:13. | :06:16. | |
Union, this Budget takes forward our plans to prepare Britain for a | :06:17. | :06:22. | |
brighter future. It provides a strong and stable platform for those | :06:23. | :06:26. | |
negotiations. It extends opportunity to all our young people. It delivers | :06:27. | :06:31. | |
further investment in our public services, and it continues the task | :06:32. | :06:35. | |
of getting Britain back to living within its means. We are building | :06:36. | :06:39. | |
the foundations of a stronger, fairer, more global Britain. Mr | :06:40. | :06:46. | |
Deputy Speaker, as the House knows, this will be the last Spring Budget. | :06:47. | :06:50. | |
The Treasury has helpfully reminded me that I am not the first | :06:51. | :06:55. | |
Chancellor to announce the last Spring Budget. 24 years ago, Norman | :06:56. | :07:00. | |
Lamont also presented what was billed then as the last Spring | :07:01. | :07:05. | |
Budget. He reported on an economy that was growing faster than any | :07:06. | :07:12. | |
other in the G7 and he continued to commit to restraint in public | :07:13. | :07:15. | |
spending. The then Prime Minister described it as the right Budget at | :07:16. | :07:19. | |
the right time, from the right Chancellor. What they failed to | :07:20. | :07:24. | |
remind me, Mr Deputy Speaker, was that ten weeks later he was sacked. | :07:25. | :07:33. | |
So, wish me luck today. Mr Deputy Speaker, last year the British | :07:34. | :07:37. | |
economy grew faster than the United States, faster than Japan, faster | :07:38. | :07:41. | |
than France. Indeed amongst the major advanced economies, Britain's | :07:42. | :07:45. | |
economic growth n 2016 was second only to Germany. Employment is at a | :07:46. | :07:52. | |
record high. Unemployment is at an 11-year low, with over 2.7 million | :07:53. | :07:57. | |
more people enjoying the security and dignity of work than in 2010. A | :07:58. | :08:02. | |
very far cry from the 3 million unemployed predicted by the party | :08:03. | :08:05. | |
opposite. And I'm pleased to report, Mr Deputy | :08:06. | :08:09. | |
Speaker, on International Women's Day, that there is now a higher | :08:10. | :08:14. | |
proportion of women in the workforce than ever before. I'm even more | :08:15. | :08:19. | |
pleased to report, as my right honourable friend, the Prime | :08:20. | :08:21. | |
Minister has remarked, since February 23rd, there is a higher | :08:22. | :08:26. | |
proportion of women in work in the parliamentary Conservative Party. | :08:27. | :08:31. | |
But Mr Deputy Speaker, there is no room for complacency and you will | :08:32. | :08:36. | |
not find any on these benches. As we prepare for our future outside the | :08:37. | :08:40. | |
EU, we cannot rest on our past achievements. We must focus, | :08:41. | :08:44. | |
relentlessly, on keeping Britain at the cutting edge of the global | :08:45. | :08:49. | |
economy. The deficit is down, but debt is still too high. Employment | :08:50. | :08:55. | |
is up, but productivity remains stubbornly low. Too many of our | :08:56. | :08:59. | |
young people are leaving formal education without the skills they | :09:00. | :09:04. | |
need for today's labour market. And too many families are still feeling | :09:05. | :09:08. | |
the squeeze, almost a decade after the crash. So, our job is not done. | :09:09. | :09:15. | |
And our task today is to take the next steps in preparing Britain for | :09:16. | :09:20. | |
a global future - to quip our young people with the skills they need, to | :09:21. | :09:25. | |
support our public services and to help ordinary working families, as | :09:26. | :09:29. | |
we build an economy that works for everyone. | :09:30. | :09:36. | |
Mr Deputy Speaker, I thank the Office for Budget Responsibility for | :09:37. | :09:39. | |
their report received today. Let me take this opportunity to thank my | :09:40. | :09:43. | |
right honourable friend the Chief Secretary and my ministerial team | :09:44. | :09:48. | |
who really are the unsung heroes of the Budget, doing much of the heavy | :09:49. | :09:54. | |
lifting over the last few weeks and of course my excellent PPS, my right | :09:55. | :09:59. | |
honourable friend. I turn now, Mr Deputy Speaker, to | :10:00. | :10:07. | |
the OBR forecast. This is the spread sheet bit but bear with me, because | :10:08. | :10:12. | |
I have a reputation to defend. The OBR forecast the level of GDP for | :10:13. | :10:19. | |
20221 to be broadly the same as at Autumn Statement however the path we | :10:20. | :10:21. | |
get there has changed. Reflecting the recent strength in the economy, | :10:22. | :10:27. | |
the OBR has upgraded its forecast for growth this year, next year, | :10:28. | :10:32. | |
from 1.4% to 2%. And Mr Deputy Speaker, I don't see too many people | :10:33. | :10:39. | |
on the Opposition front bench doing this. In 2018-19, growth is forecast | :10:40. | :10:54. | |
to slow to 1.6%, before picking up to approximate 1.7%, then 1.9%, | :10:55. | :11:00. | |
returning to 2% in 2021. Resilience in the economy is | :11:01. | :11:04. | |
reflected in a strong labour market. Since 2010, the employment rate has | :11:05. | :11:10. | |
risen from 70.2, to 74.6, with positive news for all parts of the | :11:11. | :11:15. | |
United Kingdom. Unemployment has fallen fastest in Yorkshire and the | :11:16. | :11:21. | |
Humber and Wales. Wages have grown fastest in Northern Ireland. And | :11:22. | :11:25. | |
productivity has grown fastest in Scotland and in the north-east. | :11:26. | :11:30. | |
And this positive trend is set to continue over the forecast period. | :11:31. | :11:34. | |
The number of people in employment is set to grow in every year, with a | :11:35. | :11:40. | |
further two-thirds of a million people in work by 2021. The OBR | :11:41. | :11:47. | |
forecast inflation at 2.4% this year, then 2.3% next year and 2% in | :11:48. | :11:52. | |
2019. And most importantly, Mr Deputy | :11:53. | :11:57. | |
Speaker, despite higher than target inflation, real wages continue to | :11:58. | :12:03. | |
rise in every year of the forecast. Mr Deputy Speaker, while the | :12:04. | :12:07. | |
economic forecasts are broadly unchanged since the autumn, the OBR | :12:08. | :12:13. | |
has substantially revised down its short-term forecast of public sector | :12:14. | :12:17. | |
net borrowing. The OBR attributes this change to a number of one-off | :12:18. | :12:21. | |
factors that they do not expect to lead to a structural improvement | :12:22. | :12:25. | |
over the forecast period. Combining these factors with the higher | :12:26. | :12:29. | |
short-term forecasts for growth and taking into account the measures | :12:30. | :12:34. | |
that I shall announce today, the OBR now forecasts borrowing in 2016-17 | :12:35. | :12:42. | |
to be ?16.4 billion lower than forecast in the autumn, at ?51.7 | :12:43. | :12:48. | |
billion. Then, ?58.3 billion in 2017-18, | :12:49. | :12:56. | |
?40.8 billion in 18-19. ?21.4 billion, ?20.6 billion and finally | :12:57. | :13:05. | |
?16... In 21-22. All lower than forecast at Autumn Statement. | :13:06. | :13:08. | |
Over all, public sector net borrowing, as a percentage of GDP is | :13:09. | :13:15. | |
predicted to fall from 3.8% last year to 2.6% this year. And | :13:16. | :13:19. | |
forethose who care about such things, it means we are forecast to | :13:20. | :13:24. | |
meet our 3% EU be stability and growth pact target this year for the | :13:25. | :13:31. | |
first time in almost a decade. But I won't hold my breath, Mr Deputy | :13:32. | :13:43. | |
Speaker, for my congratulatory letter from Jean-Claude junker. | :13:44. | :13:45. | |
Borrowing is then forecast to be 2.9% in 17-19 and then to fall. | :13:46. | :14:01. | |
21-22 will be the lowest level in two decades. The OBR expect | :14:02. | :14:07. | |
cyclically adjusted public sector net borrowing to be 6.9% in 2020-21. | :14:08. | :14:17. | |
Giving us a #23rs target in the new fiscal rules, maintaining our fiscal | :14:18. | :14:21. | |
resilience over the period. The OBR's forecast of lower near-term | :14:22. | :14:24. | |
borrowing, coupled with recent strength in the economy, be means | :14:25. | :14:28. | |
lower debt across the period. The OBR now forecast that is debt will | :14:29. | :14:36. | |
rise to 86.6% this year before peaking at 88.8% next year. 1.4% | :14:37. | :14:41. | |
points lower than forecast in the autumn. It then falls in 2018-19, | :14:42. | :14:50. | |
for the first time since 2001-2, to 88.5%, and then continues to decline | :14:51. | :15:02. | |
to 86.9% in 1920, 83% in 20-21 and 79.8% in 21-22. Mr Deputy Speaker, | :15:03. | :15:08. | |
at the Autumn Statement, I set out our plan to return the politic | :15:09. | :15:11. | |
finances to balance in the next Parliament. A plan that is now | :15:12. | :15:13. | |
underpinned by our new fiscal rules. That plan strikes the right balance | :15:14. | :15:23. | |
between reducing the deficit, preserving fiscal flexibility and | :15:24. | :15:26. | |
investing in Britain's future. Some have argued that lower borrowing | :15:27. | :15:33. | |
this year makes a case for more unfunded spending in the future. I | :15:34. | :15:39. | |
disagree. Britain has a debt of nearly ?1.7 trillion. Almost ?62,000 | :15:40. | :15:47. | |
for every household in the country. Each year, we are spending ?50 | :15:48. | :15:53. | |
billion on debt interest, more than we spend on defence and policing | :15:54. | :15:59. | |
combined. And borrowing, over the forecast period, is still set to be | :16:00. | :16:06. | |
?100 billion higher than predicted at Budget 2016. So the only | :16:07. | :16:10. | |
responsible course of action, Mr Deputy Speaker, is to continue with | :16:11. | :16:14. | |
our plan, undeterred by any short-term fluctuations and | :16:15. | :16:23. | |
undistracted... Undistracted by the reckless policies advance by the | :16:24. | :16:31. | |
opposition. Because, Mr Deputy Speaker, we on this side will not | :16:32. | :16:35. | |
saddle our children with ever increasing debt. | :16:36. | :16:44. | |
SHOUTING Mr Deputy Speaker, I think the honourable members opposite may | :16:45. | :16:54. | |
need to have a word with their own front bench, which proposes | :16:55. | :16:58. | |
borrowing another ?500 billion to saddle our children and burden their | :16:59. | :17:03. | |
futures. So, Mr Deputy Speaker, the Budget I | :17:04. | :17:08. | |
set out today will again fund all additional spending decisions over | :17:09. | :17:12. | |
the forecast period. Mr Deputy Speaker, a strong economy needs a | :17:13. | :17:17. | |
fair, stable and competitive tax system, creating the growth that | :17:18. | :17:21. | |
will underpin our future prosperity. My ambition is for the UK to be the | :17:22. | :17:26. | |
best place in the world to start and grow a business. Under the last | :17:27. | :17:33. | |
Labour government, corporation tax 28%. By the way, they don't call it | :17:34. | :17:37. | |
the last Labour government for nothing! | :17:38. | :17:45. | |
From... From April this year, from April this year, it will fall to | :17:46. | :17:56. | |
19%, the lowest rate in the G20. In 2020, it will fall again to 17%, | :17:57. | :18:01. | |
sending the clearest possible signal that Britain is open for business. | :18:02. | :18:06. | |
Mr Deputy Speaker, I am listening to the voice of business. As I | :18:07. | :18:12. | |
committed at the Autumn Statement, we have reviewed with business hour | :18:13. | :18:16. | |
aren't the tax credit regime, the one place where I am not going to | :18:17. | :18:19. | |
hear the voice of business is from the benches opposite! -- our R tax | :18:20. | :18:32. | |
credit regime. We have done so, and we have concluded that it is | :18:33. | :18:36. | |
globally competitive. But to make the UK even more attractive for R, | :18:37. | :18:41. | |
we have accepted industry calls for a reduction in administrative | :18:42. | :18:44. | |
burdens around the scheme, and we will shortly bring forward measures | :18:45. | :18:48. | |
to deliver them. In a digital age, it is right that we develop a | :18:49. | :18:52. | |
digital tax system, but in response to concerns about the timetable | :18:53. | :18:57. | |
expressed by business organisations, and by several of my right | :18:58. | :19:02. | |
honourable friends, including the chairman of the Treasury Select | :19:03. | :19:06. | |
Committee, I have decided that for businesses with turnover below the | :19:07. | :19:10. | |
VAT registration threshold, I will delay by one year the introduction | :19:11. | :19:15. | |
of quarterly reporting, at a cost to the Exchequer of ?280 million. And I | :19:16. | :19:22. | |
have heard the cause by North Sea oil and gas producers and the | :19:23. | :19:25. | |
Scottish Government to provide further support for the transfer of | :19:26. | :19:29. | |
late life assets. As UK oil and gas production declines, it is | :19:30. | :19:34. | |
absolutely essential that we maximise exploitation of remaining | :19:35. | :19:38. | |
reserves, and so we will produce a formal discussion paper on the | :19:39. | :19:44. | |
options in due course. Mr Deputy Speaker, there is one further area | :19:45. | :19:48. | |
in which I can introduce action to back British businesses. My right | :19:49. | :19:50. | |
honourable friends community secretary and I have listened to the | :19:51. | :19:54. | |
concerns raised by colleagues in this House and by businesses about | :19:55. | :20:00. | |
the effect of the 2017 business rates revaluation. Business rates | :20:01. | :20:05. | |
raises ?25 billion a year, all of which, by 2020, will be going to | :20:06. | :20:09. | |
fund local government, so we cannot abolish them, as some have | :20:10. | :20:14. | |
suggested. But it is certainly true, in the medium term, that we have to | :20:15. | :20:18. | |
find a better way of taxing the digital part of the economy, the | :20:19. | :20:21. | |
parts that does not use bricks and mortar. But in the meantime, there | :20:22. | :20:27. | |
is scope to reform the revaluation process, making it smoother and more | :20:28. | :20:30. | |
frequent to avoid the dramatic increases that the present system | :20:31. | :20:35. | |
can do live. We will set out our preferred approach in due course, | :20:36. | :20:40. | |
and we will consult on it before the next revaluation is due. The | :20:41. | :20:48. | |
revaluation itself, Mr Deputy Speaker, is by law this Bill | :20:49. | :20:53. | |
neutral, and ahead of this revaluation, the Government | :20:54. | :20:56. | |
committed to a package of cuts to business rates now with nearly ?9 | :20:57. | :21:02. | |
billion. -- this can be neutral. It raises the threshold so that six and | :21:03. | :21:07. | |
a thousand small businesses are taken out of paying rates | :21:08. | :21:12. | |
altogether. But the revaluation has undoubtedly raised some hard cases, | :21:13. | :21:16. | |
especially for those businesses coming out of small business rates | :21:17. | :21:21. | |
relief. So today, as I promised many of my right honourable friends I | :21:22. | :21:24. | |
would, I address those concerns with three measures which applied to the | :21:25. | :21:28. | |
national business rate system for England. First, any business coming | :21:29. | :21:33. | |
out of small business rate relief will benefit from an additional cap. | :21:34. | :21:39. | |
No business losing small business rate relief will see their bill | :21:40. | :21:42. | |
increase next year by more than ?50 a month. And the subsequent | :21:43. | :21:47. | |
increases will be capped at either the transitional relief cap or ?50 a | :21:48. | :21:54. | |
month, whichever is higher. Second, recognising the valuable role that | :21:55. | :22:00. | |
local pubs play in our communities, I will provide a ?1000 discount on | :22:01. | :22:06. | |
business rates bills in 2017 for all pubs with a rateable value of less | :22:07. | :22:11. | |
than ?100,000. That is 90% of all pubs in England. And, third, I will, | :22:12. | :22:19. | |
on top of these two measures, I will provide local authorities with a | :22:20. | :22:23. | |
?300 million fund to deliver discretionary relief to target | :22:24. | :22:27. | |
individual hard cases in their local areas. This fund will be allocated | :22:28. | :22:35. | |
to local authorities by a formula, and my right honourable friend the | :22:36. | :22:38. | |
Communities Secretary will set out details in due course. Taken... | :22:39. | :22:48. | |
Taken together, Mr Deputy Speaker, this is a further ?435 million cut | :22:49. | :22:56. | |
in business rates, targeted at those small businesses facing the biggest | :22:57. | :23:01. | |
increases, protecting our pubs, and giving local authorities the | :23:02. | :23:04. | |
resource to respond flexibly to local circumstances. Mr Deputy | :23:05. | :23:10. | |
Speaker, just as a strong economy requires a tax system that is | :23:11. | :23:13. | |
competitive, a strong society requires one that is fair. Because I | :23:14. | :23:22. | |
have committed to funding my spending decisions, rather than | :23:23. | :23:26. | |
borrowing more, I make no podgy for raising additional revenues and for | :23:27. | :23:31. | |
doing so in ways which enhance the fairness of the system. -- I make no | :23:32. | :23:35. | |
apology. First and foremost, that means collecting the taxes that are | :23:36. | :23:41. | |
due. Since 2010, we have secured ?140 billion by taking robust action | :23:42. | :23:48. | |
to tackle avoidance, evasion and noncompliance. This has helped the | :23:49. | :23:53. | |
UK attain one of the lowest tax gaps in the world, but in this Budget we | :23:54. | :23:57. | |
set out further actions to stop businesses from converting capital | :23:58. | :24:00. | |
losses into trading losses, to tackle abuse of foreign pension | :24:01. | :24:06. | |
schemes, to introduce UK VAT on roaming telecoms outside the EU in | :24:07. | :24:09. | |
line with international standard practice, and from July we will | :24:10. | :24:15. | |
introduce a new financial penalty for professionals who enable a tax | :24:16. | :24:19. | |
avoidance arrangement that is later defeated by HMRC. Taken together, | :24:20. | :24:26. | |
these measures will raise ?820 million over the forecast period. | :24:27. | :24:32. | |
But, Mr Deputy Speaker, as well as collecting taxes that are due, a | :24:33. | :24:37. | |
fair system ensures that those with the broadest shoulders bear the | :24:38. | :24:41. | |
heaviest burden. As a result of the changes we have made since 2010, the | :24:42. | :24:49. | |
top 1% of income taxpayers now pay 27% of all income tax, a higher | :24:50. | :24:55. | |
proportion than in any year under the last Labour government. But a | :24:56. | :25:02. | |
fair system, a fair system will also ensure fairness between individuals, | :25:03. | :25:06. | |
so that people doing similar work for some low wages, and enjoying | :25:07. | :25:12. | |
similar state benefits, pay similar levels of tax. As our economy | :25:13. | :25:16. | |
responds to the challenges of globalisation, shifting demographics | :25:17. | :25:19. | |
and the emergence of new technologies, we've seen a dramatic | :25:20. | :25:24. | |
increase in the number of people working as self-employed or through | :25:25. | :25:27. | |
their own companies, indeed many of our most highly paid professionals | :25:28. | :25:31. | |
work through limited liability partnerships and are treated as | :25:32. | :25:36. | |
seldom ploy. There are many good reasons for choosing to be | :25:37. | :25:39. | |
self-employed, or working through a company. Indeed, Mr Deputy Speaker, | :25:40. | :25:45. | |
I have done both in my time. And I will always encourage and support | :25:46. | :25:49. | |
the entrepreneurs and the innovators who are the lifeblood of our | :25:50. | :25:52. | |
economy, people should have choices about how they work, but the choice | :25:53. | :26:00. | |
should not be judged primarily by differences in tax treatment. My | :26:01. | :26:03. | |
right honourable friend the Prime Minister has asked Matthew Taylor, | :26:04. | :26:07. | |
the chief executive of the RSA, to consider the wider implications of | :26:08. | :26:11. | |
different employment practices and I look forward to his final report in | :26:12. | :26:16. | |
the summer, and I am grateful to him for sharing his preliminary | :26:17. | :26:18. | |
thoughts. He is clear that differences in tax treatment are a | :26:19. | :26:23. | |
key driver behind the trends we are observing, a conclusion which is | :26:24. | :26:27. | |
shared by the IFS and the Resolution Foundation. An employee earning | :26:28. | :26:33. | |
?32,000 will incur between him and his employer ?6,170 of national | :26:34. | :26:41. | |
insurance contributions. A self-employed person earning the | :26:42. | :26:47. | |
equivalent amount will pay just ?2300, significantly less than half | :26:48. | :26:55. | |
as much. Historically, the differences in NICs reflected a | :26:56. | :27:01. | |
difference in state pension entitlement and contributory welfare | :27:02. | :27:03. | |
benefits, but with the introduction of the new state pension last year, | :27:04. | :27:07. | |
these differences have been very substantially reduced. Self-employed | :27:08. | :27:12. | |
workers now build up the same entitlement to a state pension as | :27:13. | :27:17. | |
employees, a big pension boost for the self employed. The most | :27:18. | :27:21. | |
significant remaining area of difference is in relation to | :27:22. | :27:25. | |
parental benefits, and I can announce today that we will consult | :27:26. | :27:28. | |
in the summer on options to address the disparities in this area, as the | :27:29. | :27:36. | |
FSB and others have proposed. Mr Deputy Speaker, the difference in | :27:37. | :27:38. | |
national insurance contributions is no longer justified by the | :27:39. | :27:44. | |
difference in benefit entitlements. Such dramatically different | :27:45. | :27:46. | |
treatment of two people earning essentially the same undermines the | :27:47. | :27:52. | |
fairness of our tax system. Employed and self-employed alike, use our | :27:53. | :27:58. | |
public services in the same way, but they are not paying for them in the | :27:59. | :28:02. | |
same way. The lower national insurance paid by the self-employed | :28:03. | :28:08. | |
is forecast to cost our public finance billions this year alone. | :28:09. | :28:13. | |
This is not fair to the 85% of workers who are employees. The | :28:14. | :28:19. | |
abolition of class two NICs for self employed people, announced by my | :28:20. | :28:22. | |
right honourable friend the member for Tatton in 2016, and due to take | :28:23. | :28:28. | |
effect in 2018, would further increase the gap between employment | :28:29. | :28:32. | |
and self-employment. To be able to support our public services in this | :28:33. | :28:38. | |
Budget, and to improve the fairness of the system, I will act to reduce | :28:39. | :28:42. | |
the gap to better reflect the current differences in state | :28:43. | :28:47. | |
benefits. I have considered, Mr Deputy Speaker, the possibility of | :28:48. | :28:51. | |
simply reversing the decision to abolish class two contributions, but | :28:52. | :28:56. | |
the class two NIC is aggressive and outdated. It is absolutely right | :28:57. | :29:01. | |
that it should go, so instead, from April 2018, when it is abolished, | :29:02. | :29:06. | |
the main rate of class four NICs for the self-employed will increase by | :29:07. | :29:11. | |
1% up to 10%, with a further 1% increase in April 2019. The | :29:12. | :29:18. | |
combination of the abolition of class two and the class four | :29:19. | :29:21. | |
increases I have announced today raises a net ?145 million a year for | :29:22. | :29:32. | |
our public services by 2021-22, an average of around 60p per week per | :29:33. | :29:37. | |
self-employed person in this country. And since class two | :29:38. | :29:42. | |
contributions are payable at a flat rate, while class four is chargeable | :29:43. | :29:47. | |
as a proportion of profits, all self-employed people earning less | :29:48. | :29:53. | |
than ?16,250 will still see a reduction in the total NICs bill. | :29:54. | :30:01. | |
This change reduces the unfairness in the NICs system and reflect more | :30:02. | :30:04. | |
accurately the current differences in benefits available from the | :30:05. | :30:09. | |
state. Mr Deputy Speaker, alongside the gap between employees and the | :30:10. | :30:14. | |
self-employed, there is a parallel unfairness in the treatment of those | :30:15. | :30:15. | |
working through their own companies. Britain has the most competitive | :30:16. | :30:32. | |
corporate tax regime in the #2k3w7. We must ensure that our corporate | :30:33. | :30:37. | |
tax regime does not encourage people across the country to form companies | :30:38. | :30:42. | |
to reduce tax liabilities, pushing the burden of financing our public | :30:43. | :30:48. | |
services on to others. HRMC estimates that existing corporations | :30:49. | :30:52. | |
cost the public finances over ?6 billion a year and the OBR forecasts | :30:53. | :30:56. | |
that at the current rate of increase an additional annual cost to the | :30:57. | :31:03. | |
exchequer will occur from those chosing to incorporate of ?3.5 | :31:04. | :31:13. | |
billion a year by 2021-22. The gap in total tax and NICs between an | :31:14. | :31:17. | |
employed worker and one who has set up his own company will be even | :31:18. | :31:21. | |
greater than the self-employed and there are perfectly legal ways in | :31:22. | :31:24. | |
which that gap can be made bigger still. It is not fair and not | :31:25. | :31:30. | |
affordable. Fairness demands this discrepancy and treatment has | :31:31. | :31:33. | |
addressed, just as I have addressed the discrepancy with the | :31:34. | :31:36. | |
self-employed. The dividend allowance has increased the tax | :31:37. | :31:40. | |
advantage of incorporation. It allows each director shareholder to | :31:41. | :31:44. | |
take ?5,000 of dividends out of their company, tax-free, over an | :31:45. | :31:49. | |
above the personal allowance. It is also an extremely generous tax break | :31:50. | :31:54. | |
for investors with substantial share portfolios. I have decides, | :31:55. | :32:00. | |
therefore, to address the unfairness around director shareholders' tax | :32:01. | :32:02. | |
advantage and at the same time, raise some much-needed revenue to | :32:03. | :32:08. | |
fund the measures I shall announce today, by reducing the tax-free | :32:09. | :32:13. | |
dividend allowance from ?5,000, to ?2,000, with effect from April 2018. | :32:14. | :32:19. | |
About half the people affected by this measure are director | :32:20. | :32:23. | |
shareholders of private companies. The rest are investors in shares | :32:24. | :32:30. | |
with holdings worth typically, over ?50,000, outside ISAs and of course | :32:31. | :32:35. | |
everyone will benefit from the generous ?4,760 increase in the | :32:36. | :32:40. | |
annual ISA allowance to ?20,000 and a further increase in the personal | :32:41. | :32:49. | |
allowance to ?11,500 from April. Mr Deputy Speaker, I now turn to | :32:50. | :32:53. | |
duties and levies and unusually for a Chancellor I'm delighted to | :32:54. | :32:57. | |
announce a reduction in the expected yield of a tax. The soft drinks | :32:58. | :33:03. | |
levy. I can confirm today the final rates of 18 and 24p per litre for | :33:04. | :33:09. | |
the main and higher bands respectively but producers are | :33:10. | :33:11. | |
already reformulating sugar out of their drinks which means a lower | :33:12. | :33:16. | |
revenue forecast for this tax. This is good news for our children. And | :33:17. | :33:22. | |
in further good news for them today, I can confirm that we will nobbled | :33:23. | :33:28. | |
fund DFE with the full ?1 billion we originally expected from the levy | :33:29. | :33:31. | |
this Parliament to invest in school ports and healthy living programmes. | :33:32. | :33:38. | |
I am freezing, for another year the VED rates for hauliers and the HGV | :33:39. | :33:45. | |
road user levy. I'm introducing a new minimum excise duty on | :33:46. | :33:49. | |
cigarettes based on a pack price of ?7.35 and I can also confirm I will | :33:50. | :33:53. | |
make no changes to previously planned upratings of duties on | :33:54. | :33:55. | |
alcohol and tobacco. The tax measures I have announced | :33:56. | :34:00. | |
enhance the sustainability of our public services into the future and | :34:01. | :34:04. | |
by improving the fairness of the system, helps us to keep tax rates | :34:05. | :34:09. | |
low. Mr Deputy Speaker, economic policy | :34:10. | :34:14. | |
does not exist in a vacuum and economic growth is a means, not an | :34:15. | :34:21. | |
end in itself. The objective of our economic policy is to support | :34:22. | :34:24. | |
ordinary working families and to build an economy that works for | :34:25. | :34:29. | |
them. And on this side of the House, we know that we can only achieve | :34:30. | :34:37. | |
rising living standards and deliver vote. In vital public services, if | :34:38. | :34:40. | |
if we have a strong economy and sustainable public finances. It is a | :34:41. | :34:45. | |
simple proposition, Mr Deputy Speaker, yet one which the | :34:46. | :34:49. | |
Opposition front bench seems to find strangely difficult to understand. | :34:50. | :34:53. | |
We start from a strong base. Real wages have grown for 27 straight | :34:54. | :34:58. | |
months. The wages of the lowest paid grew faster last year than in any of | :34:59. | :35:03. | |
the previous 20 years. And the poorest households have seen their | :35:04. | :35:07. | |
labour incomes rise more since 20 #10e in the UK, than in any other | :35:08. | :35:12. | |
country in the G7. -- since 2010. Last year we | :35:13. | :35:17. | |
delivered a pay rise to over a million of the lowest paid through | :35:18. | :35:20. | |
the national living wage and next month we take more steps to support | :35:21. | :35:24. | |
worker families with the cost of living. The national living wage | :35:25. | :35:32. | |
will rise again to ?7.50 in April, over ?500 more for full-time worker | :35:33. | :35:37. | |
than this year and ?1,400 more than when the national living wage was | :35:38. | :35:40. | |
introduced. The personal allowance will rise for the 7th year in a row | :35:41. | :35:47. | |
to ?11,500 and the higher rate threshold to ?45,000. 29 million | :35:48. | :35:52. | |
people will be better off with a typical basic rate taxpayer paying | :35:53. | :35:57. | |
?1,000 less than in 2010. And we will meet our manifesto | :35:58. | :36:04. | |
commitment to increasing the thresholds to ?12,500 and ?50,000 | :36:05. | :36:06. | |
respectively by the end of this Parliament. | :36:07. | :36:11. | |
Mr Deputy Speaker, I can also confirm today that the new NS I | :36:12. | :36:16. | |
bond which I announced at Autumn Statement will be available from | :36:17. | :36:22. | |
April and will pay 2.2% on deposits up to ?3,000, a welcome break for | :36:23. | :36:26. | |
hard-pressed savers and the Universal Credit taper rate will be | :36:27. | :36:34. | |
reduced in April from 56% to 63%, cutting tax for 3 million families | :36:35. | :36:38. | |
on low income. Next month, we will see the | :36:39. | :36:43. | |
introduction of our flagship tax-free childcare policy. That will | :36:44. | :36:48. | |
allow working families across the UK to receive up to ?2,000 a year, | :36:49. | :36:53. | |
towards the cost of childcare, for each child under 12. The scheme will | :36:54. | :36:57. | |
be rolled out to all eligible parents by the end of the year. And | :36:58. | :37:02. | |
from September, in addition, working parents with three and | :37:03. | :37:06. | |
four-year-olds will get their free childcare entitlement doubled to 30 | :37:07. | :37:11. | |
hours a week. That, Mr Deputy Speaker, is worth around ?5,000 a | :37:12. | :37:16. | |
year to a young family with a three-year-old, and both parents | :37:17. | :37:20. | |
working. By the end of this Parliament, this Government will be | :37:21. | :37:24. | |
spending on childcare ?6 billion a year. | :37:25. | :37:29. | |
These childcare measures represent a further huge step forward in support | :37:30. | :37:37. | |
for ordinary working families and for women in the work place. And I | :37:38. | :37:41. | |
am delighted to use the occasion of International Women's Day to | :37:42. | :37:42. | |
announce three additional measures. Well not quite announce them, Mr | :37:43. | :37:46. | |
Deputy Speaker, because my right honourable friend the Prime Minister | :37:47. | :37:56. | |
has already announced two of them. It is National Women's Day. It says | :37:57. | :38:02. | |
here - "I will commit a further ?20 million of Government funding to | :38:03. | :38:05. | |
support the campaign against violence against women and girls." | :38:06. | :38:09. | |
Which does, as my right honourable friend said earlier, take the | :38:10. | :38:12. | |
Government's commitment to this campaign to over ?100 million in | :38:13. | :38:18. | |
this Parliament. That is on top of the tampon tax which today delivers | :38:19. | :38:23. | |
another ?12 million in support of women's charities across the United | :38:24. | :38:28. | |
Kingdom. The Prime Minister earlier also | :38:29. | :38:31. | |
mentioned that the Government will commit fought ?5 million to | :38:32. | :38:36. | |
promoting returnships to the public and private sector, helping people | :38:37. | :38:38. | |
back into employment after a career break. | :38:39. | :38:45. | |
Mr Deputy Speaker, as next year is the centenary of the 1918 | :38:46. | :38:49. | |
Representation of the People Act, the decisive step in the political | :38:50. | :38:53. | |
emans pays of women in this country, I will commit a further ?5 million | :38:54. | :38:59. | |
to are projects to celebrate this centenary and to educate young | :39:00. | :39:04. | |
people about its significance. Mr Deputy Speaker, as well as knowing | :39:05. | :39:06. | |
the Government is on their side, people want to know that they are | :39:07. | :39:10. | |
getting a good deal from private markets too. | :39:11. | :39:14. | |
A well-functioning market economy is the best way to deliver prosperity | :39:15. | :39:21. | |
and security to working families and the litany of failed attempts of | :39:22. | :39:25. | |
state control of industry by labour, leaves no-one in any doubt about | :39:26. | :39:29. | |
that, except, apparently the right honourable gentleman opposite, who | :39:30. | :39:36. | |
is now so far down a black hole that even Stephen Hawking has disowned | :39:37. | :39:37. | |
him. This Government, Mr Deputy Speaker, | :39:38. | :39:50. | |
recognises that sometimes markets, particularly in fast-developing | :39:51. | :39:53. | |
areas of the economy, can fail people. Sometimes the market does | :39:54. | :39:58. | |
not deliver the outcome the textbooks suggests it should and | :39:59. | :40:02. | |
when that happens, this Government will not hesitate to intervene. We | :40:03. | :40:06. | |
will shortly bring forward a green paper on protecting the interests of | :40:07. | :40:11. | |
consumers. But, ahead of the green paper, we will take the first steps | :40:12. | :40:16. | |
to protect consumers from unexpected fees or unfair clause, to simplifies | :40:17. | :40:22. | |
T . Krs and to give consumer bodies great enforcement powers. -- | :40:23. | :40:29. | |
simplify Ts Cs. Together this will boost incomes, help family budgets | :40:30. | :40:33. | |
stretch further, support parents back into Bosch and tackle some of | :40:34. | :40:41. | |
the frustrations that sometimes make it feel that the dice are load he | :40:42. | :40:45. | |
had against ordinary people going about their ordinary lives. This | :40:46. | :40:49. | |
House knows that the only sensible way to raising living standards is | :40:50. | :40:53. | |
to improve the productivity growth. Simply put - higher productivity | :40:54. | :40:58. | |
means higher pay. The stats are well-known with 35% behind Germany, | :40:59. | :41:03. | |
18% behind the G7 average average and the gap is not closing. Mr | :41:04. | :41:07. | |
Deputy Speaker, investment in training and investment in | :41:08. | :41:10. | |
infrastructure will start to close this gap. And this Government places | :41:11. | :41:16. | |
addressing the UK's productivity challenge at the very heart of its | :41:17. | :41:20. | |
economic plan. Because the cornerstone of an economy that works | :41:21. | :41:25. | |
for everyone must be rising living standards for ordinary working | :41:26. | :41:35. | |
people. . The key elements of our plan is the additional investment | :41:36. | :41:38. | |
from infrastructure that I announced at the Autumn Statement. Today to | :41:39. | :41:43. | |
enhance the UK's position as a world leader in science and innovation I'm | :41:44. | :41:47. | |
allocating ?300 million of that fund to support the brightest and best | :41:48. | :41:51. | |
research talent, including support for 1,000 new PhD places and | :41:52. | :41:54. | |
fellowships, focussed on stem subjects. ?270 million to keep the | :41:55. | :42:03. | |
UK at the forefront of disruptive technologies like biotech, robotic | :42:04. | :42:06. | |
systems and driverless vehicles, technology I believe that the party | :42:07. | :42:08. | |
opposite knows something about. ?16 million for a new 5G mobile | :42:09. | :42:29. | |
technology hub and ?200 million for local projects to leverage private | :42:30. | :42:32. | |
sector investment in full fibre broadband networks. On transport, | :42:33. | :42:37. | |
I'm today announcing ?90 million for the North and ?23 million for the | :42:38. | :42:43. | |
Midlands from a ?220 million fund that addresses pinchpoints on the | :42:44. | :42:49. | |
national road network and I'm launching a ?690 million competition | :42:50. | :42:54. | |
for local authorities across England to tackle urban congestion and get | :42:55. | :42:57. | |
local transport networks moving again. My right honourable friend | :42:58. | :43:00. | |
the Transport Secretary will announce details shortly. | :43:01. | :43:05. | |
And because we believe local areas understand local productivity | :43:06. | :43:07. | |
barriers better than central government, we make further progress | :43:08. | :43:10. | |
with our plans to bolster the regions. | :43:11. | :43:14. | |
In May, powerful mayors will be elected in six of our great cities. | :43:15. | :43:19. | |
Across Britain, local areas will take control of their own economic | :43:20. | :43:23. | |
destiny and we will support them to do so. I can inform the House that I | :43:24. | :43:30. | |
have reached a deal with the Mayor of London on further devolution. I | :43:31. | :43:34. | |
will follow the launch of the foreign powerhouse strategy at | :43:35. | :43:37. | |
Autumn Statement by publishing tomorrow our Midlands energy are | :43:38. | :43:42. | |
strategy, addressing productivity barriers across the Midlands. | :43:43. | :43:50. | |
-- Midlands engine strategy. And for the desolved administrations, our | :43:51. | :43:53. | |
announcements today deliver additional funding of ?350 million | :43:54. | :43:57. | |
for the Scottish Government, ?200 million... # | :43:58. | :44:02. | |
CHEERS Inaudible shouts | :44:03. | :44:29. | |
Let's just move on. We are doing very W let's not spoil a good day. | :44:30. | :44:32. | |
#k078 on, Chancellor of the Exchequer. | :44:33. | :44:38. | |
-- come on. Wait for it. ?200 million for the Welsh Government. | :44:39. | :44:42. | |
And almost ?120 million for an incoming Northern Ireland executive. | :44:43. | :44:48. | |
Demonstrating, Mr Deputy Speaker, once again, that we are stronger | :44:49. | :44:52. | |
together in this great United Kingdom. | :44:53. | :45:03. | |
Mr Deputy Speaker, Mr Deputy Speaker, perhaps the single most | :45:04. | :45:07. | |
important thing government can do to support ordinary working families is | :45:08. | :45:11. | |
to invest in the future so that their children and grandchildren can | :45:12. | :45:15. | |
make the most of the opportunities ahead. That means addressing the | :45:16. | :45:20. | |
skills gap and ensuring that every child, regardless of background, has | :45:21. | :45:23. | |
the opportunity to go to a good or outstanding school. At Autumn | :45:24. | :45:30. | |
Statement, I focused on investment in infrastructure and R The next | :45:31. | :45:34. | |
step today in our plan to raise productivity and living standards is | :45:35. | :45:38. | |
to focus on the quality of our children's education. Mr Deputy | :45:39. | :45:46. | |
Speaker, while investing in education and skills of course helps | :45:47. | :45:49. | |
to tackle the productivity gap, delivering greater prosperity, it | :45:50. | :45:54. | |
does something else as well. It delivers greater fairness. Because | :45:55. | :45:57. | |
investing in skills and education is the key to inclusive growth, to an | :45:58. | :46:03. | |
economy that works for everyone. Mr Deputy Speaker, if you talk to | :46:04. | :46:07. | |
people from any background, in any part of the country, about their | :46:08. | :46:11. | |
hopes and aspirations for the future, you will hear a recurring | :46:12. | :46:15. | |
concern for the next generation # row will they have the | :46:16. | :46:17. | |
qualifications to find a job, will it have the skills to retrain as | :46:18. | :46:21. | |
that job changes and changes again over a working lifetime? Will they | :46:22. | :46:26. | |
be able to get on the housing ladder, to save for a pension? In | :46:27. | :46:29. | |
short, the question that concerns so many people is, will our children | :46:30. | :46:34. | |
enjoy the same opportunities that we did. Mr Deputy Speaker, our job is | :46:35. | :46:42. | |
to make sure that they do, and that is why we are investing in education | :46:43. | :46:47. | |
and skills, to ensure that every young person, whatever their | :46:48. | :46:51. | |
background, wherever they live, has the opportunity to succeed and | :46:52. | :46:55. | |
prosper. The proportion of young people not in work or education is | :46:56. | :47:00. | |
now the lowest since records began. That is a good base from which to | :47:01. | :47:04. | |
build, but it is only by equipping them for the jobs of tomorrow that | :47:05. | :47:08. | |
we ensure that they will have real economic security. We have put | :47:09. | :47:12. | |
education reform at the heart of our agenda since 2010, and that | :47:13. | :47:17. | |
commitment, that commitment is already paying off. 89% of schools | :47:18. | :47:23. | |
in England are now rated good or outstanding, the highest proportion | :47:24. | :47:27. | |
ever recorded. What that means, Mr Deputy Speaker, is 1.8 million more | :47:28. | :47:31. | |
children being taught in good or outstanding schools than when the | :47:32. | :47:38. | |
party opposite left office in 2010. Our forthcoming schools white paper | :47:39. | :47:42. | |
will ask universities and private schools to sponsor new free schools. | :47:43. | :47:47. | |
It will remove the barriers that prevent more good faith based free | :47:48. | :47:51. | |
schools from opening and enable the creation of new selective free | :47:52. | :47:54. | |
schools so that the most academically gifted children, of | :47:55. | :47:59. | |
every background, get the specialist support they need to fulfil their | :48:00. | :48:06. | |
potential. Today, I can announce funding for a further 110 new free | :48:07. | :48:12. | |
schools, on top of the current commitment to 500. This will include | :48:13. | :48:17. | |
new specialist maths schools to build on the clear success of Exeter | :48:18. | :48:21. | |
mathematics school, and King's College London maths school, which | :48:22. | :48:25. | |
my right honourable friend the Prime Minister visited earlier this week. | :48:26. | :48:28. | |
We commit to this programme because we understand that choice is the key | :48:29. | :48:39. | |
to excellence in education. But, Mr Deputy Speaker, we recognise that, | :48:40. | :48:44. | |
for many parents, the cost of travel can be a barrier to exercising that | :48:45. | :48:49. | |
choice. Pupils typically travel three times as far to attend | :48:50. | :48:54. | |
selective schools, so we will extend free school transport to include all | :48:55. | :48:59. | |
children on free school meals who attend a selective school, because | :49:00. | :49:07. | |
we, Mr Deputy Speaker, are resolved that talent alone should determine | :49:08. | :49:08. | |
the opportunities a child enjoys. And before they get too excited, Mr | :49:09. | :49:23. | |
Deputy Speaker, we will invest in our existing schools too, by | :49:24. | :49:26. | |
providing an additional, oh yes, we will, by providing an additional | :49:27. | :49:34. | |
?216 million over the next three years, taking total investment in | :49:35. | :49:39. | |
school condition to well over ?10 billion in this Parliament. Mr | :49:40. | :49:45. | |
Deputy Speaker, good schools are the bedrock of our education system, but | :49:46. | :49:50. | |
we need to do more to support our young adults into quality jobs and | :49:51. | :49:53. | |
help them gain world class skills, and while we have academic wood that | :49:54. | :49:58. | |
is one of the best in the world, the truth is that we languish near the | :49:59. | :50:03. | |
bottom of the international league tables for technical education. Our | :50:04. | :50:08. | |
rigorous, well-recognised system of A-levels provides students with the | :50:09. | :50:14. | |
qualifications to move into our world-class higher education system, | :50:15. | :50:17. | |
and we support these route further today by offering maintenance loans | :50:18. | :50:21. | |
to part-time undergraduate and doctoral loans in all subjects for | :50:22. | :50:26. | |
the first time. But long ago, Mr Deputy Speaker, our competitors in | :50:27. | :50:30. | |
Germany, the US and elsewhere realised that, to compete in the | :50:31. | :50:34. | |
fast-moving global economy, you have to link technical skills to jobs, | :50:35. | :50:40. | |
and I am pleased to report, in National Apprenticeship Week, that | :50:41. | :50:42. | |
our apprenticeship route is now finally delivering that ambition | :50:43. | :50:47. | |
here, with 2.4 million apprenticeships started in the last | :50:48. | :50:50. | |
Parliament, and with the launch of our apprenticeship levy in April | :50:51. | :50:54. | |
supporting a further 3 million apprenticeships by 2020. But there | :50:55. | :51:00. | |
is still a lingering doubt about the parity of esteem attaching to | :51:01. | :51:06. | |
technical education pursued through the further education route. Today, | :51:07. | :51:10. | |
we end that is doubtful good with the introduction of T-levels. Thanks | :51:11. | :51:19. | |
to the work of Lord Sainsbury, Baroness will and other experts, we | :51:20. | :51:23. | |
have a blueprint to follow. Their review concluded that students need | :51:24. | :51:27. | |
a much clearer system of qualifications, one that is designed | :51:28. | :51:30. | |
and recognised by employers with clear routes into work, more time in | :51:31. | :51:34. | |
the classroom and good quality work placements. One that replaces the | :51:35. | :51:40. | |
13,000 or so different qualifications with just 15 clear, | :51:41. | :51:47. | |
career focused roots, delivering on those recommendations is the third | :51:48. | :51:51. | |
part of our plan. So today we will invest to deliver in full these game | :51:52. | :51:56. | |
changing reforms. We will increase by over 50% the number of hours' | :51:57. | :52:03. | |
training for 16-19 -year-old technical students, including a | :52:04. | :52:05. | |
high-quality three-month work placement for every student. So when | :52:06. | :52:10. | |
they qualify, they are genuinely work ready. Once this programme is | :52:11. | :52:17. | |
fully rolled out, Mr Deputy Speaker, we will be investing in an | :52:18. | :52:21. | |
additional ?500 million a year in our 16-19 -year-olds, and to | :52:22. | :52:24. | |
encourage and support the best of them to go on to advanced technical | :52:25. | :52:30. | |
study, we will offer maintenance loans for those and taking higher | :52:31. | :52:34. | |
level technical qualifications at the new Institute of Technology and | :52:35. | :52:38. | |
national colleges, just as we do for those university. Putting the | :52:39. | :52:45. | |
next-generation first to safeguard their future and secure our economy. | :52:46. | :52:51. | |
Mr Deputy Speaker, because changing labour markets will mean that | :52:52. | :52:55. | |
retraining is vital, with many of our young people today needing to | :52:56. | :52:59. | |
retrain at least once, and perhaps more often during a working life | :53:00. | :53:04. | |
that maize ban more than 50 years, we will consider how best to deliver | :53:05. | :53:09. | |
high quality learning and training throughout working lives. The FA | :53:10. | :53:14. | |
will invest up to ?40 million in pilots to test the fact is of | :53:15. | :53:17. | |
different approaches to lifelong learning. -- DfE. So that we can | :53:18. | :53:23. | |
identify what works best and help the next-generation learn train | :53:24. | :53:28. | |
throughout their lives. Mr Deputy Speaker, just as the principle that | :53:29. | :53:32. | |
every child should have the opportunity to fulfil his or her | :53:33. | :53:36. | |
potential is central to this Government's values, so is the | :53:37. | :53:40. | |
principle that everyone has access to our national Health Service when | :53:41. | :53:44. | |
they needed and that everyone should enjoy security and dignity in old | :53:45. | :53:51. | |
age. Today our social care system cares for over 1 million people, and | :53:52. | :53:54. | |
I want to pay tribute to the hundreds of thousands of carers work | :53:55. | :54:00. | |
in it. But the system is clearly under pressure, and this in turn | :54:01. | :54:05. | |
puts pressure on our NHS. Today there are 500,000 more people aged | :54:06. | :54:11. | |
over 75 than there were in 2010, and there will be 2 million more in ten | :54:12. | :54:15. | |
years' time. That is why the Government has already delivered ?7 | :54:16. | :54:21. | |
billion extra spending power to the system over the next three years, | :54:22. | :54:24. | |
and it is why we are ensuring that local authorities and the NHS work | :54:25. | :54:28. | |
more closely together to enable elderly patients to be discharged | :54:29. | :54:32. | |
when they are ready, freeing up precious NHS beds, and ensuring that | :54:33. | :54:36. | |
elderly people are receiving the appropriate care for their needs. So | :54:37. | :54:42. | |
today, Mr Deputy Speaker, I am committing additional grant funding | :54:43. | :54:48. | |
of ?2 billion to social care in England over the next three years. | :54:49. | :54:54. | |
Mr Deputy Speaker, that is ?2 billion over the next three years | :54:55. | :55:03. | |
with ?1 billion available in 2017-18, this will allow local | :55:04. | :55:07. | |
authorities to act now to commission new care packages and forms a bridge | :55:08. | :55:13. | |
to the better care funding that becomes available towards the end of | :55:14. | :55:17. | |
the parliament. Of course, Mr Deputy Speaker, this is not only about | :55:18. | :55:22. | |
money. While there are many excellent examples of best practice | :55:23. | :55:26. | |
around the country, at the other end of the scale, just 24 local | :55:27. | :55:31. | |
authorities are responsible for over half of all delayed discharges to | :55:32. | :55:37. | |
social care, so alongside additional funding, the health and communities | :55:38. | :55:40. | |
secretaries will announce measures to identify and support authorities | :55:41. | :55:43. | |
which are struggling and to ensure more joined up working with the NHS. | :55:44. | :55:49. | |
These measures, and greater collaborative working and NHS | :55:50. | :55:54. | |
sustainability and transformation plans, will bring short and | :55:55. | :55:57. | |
medium-term benefits, but long-term challenges of sustainable funding | :55:58. | :56:03. | |
for care in old age requires a strategic approach. And the | :56:04. | :56:07. | |
Government will set out its thinking on the options for the future | :56:08. | :56:10. | |
financing of social care in a green paper later this year. For the | :56:11. | :56:16. | |
avoidance of doubt, Mr Deputy Speaker, I would like to make it | :56:17. | :56:20. | |
clear that those options do not include, and never have included, | :56:21. | :56:30. | |
exhuming Labour's hated death tax. The social care funding package that | :56:31. | :56:34. | |
I have announced today will deliver immediate benefit to the NHS, | :56:35. | :56:38. | |
allowing it to refocus on delivering the NHS England forward Plan A plan | :56:39. | :56:44. | |
which this Government has supported with the ?10 billion increase in | :56:45. | :56:50. | |
annual funding by 2020, ?4 billion in this year alone. We recognise the | :56:51. | :56:57. | |
progress that the NHS is making in developing sustainability and | :56:58. | :57:00. | |
transformation plans, and we recognise too, Mr Deputy Speaker, | :57:01. | :57:04. | |
that in addition to the funding already committed, some of those | :57:05. | :57:08. | |
plans will require further capital investment. So the Treasury will | :57:09. | :57:11. | |
work closely with the Department of Health over the summer, as the | :57:12. | :57:17. | |
programmes are prioritised and progress, and that autumn budget, I | :57:18. | :57:20. | |
will announce a multi-year capital programme to support implementation | :57:21. | :57:27. | |
of high-quality STPs across the health service in England. In the | :57:28. | :57:31. | |
meantime, my right honourable friend the Health Secretary expects that a | :57:32. | :57:35. | |
small number of the strongest STPs may be ready ahead of autumn budget, | :57:36. | :57:44. | |
so I am allowing more capital to allow the first selected plans to | :57:45. | :57:48. | |
proceed. Mr Deputy Speaker, I have one further announcement relating to | :57:49. | :57:53. | |
the NHS. The social care package that I have announced today will | :57:54. | :57:58. | |
help to free up beds by easing discharge of elderly patients. That | :57:59. | :58:01. | |
is one of the two big pressures in our hospitals. The other is | :58:02. | :58:05. | |
inappropriate A attendances by people of all ages. Experience has | :58:06. | :58:12. | |
shown that on-site GP triage in A departments can have a significant | :58:13. | :58:17. | |
and positive impact on A waiting times. I am therefore making a | :58:18. | :58:22. | |
further ?100 million of capital available immediately for new triage | :58:23. | :58:28. | |
project at English hospitals in time for next winter. Mr Deputy Speaker, | :58:29. | :58:35. | |
this government backs the NHS's plan. We are funding it with a ?10 | :58:36. | :58:40. | |
billion above inflation increase by 2020. We have addressed the | :58:41. | :58:44. | |
pressures on the NHS from the social care system with a total of ?9.25 | :58:45. | :58:49. | |
billion additional resources. We will protect the NHS from the | :58:50. | :58:53. | |
effects of the changed personal injury discount rate and have set | :58:54. | :58:58. | |
aside ?5.9 billion across the forecast period to do so. And today | :58:59. | :59:05. | |
we have made it clear them up -- a clear new commitment to a capital | :59:06. | :59:08. | |
programme to find high-quality STPs with the first down payment for the | :59:09. | :59:13. | |
early pioneers. Mr Deputy Speaker, as the voters of Copeland so clearly | :59:14. | :59:19. | |
understood, we are the party of the NHS! | :59:20. | :59:26. | |
Mr Deputy Speaker, we are the party of the NHS colours we have not just | :59:27. | :59:32. | |
the commitment and the will, but also the economic plan that will | :59:33. | :59:37. | |
secure the future of our most important public service. Mr Deputy | :59:38. | :59:45. | |
Speaker, last November, I set out our plan to build an economy that | :59:46. | :59:50. | |
works for everyone, to enhance our productivity and protect our living | :59:51. | :59:54. | |
standards, to restore our public finances to balance, and to invest | :59:55. | :00:00. | |
for our future. Today's OBR report confirms the continued resilience of | :00:01. | :00:05. | |
the British economy, and that this Budget we continue with our plan, | :00:06. | :00:09. | |
building on the foundation of our economic strength, reaching out to | :00:10. | :00:15. | |
seize the opportunities that lie ahead, backing our public services, | :00:16. | :00:20. | |
supporting Britain's families, investing in the skills of our young | :00:21. | :00:24. | |
people, and making Britain the best place in the world to do business. | :00:25. | :00:30. | |
Mr Deputy Speaker, our United Kingdom has a proud history - we | :00:31. | :00:36. | |
have done remarkable things together. But we look forwards, not | :00:37. | :00:41. | |
backwards, confident that our greatest achievements are ahead of | :00:42. | :00:47. | |
us. Today we reaffirm our commitment to invest in Britain's future, and | :00:48. | :00:51. | |
we embark on this next chapter of our history confident in our | :00:52. | :00:58. | |
strengths and clear in our determination to build a stronger, | :00:59. | :01:01. | |
there, better Britain. I commend this Budget to the House. | :01:02. | :01:09. | |
STUDIO: The Chancellor, Philip Hammond, the conclusion of his first | :01:10. | :01:12. | |
Budget speech. We will be back in the Commons in a moment, because, of | :01:13. | :01:17. | |
course, we will get the response from Labour's Jeremy Corbyn, who was | :01:18. | :01:22. | |
the butt of quite a few criticisms there from the Chancellor as he went | :01:23. | :01:25. | |
through the statement. Let's look at some of the main measures quickly | :01:26. | :01:29. | |
before we go back to the Commons. They include ?2 billion of | :01:30. | :01:32. | |
additional funding over three years for adult social care in England. | :01:33. | :01:36. | |
That's been one of the main focuses over the past few months. The | :01:37. | :01:40. | |
pressure on the social care system. He has allocated an extra ?2 billion | :01:41. | :01:44. | |
over three years. Big changes in national insurance, because the | :01:45. | :01:46. | |
national insurance for self-employed workers is to increase by 1% to 10% | :01:47. | :01:49. | |
in April 2018 and again after that. workers is to increase by 1% to 10% | :01:50. | :01:52. | |
in April 2018 and again after that. There will be talk about that. We | :01:53. | :01:56. | |
will discuss it here in the studio and of course on business rates, | :01:57. | :02:00. | |
because lots of businesses, concerned after the revaluation | :02:01. | :02:04. | |
about the impact, ?1,000 business rate discount for pubs in England | :02:05. | :02:09. | |
with the rateable value of under ?100,000, that accounts for 90% or | :02:10. | :02:13. | |
so of all the pubs in England. It affects lots of them. Let's look at | :02:14. | :02:20. | |
the other main measures: ?300 million for businesses facing large | :02:21. | :02:28. | |
rates increases. A reduction of tax redifficultened allowance for ?5,000 | :02:29. | :02:31. | |
to ?2,000 in April 2018. That will affect directors who are | :02:32. | :02:35. | |
shareholders and the sugar tax levy confirmed at 18 p and 24 p per later | :02:36. | :02:40. | |
for main and higher bands. Those are the main measures. Now we will go | :02:41. | :02:45. | |
back into the chamber. The Deputy Speaker is basically going through | :02:46. | :02:49. | |
some of the financial measures, some of the technical demands on the | :02:50. | :02:51. | |
House at this point. I think of the technical demands on the | :02:52. | :02:55. | |
House at this point. I think that Labour's Jeremy Corbyn will be on | :02:56. | :03:00. | |
his feet within a few seconds. Maybe time for a comment from Laura? | :03:01. | :03:04. | |
Interesting to see Philip Hammond, normally a very dead pan politician | :03:05. | :03:09. | |
feeling relaxed and confident enough to be frequently cracking jokes | :03:10. | :03:11. | |
throughout that Budget. Very interesting indeed. The big | :03:12. | :03:15. | |
challenge is whether the rhetoric - we heard lots of the use of the word | :03:16. | :03:20. | |
"fairness", matches the reality. This was a Budget of utter | :03:21. | :03:23. | |
complacency about the state of our economy. Utter complacency about the | :03:24. | :03:31. | |
crisis facing our public services and, complacent about the reality of | :03:32. | :03:35. | |
daily life for millions of people in this country. Entirely out of touch | :03:36. | :03:41. | |
with that reality of life for millions. This morning, over ?1 | :03:42. | :03:49. | |
million workers will have woken up, not knowing whether they'll work | :03:50. | :03:54. | |
today, tomorrow or next week. Millions more workers know their | :03:55. | :03:58. | |
next pay packet will not be enough to make ends meet. Millions | :03:59. | :04:05. | |
struggling to pay rent or mortgage, with private renters, on average, | :04:06. | :04:08. | |
paying nearly half their income on rent. Yesterday, Mr Deputy Speaker, | :04:09. | :04:15. | |
over 3,000 people in this country will have queued up at food banks to | :04:16. | :04:22. | |
feed themselves and their families. Last night, Mr Deputy Speaker over | :04:23. | :04:27. | |
4,000 people will have slept rough on the streets of this country. And | :04:28. | :04:33. | |
the Chancellor made his boast about a strong economy. But who is reaping | :04:34. | :04:39. | |
the rewards of this economy? For millions, it is simply not working. | :04:40. | :04:45. | |
Not working for the NHS. In its worse crisis ever, with funding | :04:46. | :04:51. | |
being cut next year. Not working for our children's schools. Not working | :04:52. | :04:57. | |
for our children's schools, where pupil funding continues to be cut. | :04:58. | :05:03. | |
Not work for our neighbourhoods which have lost 20,000 police | :05:04. | :05:08. | |
officers. Leaving the force in a perilous state in many parts of the | :05:09. | :05:15. | |
country. And not working for our dedicated public services and the | :05:16. | :05:20. | |
people who work in them. Nurses, firefighters, teachers, no pay rise | :05:21. | :05:26. | |
for seven years for them. And for people with disabilities, | :05:27. | :05:31. | |
who are twice as lakely to be living in poverty -- twice as likely, and | :05:32. | :05:36. | |
this Government is denying them the support that the courts say they | :05:37. | :05:41. | |
need. 4 million children living in poverty which will rise by another 1 | :05:42. | :05:46. | |
million in coming years. Not working for the thousands of young people, | :05:47. | :05:49. | |
who can't get anywhere to live, can't get on the housing ladder and | :05:50. | :05:54. | |
cannot, in many cases, leave the parental home. | :05:55. | :05:59. | |
Parents of grown-up children, who would expect to be debt-free by now, | :06:00. | :06:04. | |
but having to bail out student debt or try to help with a deposit to get | :06:05. | :06:11. | |
housing, if they can manage it and a million elderly people and I'll come | :06:12. | :06:14. | |
on to this again, denied the social care they need due to the ?4.6 | :06:15. | :06:18. | |
billion cuts made by his Government with the support of the Liberal | :06:19. | :06:23. | |
Democrats over the past five years. Not for pensioners, for whom the | :06:24. | :06:27. | |
security of the triple lock remains in doubt. Mr Deputy Speaker, that is | :06:28. | :06:35. | |
the reality facing Britain today. A Government cutting services, and | :06:36. | :06:39. | |
living standards of the many, top fund and continue to fund the tax | :06:40. | :06:44. | |
cuts of the few. There are some people, Mr Deputy Speaker, who are | :06:45. | :06:48. | |
doing very well under the Conservative Government. The chief | :06:49. | :06:55. | |
executives of big companies, now paid 180 times more than the average | :06:56. | :07:01. | |
worker and taxed less. Big corporations making higher | :07:02. | :07:06. | |
profits than being taxed less. Speculators making more and being | :07:07. | :07:10. | |
taxed less. And wealthiest families taxed less, | :07:11. | :07:23. | |
due to cuts in inheritance tax. A give way to those who need it the | :07:24. | :07:27. | |
least. This Government is a Government with the wrong priority. | :07:28. | :07:31. | |
Let me give you three examples: The pain of losing a child is | :07:32. | :07:36. | |
unimaginable for most of us. But for those who do that, that pain is | :07:37. | :07:42. | |
worsened by the stress of having to pay for their own child's funeral. I | :07:43. | :07:47. | |
pay tribute to my friend, the member for Swansea East, for her campaign | :07:48. | :07:51. | |
to establish a Children's Funeral Fund but far from establishing such | :07:52. | :07:56. | |
a fund costing just ?10 million a year, the Government is instead | :07:57. | :07:58. | |
cutting support for bereaved families. Three in four bereaved | :07:59. | :08:03. | |
families will receive less. This is utterly the whatless. | :08:04. | :08:08. | |
Despite generous tax give-aways at the top end, there was no money, | :08:09. | :08:13. | |
either for the 160,000 people with disabilities that a court has ruled | :08:14. | :08:18. | |
deserve a higher rate of personal independence payments. These are | :08:19. | :08:23. | |
people with debilitating mental health conditions. Dementia, | :08:24. | :08:29. | |
schizophrenia, post-traumatic stress disorder. The Prime Minister came to | :08:30. | :08:36. | |
office talking about fighting burning injustices. Less than nine | :08:37. | :08:40. | |
months later she seems to have forgotten all about them because | :08:41. | :08:45. | |
none of them are being fought today. Low pay holds people back and it is | :08:46. | :08:52. | |
holding our country back. We are the only major developed country in | :08:53. | :08:56. | |
which economic growth has returned, yet workers are worse off, wages are | :08:57. | :09:03. | |
still below the 2008 level. Inflation rising, an urgent need to | :09:04. | :09:07. | |
address the pressure on people's incomes. Massively rising personal | :09:08. | :09:13. | |
debts. Rising energy bills and the cost of the weekly shop, transport | :09:14. | :09:17. | |
costs and housing costs all rising. The Chancellor faced a series of | :09:18. | :09:20. | |
tests as to whether he would stand on the same side of the people or | :09:21. | :09:25. | |
not. He could have raised the minimum wage to the level of the | :09:26. | :09:30. | |
living wage. The real living wage of ?10 per hour, as we, the Labour | :09:31. | :09:36. | |
Party are pledged to do. It would pay for a pay rise for 6 | :09:37. | :09:42. | |
million people in this country, 62% of whom are women. He failed to do | :09:43. | :09:49. | |
that. Since 2010, millions of public sector workers have endured a pay | :09:50. | :09:56. | |
freeze and then a pay cut. Dedicated public servants who keep our | :09:57. | :10:01. | |
services going, have lost over 9% of their real wages, or will have done | :10:02. | :10:05. | |
by 2020. He could have ended the public | :10:06. | :10:12. | |
sector pay cut, as we are pledged to do, and given a pay rise to 5 | :10:13. | :10:17. | |
million dedicated public servants who we all rely on day-in, day-out | :10:18. | :10:21. | |
in our hospitals, our health service in general and our local government. | :10:22. | :10:27. | |
He failed to do that. It's an insult to say they deserve falling living | :10:28. | :10:32. | |
standards when we all know those in the public sector are working harder | :10:33. | :10:35. | |
than ever, covering the jobs of those that have gone. There is a | :10:36. | :10:39. | |
crisis, too, Mr Deputy Speaker in job security. Millions of workers | :10:40. | :10:47. | |
don't know whether or not they'll be working from day to day. Millions of | :10:48. | :10:53. | |
workers who don't know how many hours they'll be working this week | :10:54. | :10:58. | |
or next week. Just imagine what it's like to try and plan your life if | :10:59. | :11:04. | |
you don't know what your income is going to be from one week to the | :11:05. | :11:11. | |
other. Because, Mr Deputy Speaker, that is the reality... Order. Can I | :11:12. | :11:18. | |
just say to these benches, I want to hear the Leader of the Opposition. I | :11:19. | :11:22. | |
don't want him shouted down because you may not be interested but our | :11:23. | :11:27. | |
constituents out there want it hear what the alternative is. -- want to | :11:28. | :11:32. | |
hear. If the whip wants to be funny he can | :11:33. | :11:38. | |
go and get a cup of tea now. So, let's just show the same respect | :11:39. | :11:42. | |
that was given to the Chancellor of the Exchequer. | :11:43. | :11:43. | |
Jeremy Corbyn. Thank you Mr Deputy Speaker. There is nothing funny | :11:44. | :11:48. | |
about being one of 900,000 workers on zero hours contracts. 55% of them | :11:49. | :11:53. | |
women. He could have announced ban on zero hours contracts, as we are | :11:54. | :11:59. | |
pledged to do. Again, he failed. But zero hours contracts, Mr Deputy | :12:00. | :12:02. | |
Speaker, are only the tip of an iceberg. 4.5 million workers in | :12:03. | :12:10. | |
Britain, in insecure work. 2.3 million working variable shift | :12:11. | :12:14. | |
patterns, 1.1 million on temporary contracts. We have long argued to | :12:15. | :12:19. | |
clamp-down on bogus self-employment but today the Chancellor seems to | :12:20. | :12:24. | |
put the burden on self-employed workers instead. There has to be | :12:25. | :12:31. | |
something for something deal, so I hope the Chancellor will bring | :12:32. | :12:33. | |
forward extra Social Security in return. One policy that Labour | :12:34. | :12:39. | |
backed, extending statutory maternity pay it self-employed | :12:40. | :12:44. | |
women, which is likely to cost just ?10 million per year. -- to | :12:45. | :12:49. | |
self-employed women. Low pay and insecure work have consequences for | :12:50. | :12:53. | |
us all. Mr Deputy Speaker, in reality we all pay for low pay. | :12:54. | :12:56. | |
There are a million working households having to claim housing | :12:57. | :13:06. | |
benefited. Just get that figure. 1 million working households claiming | :13:07. | :13:08. | |
housing benefit because their wages aren't enough to pay the rent and 3 | :13:09. | :13:13. | |
million working families who simply rely on tax credits to make ends | :13:14. | :13:17. | |
meet. This is modern Britain. The most effective way of boosting wages | :13:18. | :13:23. | |
and increasing job security, as all studies show, is actually to improve | :13:24. | :13:26. | |
collective bargaining through a trade union. Words that the | :13:27. | :13:31. | |
Chancellor did not use in his speech. But instead of a trade union | :13:32. | :13:38. | |
act we have, which will further Shackell unions and perpetuate | :13:39. | :13:41. | |
chronic low pay, which actually costs us all a lot of money through | :13:42. | :13:47. | |
in-work benefits, we will promote collective bargaining and repeal the | :13:48. | :13:55. | |
Trade Union Act. This is a Chancellor and a Government not on | :13:56. | :13:59. | |
the side of the workers, not on the side of the tax payers who pick up | :14:00. | :14:03. | |
the bill for low pay and insecure work. Mr Deputy Speaker, on | :14:04. | :14:06. | |
International Women's Day, did the Chancellor deliver a Budget that | :14:07. | :14:15. | |
works for women? According to the House of Commons' library analysis, | :14:16. | :14:17. | |
commissioned by my friend, the member for Rotherham, who is doing a | :14:18. | :14:23. | |
brilliant job speaking up for women from our front benches, 86% of the | :14:24. | :14:28. | |
savings the Treasury has made from tax and benefits have fallen on | :14:29. | :14:32. | |
women. Women's lives have been made more difficult through successive | :14:33. | :14:38. | |
policies of this Government. Women struggling with more caring | :14:39. | :14:41. | |
responsibility, due to the continuing state of emergency in | :14:42. | :14:51. | |
social care. The Waspie women, born in the 1950s, who with little notice | :14:52. | :14:54. | |
facing a crisis in retirement they could not possibly have predicted. | :14:55. | :14:59. | |
54,000 women a year are forced out of their jobs through maternity | :15:00. | :15:03. | |
discrimination. They can't afford this Government's extortionate fees, | :15:04. | :15:07. | |
to take their employer to a tribunal in search of justice. Women up and | :15:08. | :15:13. | |
down the country, who will have to wait another 60 years before the | :15:14. | :15:17. | |
gender pay gap is closed. The hundreds, hundreds of women being | :15:18. | :15:22. | |
turned away from domestic violence shelters every year, through lack of | :15:23. | :15:27. | |
space or appropriate services, or because they have simply been | :15:28. | :15:31. | |
closed. Mothers struggling, put under more pressure through cuts to | :15:32. | :15:33. | |
Universal Credit and tax credits. If this wasn't bad enough, to cut | :15:34. | :15:45. | |
tax credits for children who are born third or fourth in a family. | :15:46. | :15:49. | |
Most shamefully, Mr Deputy Speaker, as of next month, women will have to | :15:50. | :15:53. | |
prove that their third child is a product of rape if they wish to | :15:54. | :15:57. | |
qualify for a child tax credits for that child. I paid tribute to my | :15:58. | :16:03. | |
friend the member for Rotherham, and the honourable member for Glasgow | :16:04. | :16:07. | |
Central, for their campaigning on this issue. I hope the Chancellor | :16:08. | :16:15. | |
will reverse this cut. There is, Mr Deputy Speaker, a housing crisis, a | :16:16. | :16:21. | |
crisis of supply and affordability. Since 2010, house building has | :16:22. | :16:25. | |
fallen to its lowest rate in peace time since the 1920s. The building | :16:26. | :16:29. | |
of social homes for rent is at its lowest level for a quarter of a | :16:30. | :16:35. | |
century. Did he empower councils to tackle the housing crisis by | :16:36. | :16:38. | |
allowing them to borrow to build council housing, as we are pledged | :16:39. | :16:42. | |
to do? No! Have they replace council houses sold under right to buy, as | :16:43. | :16:47. | |
they promised? No! Just one in six have been replaced! And was there | :16:48. | :16:52. | |
any commitment to return to the council is the ?800 million right to | :16:53. | :16:58. | |
buy proceeds the Treasury has taken back which would build 12,000 homes? | :16:59. | :17:02. | |
No. Did he scrapped the unfair bedroom tax, as we are pledged to | :17:03. | :17:08. | |
do? No. Did he reverse housing benefit cuts that would take support | :17:09. | :17:13. | |
away from 10,000 young people, despite the opposition of Shelter, | :17:14. | :17:18. | |
Crisis and centre point, which even the honourable member for Enfield | :17:19. | :17:21. | |
Southgate correctly described as catastrophic? Last week, the | :17:22. | :17:27. | |
Institute for Government said there were clear warning signs of the | :17:28. | :17:31. | |
damaging impact of government cuts on schools, prisons, health and | :17:32. | :17:34. | |
social care. This government has taken a sledgehammer to public | :17:35. | :17:38. | |
services in recent years. The Chancellor now expects praise for | :17:39. | :17:41. | |
patching up a small part of that damage. The Budget did not provide | :17:42. | :17:47. | |
the funding necessary now for the crisis in our NHS. The BMA reckons | :17:48. | :17:54. | |
it needs a next ?10 billion. It didn't provide the funding necessary | :17:55. | :17:58. | |
to end the state of emergency and social care now, which needs to | :17:59. | :18:04. | |
billion pounds a year just to plug the gaps, according to the King's | :18:05. | :18:11. | |
Fund. That is not met by ?2 billion over three years. The money is | :18:12. | :18:16. | |
needed now. More than 1 million people, mainly elderly people, | :18:17. | :18:20. | |
desperate for social care, still can't get it. The money ought to be | :18:21. | :18:26. | |
made available now. Because this government ducks really tough | :18:27. | :18:30. | |
choices, like asking corporations to pay a little bit more in tax. Not | :18:31. | :18:36. | |
every local authority can just text Neck and get the deal they won't! | :18:37. | :18:41. | |
Another council services are suffering as well. Our communities | :18:42. | :18:48. | |
are stronger when we have good libraries, and they are valuable, | :18:49. | :18:52. | |
obviously for children, but for the entire community. 67 closed last | :18:53. | :18:55. | |
year because of local government underfunding. 700 sure start centres | :18:56. | :19:03. | |
closed because of lack of funding from local authorities, denying the | :19:04. | :19:06. | |
life chances that a Labour government delivered to them with | :19:07. | :19:10. | |
the opening of those centres in the 1990s. And 600 youth centres have | :19:11. | :19:17. | |
closed as well. These painful decisions are being taken by | :19:18. | :19:23. | |
councils not because they want to do it but because they don't enough | :19:24. | :19:25. | |
money even to keep essential services running because of the | :19:26. | :19:30. | |
slashing of their budgets year-on-year. And it goes on! It | :19:31. | :19:34. | |
affect our communities and our lives in so many ways. Last year, councils | :19:35. | :19:38. | |
proposed a sell-off of school playing fields to the equivalent of | :19:39. | :19:44. | |
500 football pitches. 500 pitches not available for young people to | :19:45. | :19:50. | |
indulge in sport. It is our duty as a community, surely, to ensure all | :19:51. | :19:53. | |
our young people, wherever they live, have a decent chance to grow | :19:54. | :19:56. | |
up with a library, with a playing field, with a Sure Start centre. It | :19:57. | :20:03. | |
is not a lot to ask. The Chancellor boasts, Mr Deputy Speaker, of a | :20:04. | :20:07. | |
strong economy, but abandons the target of the previous Chancellor, | :20:08. | :20:11. | |
so let's give a more realistic context to today's figures. The | :20:12. | :20:16. | |
deficits that was going to be eradicated in 2015, you all remember | :20:17. | :20:21. | |
the long-term economic plan? The debt was going to peak at 80% of GDP | :20:22. | :20:27. | |
and then start falling. Our economy is not prepared for Brexit. We still | :20:28. | :20:33. | |
have an economy suffering from underinvestment and an overreliance | :20:34. | :20:37. | |
on consumer spending and wholly unsustainable levels of personal and | :20:38. | :20:43. | |
household debt. Investment must be evenly spread around our country. | :20:44. | :20:47. | |
Despite the announcements today, London continues to receive six | :20:48. | :20:54. | |
times as much investment as the north-east, and so that is why | :20:55. | :20:58. | |
Labour is backing the fair funding formula for investment so that every | :20:59. | :21:03. | |
area gets its fair share of capital spending. What has been announced | :21:04. | :21:07. | |
today doesn't achieve that. You can't build a Northern Powerhouse or | :21:08. | :21:12. | |
a Midlands Engine if the investment does not follow the sound bite. Our | :21:13. | :21:16. | |
country currently spends 1.7% on research and development, well below | :21:17. | :21:21. | |
the OECD average. The strongest economies spend over 3%. In the | :21:22. | :21:26. | |
immediate term, and the Chancellor did not have much to say about this, | :21:27. | :21:31. | |
he must focus his attention is on the precarious future of skilled | :21:32. | :21:35. | |
workers and' jobs at Vauxhall in Ellesmere port in Luton and Ford in | :21:36. | :21:45. | |
Bridgend. It would give these companies more confidence if the | :21:46. | :21:48. | |
Government were committed to negotiating for tariff free access | :21:49. | :21:51. | |
to the single market and dropped the reckless threat of turning Britain | :21:52. | :21:53. | |
into a tax saving on the shores of Europe. One of the biggest | :21:54. | :21:58. | |
challenges facing our country, Mr Deputy Speaker, is environmental, it | :21:59. | :22:03. | |
is climate change. This government is failing to lead, failing to drive | :22:04. | :22:08. | |
a mission led industrial strategy as our own business select committee | :22:09. | :22:13. | |
has recommended. The Chancellor failed to make energy efficiency a | :22:14. | :22:17. | |
National Infrastructure Plan and the. No commitment to establishing | :22:18. | :22:21. | |
zero carbon standards on new building, and unclear about | :22:22. | :22:26. | |
investments in public transport that will definitely reduce pollution. | :22:27. | :22:32. | |
The poor air quality is appalling. It is killing thousands of people in | :22:33. | :22:36. | |
this country. It is taking away the life chances of many children | :22:37. | :22:41. | |
growing up alongside polluted roads. The good work being done by Labour's | :22:42. | :22:46. | |
London Marathon, Sadiq Khan, the good work being done by the Labour | :22:47. | :22:50. | |
government, has recognised this as an urgent public health crisis, | :22:51. | :22:54. | |
particularly for children. We have to deal with this crisis and deal | :22:55. | :23:01. | |
with it urgently. There cannot be, Mr Deputy Speaker, an industrial | :23:02. | :23:04. | |
strategy or productivity gains unless there is serious investment | :23:05. | :23:09. | |
in skills. Adult skills training cut by 54%, further education by 14%, | :23:10. | :23:13. | |
and the small amounts committed today are long overdue but woefully | :23:14. | :23:19. | |
insufficient. Over the coming years, the schools budget is being cut by | :23:20. | :23:24. | |
8%. Does the Chancellor really want fewer teachers and teaching | :23:25. | :23:27. | |
assistants, larger classes, shorter schooldays? Which is it? I agree | :23:28. | :23:31. | |
with the Prime Minister that every child deserves a decent education, | :23:32. | :23:34. | |
every community deserves decent schools. You do it by working with | :23:35. | :23:40. | |
those communities to provide those schools, not blogging into them | :23:41. | :23:43. | |
selective schools which are not being demanded by those communities. | :23:44. | :23:47. | |
The money announced by the Prime Minister yesterday for the new | :23:48. | :23:51. | |
grammar schools is frankly a vanity project. Cancel this gimmick, | :23:52. | :23:55. | |
project selection and segregation, and why not honour their own 2050 | :23:56. | :24:01. | |
manifesto pledge to protect per-pupil funding, which is clearly | :24:02. | :24:06. | |
not happening? -- 2015. This is a Budget that lacks ambition for this | :24:07. | :24:10. | |
country and lacks fairness. It demonstrates again the appalling | :24:11. | :24:13. | |
priorities of this government, another year, tax breaks for the | :24:14. | :24:17. | |
few, public service cuts for the many. When she took office, the | :24:18. | :24:21. | |
Prime Minister said, if you are one of those families, if you are just | :24:22. | :24:25. | |
managing, I want to address you directly. This Budget does not | :24:26. | :24:30. | |
address them, it failed them! This Budget has done nothing to tackle | :24:31. | :24:36. | |
low play, to solve the state of emergency that persists for so many | :24:37. | :24:38. | |
people, demanding and needing health and social care now. And nothing to | :24:39. | :24:45. | |
make a fair economy truly working for everyone. It is built on | :24:46. | :24:49. | |
unfairness, and it is built on failure to tackle an fairness in our | :24:50. | :24:57. | |
society. Andrew Tyrie! STUDIO: Jeremy Corbyn, the Leader of | :24:58. | :25:01. | |
the Opposition, with his response, basically saying that he says there | :25:02. | :25:04. | |
is a crisis in public services which has not been addressed by this | :25:05. | :25:10. | |
Budget. We will put those points to the Chief Secretary, David Gauke, | :25:11. | :25:14. | |
when he joins us later, and John McDonnell will be with us too. There | :25:15. | :25:21. | |
will be a long debate. Days on the Budget, and if you want | :25:22. | :25:25. | |
uninterrupted coverage, you can go to our colleagues on BBC Parliament. | :25:26. | :25:32. | |
I think it is a good moment now to take us through the Budget measures, | :25:33. | :25:36. | |
quite a few of them, and we will go through those before we have a chat | :25:37. | :25:41. | |
in the studio with our colleagues, and indeed with Paul Johnson from | :25:42. | :25:44. | |
the Institute for Fiscal Studies, who has joined us. We have taken | :25:45. | :25:50. | |
delivery of the Red Book, I think it is there to say it is slimmer than | :25:51. | :25:55. | |
usual! Is that fair to say? Much slimmer than usual! Only 64 pages. | :25:56. | :26:03. | |
There are 77 measures in the 2016 budget, 28 in this one. Go I feel I | :26:04. | :26:11. | |
will probably mention those 28, let's have a look at those measures. | :26:12. | :26:20. | |
A significant upgrading then a slight downgrade in growth, so that | :26:21. | :26:27. | |
forecast slightly adjusted, but as I say, this year has been upgraded by | :26:28. | :26:33. | |
a bit. Let's go on to the borrowing forecasts, and a significant | :26:34. | :26:39. | |
reduction, in fact, in the forecast for 2016-17, at 51 billion. But then | :26:40. | :26:44. | |
we see the figures going on, no balancing of the books, as we see, | :26:45. | :26:48. | |
by the end of the parliament, but tapering away to 16 billion, that is | :26:49. | :26:52. | |
the latest borrowing forecast by 2021-22. We will be asking Paul to | :26:53. | :26:58. | |
tell us more about that. Let's talk about debt, 86.6% of GDP in 2016-17, | :26:59. | :27:04. | |
going down gradually, according to these latest forecasts, to 79.8% by | :27:05. | :27:11. | |
2021-22. That is the broad picture in terms of debt and borrowing and | :27:12. | :27:16. | |
the growth forecasts. Let's go on some measures, some policies. Health | :27:17. | :27:21. | |
and social care, well, this was one of the major announcements today, | :27:22. | :27:24. | |
after all the talk of pressure on the social care system in England, | :27:25. | :27:28. | |
an announcement to do with England. ?2 billion of additional funding | :27:29. | :27:32. | |
over three years for the social care system in England, is that enough? | :27:33. | :27:36. | |
Well, we will be talking to some people later and asking if it | :27:37. | :27:39. | |
answers the needs. Jeremy Corbyn doesn't think it does. Annexed the | :27:40. | :27:48. | |
?100 million to place GPs in A departments next winter. -- an extra | :27:49. | :27:52. | |
?100 million. The Chancellor says that is to address the fact that | :27:53. | :27:55. | |
many people turn up inappropriately for treatment at A departments. An | :27:56. | :28:05. | |
extra ?325 million for the first NHS sustainability and transformation | :28:06. | :28:08. | |
plans to be implemented, again, some of these reforms coming in to try to | :28:09. | :28:11. | |
deal with the pressures, the very real pressures within the NHS | :28:12. | :28:18. | |
system. Let's look at some tax changes. Well, national insurance | :28:19. | :28:22. | |
for self-employed workers to rise to 10% in April 20 11% in April 20 19. | :28:23. | :28:27. | |
I think it is there to say this will be a controversial change, simply | :28:28. | :28:32. | |
because there are lots of people saying this is a direct | :28:33. | :28:37. | |
contravention of a promise made in the Conservative manifesto, not to | :28:38. | :28:42. | |
raise any of the taxes, VAT, income tax, national insurance. We will ask | :28:43. | :28:45. | |
the Minister about that. The tax-free dividend allowance cut two | :28:46. | :28:52. | |
?2000, that is to do with company directors and the advantages they | :28:53. | :28:55. | |
get. And any personal tax-free allowance is to rise, as planned, | :28:56. | :29:01. | |
?12,500 by 2020. Business rates, Simon was talking about these | :29:02. | :29:05. | |
earlier, people wanting help with their rising business rates. There | :29:06. | :29:09. | |
will be ?300 million fund for businesses facing big increases to | :29:10. | :29:14. | |
their rates bills. Pubs in England, ?1000 discount for pubs with a | :29:15. | :29:18. | |
rateable value under ?100,000, the vast majority of pubs in England, | :29:19. | :29:24. | |
well over 90% getting that discount. And firms losing small business rate | :29:25. | :29:28. | |
relief will have a cap, their increases will be capped at ?50 per | :29:29. | :29:34. | |
month. All of that is meant to help, we will ask Simon whether it will do | :29:35. | :29:37. | |
the trick, and given what he has been told by people in business | :29:38. | :29:41. | |
about that. Money for the devolved administrations - an extra ?350 | :29:42. | :29:49. | |
million for the Scottish Government, an extra ?2 million for the Welsh | :29:50. | :29:54. | |
blood, ?120 million or thereabouts for the Northern Ireland executive, | :29:55. | :30:01. | |
when there is one in place. Then ?690 million competition launched | :30:02. | :30:05. | |
for local councils to tackle urban congestion. Those are the packages | :30:06. | :30:08. | |
not just for the devolved nations but for local authorities too. | :30:09. | :30:22. | |
110 new free schools will get funding. There's an introduction of | :30:23. | :30:33. | |
what we call T-levels to raise the status of technical educational | :30:34. | :30:37. | |
vocation. The Chancellor said that was a matter of priority for him. | :30:38. | :30:42. | |
Some other measures, the last set, as I go through the Budget measures | :30:43. | :30:46. | |
today, the National savings bond will be available from April, at | :30:47. | :30:51. | |
this time of very low interest rates, it will pay 2.2% interest on | :30:52. | :30:58. | |
deposits up to ?3000. The receipts to fund a further ?12 million for | :30:59. | :31:04. | |
women's charities on sanitary products. And some ?200 million to | :31:05. | :31:10. | |
encourage investment in local full fibre broadband networks. Even a | :31:11. | :31:13. | |
question at Prime Minister's Questions today about the quality of | :31:14. | :31:17. | |
broadband networks, especially in rural areas, so ?200 million to | :31:18. | :31:19. | |
encourage investment there. That is a broad sense of where we | :31:20. | :31:28. | |
are and there were some eye-catching proposals from the Chancellor, not | :31:29. | :31:32. | |
least to do with social care and the changes in national insurance. We | :31:33. | :31:36. | |
will talk to Paul with us, but Laura, I'm going to start with you. | :31:37. | :31:42. | |
On the political side, there's a broader picture clearly but can we | :31:43. | :31:45. | |
deal with the issue of manifesto pledges which may or may not have | :31:46. | :31:50. | |
been broken? In national insurance terms, what is your view? As simply | :31:51. | :31:55. | |
as I can, the Tory manifesto promised no increases in income tax, | :31:56. | :32:00. | |
VAT or national insurance rates. In the Budget today, Philip Hammond has | :32:01. | :32:03. | |
gone against the spirit of the pledge, absolutely, no question | :32:04. | :32:07. | |
about that because he has increased what is known as class for national | :32:08. | :32:12. | |
insurance payments, they will go up from 9% to 11% by 2018. Where the | :32:13. | :32:16. | |
Treasury will try to get itself off the hook on what I would describe as | :32:17. | :32:23. | |
a technicality is when that manifesto pledge was put into law, | :32:24. | :32:26. | |
the law that was passed referred only to a different class of | :32:27. | :32:28. | |
national insurance payments. What ended up in black and white in | :32:29. | :32:31. | |
legislation was a narrower promise than the Tory manifesto but if you | :32:32. | :32:37. | |
are only picking up the Tory manifesto and having a look he will | :32:38. | :32:40. | |
bring Philip Hammond has gone against it and I think that might be | :32:41. | :32:43. | |
a bit itchy politically but the scale of the measure overall might | :32:44. | :32:47. | |
mean they get off the hook? The broader picture, what did you make | :32:48. | :32:51. | |
of the statement itself in what it said about where the government | :32:52. | :32:56. | |
thinks it is? Safety first is really the headline from this. Philip | :32:57. | :32:59. | |
Hammond tiptoed through the controversial area of Brexit but | :33:00. | :33:03. | |
only at the beginning. He basically said it is the broad canvas but I | :33:04. | :33:06. | |
think quite deliberately chose not to make lots of references to what | :33:07. | :33:10. | |
happens when we leave the European Union or before then threw his | :33:11. | :33:15. | |
statement. I think basically he gave moderately with one hand and took | :33:16. | :33:19. | |
away moderately with the other. What I do think is worth drawing from | :33:20. | :33:23. | |
that is the emerging picture of what people at the top of government hope | :33:24. | :33:29. | |
people will come to see, they hope, is sort of Theresa May's | :33:30. | :33:32. | |
meritocracy. There is one phrase he used that stuck in my mind, he said, | :33:33. | :33:37. | |
"We believe talent should be the only driver", so whether that is | :33:38. | :33:41. | |
improving access to further education, better skills, trying to | :33:42. | :33:46. | |
help people who are, as Theresa May would say, getting on with it, with | :33:47. | :33:50. | |
something like the small print clause, the kind of things that | :33:51. | :33:54. | |
really make consumers mad, I think that emerging jigsaw of the overall | :33:55. | :33:58. | |
ethos was in there. But the real challenge is whether that matches up | :33:59. | :34:03. | |
to how people actually feel in terms of the economy. Labour already | :34:04. | :34:06. | |
pointing out a couple of things, they have gone through the numbers, | :34:07. | :34:10. | |
that real household income has been revised down on average, they are | :34:11. | :34:13. | |
forecasting people will be worse off cumulatively over the next five | :34:14. | :34:17. | |
years, to use of Labour's numbers and they have pointed out the | :34:18. | :34:22. | |
National Living Wage was meant to be ?9 by 2020 and today it has been | :34:23. | :34:28. | |
suggested it will only be ?8.75. As ever, rhetoric, reality, where do we | :34:29. | :34:32. | |
end up? Paul Cole your day, there were some big numbers in terms of | :34:33. | :34:35. | |
the growth forecast and all the rest it but what caught your eye? The | :34:36. | :34:40. | |
first thing is the big change in the public finances for this year | :34:41. | :34:44. | |
relative to what the Office for Budget Responsibility were saying in | :34:45. | :34:49. | |
November. It is something like ?16 billion increase, improvement in the | :34:50. | :34:52. | |
public finances for this year. That is by far and away the biggest | :34:53. | :34:56. | |
adjustment the OBR has made in a year since it came into existence. | :34:57. | :35:02. | |
The reason for that? There are two bits, about half of it is just one | :35:03. | :35:06. | |
of things, that will happen this year and will not happen again. Some | :35:07. | :35:13. | |
of that is some strange spending accounting, we are giving European | :35:14. | :35:16. | |
Union less money, as it happens, in the first quarter of the year and | :35:17. | :35:21. | |
more in the last three quarters of the year. There are some changes | :35:22. | :35:24. | |
associated with the changes to dividend taxation that came in last | :35:25. | :35:27. | |
year which means we are getting quite a lot more money in this year | :35:28. | :35:31. | |
but we will get less next year. There are some departmental spending | :35:32. | :35:36. | |
changes where departments don't seem to be spending all the money they | :35:37. | :35:40. | |
have got and then there are some longer term, better news, which is | :35:41. | :35:46. | |
that some other tax revenues, from corporation tax and PAYE income tax | :35:47. | :35:48. | |
are doing a bit better than expected. But no change at all to | :35:49. | :35:52. | |
the public finances three or four years down the road. So really, it | :35:53. | :35:58. | |
is a here and now change but looking on, prospects look, how do they look | :35:59. | :36:02. | |
to you? For the public finances, they haven't changed, pretty much, | :36:03. | :36:06. | |
in terms of the economy, looking a bit better in the short term but | :36:07. | :36:12. | |
again, the accord it -- economy according to the official forecast | :36:13. | :36:15. | |
will be roughly in 2020 where it was expected to be in November but as | :36:16. | :36:19. | |
Laura says, actually, also the bad news in a way is that the earnings | :36:20. | :36:25. | |
forecast and income forecast have gone down. This talk of the | :36:26. | :36:28. | |
Chancellor building up a kind of store of money, a war a Brexit | :36:29. | :36:32. | |
savings account, what is the evidence of that and where is that | :36:33. | :36:37. | |
going to happen? That is always nonsense. There is no war chest! The | :36:38. | :36:44. | |
Chancellor says there is ?1.7 trillion of debt, where is the war | :36:45. | :36:49. | |
chest there, and we are borrowing ?50 billion this year? The only way | :36:50. | :36:52. | |
you could think there is a war chest is that the Chancellor has said he | :36:53. | :36:59. | |
would be OK borrowing ?45 billion in 2020 and cried forecasts are only to | :37:00. | :37:04. | |
be borrowing ?20 billion. In that sense, he could borrow more and | :37:05. | :37:06. | |
still meet his own fiscal targets but of course, if we end up there, | :37:07. | :37:10. | |
then he's got another big period of austerity to get through to get down | :37:11. | :37:14. | |
to zero which is where he wants to be next parliament. That is the | :37:15. | :37:17. | |
point I wanted to raise, when he spoke last year about a | :37:18. | :37:20. | |
roller-coaster ride, we're talking now people will be saying some of | :37:21. | :37:29. | |
the figures look much better, the is in a better state than we thought it | :37:30. | :37:32. | |
would be, so has that roller-coaster in the medium term disappeared or is | :37:33. | :37:35. | |
there still one head? It is always important to compare where we are | :37:36. | :37:37. | |
not in terms of the forecast than where we were a year ago and they | :37:38. | :37:40. | |
are still all down relative to a year ago. There's a roller-coaster | :37:41. | :37:43. | |
ride in the sense that there are changes in the forecast and we still | :37:44. | :37:48. | |
seem to be on a bit of an upswing but the expectation is for a | :37:49. | :37:52. | |
downswing later. It is really important to be clear with these | :37:53. | :37:56. | |
forecasts, though, and I don't know if the OBR have said it but all | :37:57. | :38:00. | |
forecasters are saying at the moment there is probably more uncertainty | :38:01. | :38:03. | |
about where we will be in for five years' time than pretty much ever in | :38:04. | :38:07. | |
the last 20 or 30 years. I think what is striking when you look | :38:08. | :38:11. | |
through the Budget measures is not only the limited number of them but | :38:12. | :38:16. | |
in the next two years, there is actually a slight fiscal loosening. | :38:17. | :38:20. | |
Spending and tax changes, there are more giveaways than take away is. So | :38:21. | :38:24. | |
he has used a bit of the headroom, straightaway, on the social care | :38:25. | :38:31. | |
changes, on the higher taxes on dividends for company directors, to | :38:32. | :38:37. | |
enable him to support the economy slightly more aggressively than | :38:38. | :38:41. | |
maybe he would have done in the past. But all that, as Paul said, | :38:42. | :38:45. | |
has to be gained back towards the end of the forecast period, so yet | :38:46. | :38:49. | |
again, as we often had with George Osborne, it is paying, not cancelled | :38:50. | :38:55. | |
but delayed. So they push back the cuts that are going to be coming in. | :38:56. | :38:59. | |
So by the end of the forecast period, there will be this | :39:00. | :39:02. | |
tightening again into the next Parliament. I think the | :39:03. | :39:05. | |
self-employed issue is the start of the big debate of the next few | :39:06. | :39:10. | |
years. OK, it is a small start now, with the change in national | :39:11. | :39:13. | |
insurance class four. I think there is a big issue with the clash with | :39:14. | :39:18. | |
the spirit of the manifesto commitment. But what Phillip Hammond | :39:19. | :39:24. | |
clearly wants to do is what the Treasury are calling equalisation. | :39:25. | :39:26. | |
That means people who are self-employed are taxed in a way | :39:27. | :39:29. | |
that is more similar to those that are in full-time employment. It is | :39:30. | :39:33. | |
surprising, though, and I would be interested to us David Gauke about | :39:34. | :39:37. | |
it, why at the start of this debate and the tax rises on the | :39:38. | :39:42. | |
self-employed side of the ledger, with the self-employed people, | :39:43. | :39:45. | |
rather than the firms that you self-employed people and gain from | :39:46. | :39:49. | |
that because they don't do national insurance contributions, don't put | :39:50. | :39:53. | |
in pension contributions, don't allow for holiday entitlement? The | :39:54. | :39:57. | |
government has started it, started the squeeze on those working in that | :39:58. | :40:00. | |
area rather than the firms to gain from them. The Treasury's point on | :40:01. | :40:04. | |
this which they are trying to circulate their arguments right now, | :40:05. | :40:09. | |
after the statement, is that the intent of the manifesto was | :40:10. | :40:12. | |
delivered by that legislation we were talking about, the tax lock, | :40:13. | :40:15. | |
but what they are saying is, the point is it is not fair to the 85% | :40:16. | :40:20. | |
of workers who are employees, given that these days, the benefits and | :40:21. | :40:25. | |
entitlements are broadly similar. That is their case which is kind of, | :40:26. | :40:30. | |
"Whatever we said in the manifesto, this government", which in a lot of | :40:31. | :40:34. | |
weight is a new government, different with different priorities | :40:35. | :40:43. | |
to David Cameron in George Osborne, "In our calculation, we don't think | :40:44. | :40:46. | |
this is on", and they are prepared to take a hit on it and they know | :40:47. | :40:49. | |
they will because they have the arguments ready. Business rates was | :40:50. | :40:51. | |
the big thing for small business owners going into this and the | :40:52. | :40:54. | |
answer was a bit complicated and short lived. Basically, if you are a | :40:55. | :40:56. | |
small business and you were below the small business rates relief cap | :40:57. | :40:59. | |
which is ?15,000, the rateable value of your premises, if you are going | :41:00. | :41:02. | |
into the new bracket, the cap on your increase will be ?50 per week, | :41:03. | :41:07. | |
?50 per month, I should say and if you are a pub and your rateable | :41:08. | :41:11. | |
value is under ?100,000, you will get a ?1000 discount on your | :41:12. | :41:15. | |
business rates next year. That is not to say you will pay ?1000 less, | :41:16. | :41:19. | |
you are only going to pay ?1000 less than you would have paid with a | :41:20. | :41:23. | |
massive increase a lot of people out of pocket still. A ?300 million fund | :41:24. | :41:27. | |
to be administered by local authorities for the hardest hit, to | :41:28. | :41:32. | |
be administered area by area. It is a complicated problem so they are | :41:33. | :41:34. | |
farming it out to local authorities, if you like, you have to deal with | :41:35. | :41:39. | |
it with the ?300 million. But will the humility of effect do the trick? | :41:40. | :41:44. | |
?455 million in total in the giveaways are very short lived and | :41:45. | :41:48. | |
eventually, the rate rises will come through. They say they are going to | :41:49. | :41:56. | |
have a review, so unless this review, how much do companies like | :41:57. | :41:58. | |
Amazon pay compared to the corner shop, unless that delivers major | :41:59. | :42:00. | |
reform, and we won't know that yet, essentially, as Kamal Ahmed said, | :42:01. | :42:04. | |
this is paying delayed, not cancelled. Interestingly, a range of | :42:05. | :42:08. | |
things including the new T-levels, the focus on technology and | :42:09. | :42:11. | |
vocational skills, which lots of people in business have been | :42:12. | :42:14. | |
demanding some again, interesting to know what business makes this | :42:15. | :42:19. | |
qualification. I think they are broadly supportive, too many people | :42:20. | :42:22. | |
are focused on things like A-levels. I've been at the Geneva motor show | :42:23. | :42:26. | |
all week and they say they can't the right people, the labour supply may | :42:27. | :42:30. | |
be more constrained when we are outside the EU. If we are going to | :42:31. | :42:34. | |
build Heathrow, Hinkley Point, whatever, HS2, and bolster industry, | :42:35. | :42:41. | |
we're going to need these people and I think this will be broadly | :42:42. | :42:44. | |
supported. It kind of fits in with the industrial strategy we heard | :42:45. | :42:49. | |
about a few weeks ago. A quick final thought from Paul because David | :42:50. | :42:52. | |
Gauke will join us, the Treasury minister, in a moment, and then we | :42:53. | :42:55. | |
will go to Hull and get a response. Your headline thought from the | :42:56. | :43:01. | |
Budget today is? A couple of things, firstly, short-term gain to the | :43:02. | :43:03. | |
public finances but nothing improving in the long run. I quite | :43:04. | :43:08. | |
like some of the ways we have heard that we're going to have some | :43:09. | :43:11. | |
consultation on some big things, so more consultation on the | :43:12. | :43:15. | |
self-employed, more consultation on social care, more consultation on | :43:16. | :43:18. | |
some of the tax issues rather than jumping in feet first. On the | :43:19. | :43:23. | |
self-employed changes, an extra 2% on national insurance still doesn't | :43:24. | :43:26. | |
get them anywhere near as highly taxed as employees, so in a sense, | :43:27. | :43:30. | |
it is a move in the right direction one thing we have not talked about | :43:31. | :43:32. | |
is this reasonably significant increase in the taxation dividends. | :43:33. | :43:39. | |
That is what people who run and own their own companies can pay | :43:40. | :43:41. | |
themselves, what you receive if you own shares. This is an doing almost | :43:42. | :43:45. | |
mostly undoing a change that George Osborne announced only in July 2015, | :43:46. | :43:50. | |
that was only introduced last April. Probably a move just about in the | :43:51. | :43:55. | |
right direction in terms of evening up the tax treatment of | :43:56. | :44:02. | |
self-employed and owner managers. But not a very steady world where | :44:03. | :44:07. | |
you make a change last April and change it really quite significantly | :44:08. | :44:12. | |
this March. A slightly rueful look from George Osborne, nodding his | :44:13. | :44:16. | |
head during it. I wonder whether it was, as you are raising the amount | :44:17. | :44:20. | |
of national insurance the self-employed are pain, people might | :44:21. | :44:22. | |
think, "In that case, I'll incorporate myself into the | :44:23. | :44:26. | |
company", but they saw it coming so they reduced the amount of tax | :44:27. | :44:31. | |
relief. A quick word from Laura. That may prove to be politically | :44:32. | :44:34. | |
more troublesome than the national insurance weight because people who | :44:35. | :44:37. | |
set up their own Company and pay themselves dividends would probably | :44:38. | :44:46. | |
be natural Tory voters. That might get them or exercised. Thank you for | :44:47. | :44:50. | |
joining us, Paul. We will see you again. | :44:51. | :44:51. | |
I am at Arco distribution centre, close to the centre of Hull, which | :44:52. | :45:05. | |
is City of Culture for 2017 and part of the Northern Powerhouse. We used | :45:06. | :45:09. | |
to hear a lot about that. I think there was only one mention today in | :45:10. | :45:13. | |
Philip Hammond's speech when he talked about ?90 million going to | :45:14. | :45:16. | |
the Northern Powerhouse in transport. Let's find out if that is | :45:17. | :45:20. | |
enough for this man, Thomas Martin, the managing director of Arco. Is it | :45:21. | :45:24. | |
enough for you to get your teeth into? | :45:25. | :45:30. | |
It is a start, but it is only one mention. Our shareholders have | :45:31. | :45:38. | |
invested hundreds of millions, but we cannot do it on our own. I hope | :45:39. | :45:43. | |
to hear more about transport infrastructure, evidence that the | :45:44. | :45:46. | |
Chancellor was taking the Northern Powerhouse as seriously as I think | :45:47. | :45:51. | |
you should be. And what about the future of your company? It is a | :45:52. | :45:55. | |
success story here and Hull, but against a backdrop of decline, what | :45:56. | :46:00. | |
would you like to have heard? There is about seven times as much money | :46:01. | :46:04. | |
being spent in the south as the North, and I understand that for | :46:05. | :46:07. | |
historical reasons, but for a Chancellor trying to balance the | :46:08. | :46:10. | |
books and get value for money, ?1 spent in the North can go a lot | :46:11. | :46:15. | |
further, so I am pleased about skills, the apprenticeships. We have | :46:16. | :46:20. | |
made our own luck, we already have future experts in our programme. I | :46:21. | :46:24. | |
think he is trying, he could have been more direct, with a more overt | :46:25. | :46:28. | |
industrial strategy. I heard some tactics, I didn't hear an overall | :46:29. | :46:34. | |
vision for UK plc. On inflation, that figure going up to 2.4%, | :46:35. | :46:39. | |
worried about that? He was very honest in terms of the public | :46:40. | :46:43. | |
finances, I think perhaps less connected with what really might | :46:44. | :46:47. | |
happen in terms of inflation. We have 1000 containers a year coming | :46:48. | :46:51. | |
through, costs are going up significantly as a result of the | :46:52. | :46:55. | |
devaluation of the pound. Thank you very much, more reaction from local | :46:56. | :46:58. | |
businesses and from the Chambers of Commerce in the ground in Hull. | :46:59. | :47:08. | |
First of all, unemployment levels, Philip Hammond says that | :47:09. | :47:12. | |
unemployment has fallen fastest here as part of a group of areas in the | :47:13. | :47:16. | |
UK, put that into context. Well, Yorkshire and Humber is seeing a | :47:17. | :47:20. | |
reduction in unemployment, and these are good times for Hull, | :47:21. | :47:26. | |
particularly with the offshore wind revolution that is going on, | :47:27. | :47:30. | |
Siemens, the German company, is investing 300 million here, 1000 | :47:31. | :47:36. | |
jobs being created in wind turbines, and a Danish energy company are | :47:37. | :47:43. | |
spending ?6 billion as part of their offshore energy agenda, and that | :47:44. | :47:46. | |
will all help as part of growing this part of the world. That sounds | :47:47. | :47:51. | |
like a rosy picture, is that how you view it? It is difficult for small | :47:52. | :47:55. | |
businesses like me to get an audience with the likes of Siemens, | :47:56. | :48:00. | |
there is a lot of competition from national companies, so it is | :48:01. | :48:04. | |
difficult to fight for the revenue that is being generated locally. So | :48:05. | :48:12. | |
what do you say to someone like Sally who cannot get access to | :48:13. | :48:16. | |
funds? Philip Hammond is talking about a bit of money going towards | :48:17. | :48:19. | |
broadband investment, but is that really going to improve the | :48:20. | :48:24. | |
fortunes. The? It is important that politicians are careful when they | :48:25. | :48:30. | |
spend money on rebadged initiatives, for example the Northern Powerhouse | :48:31. | :48:33. | |
investment fund, which brings together the north, the north-east | :48:34. | :48:37. | |
and Yorkshire's funds, will actually see less money coming to Hull and | :48:38. | :48:41. | |
the Humber as it aggregates Manchester way. So we have to be | :48:42. | :48:45. | |
Cavill that we don't lose out on good initiatives like the Northern | :48:46. | :48:50. | |
Powerhouse, but they only have small amount of money on things like | :48:51. | :48:54. | |
transport compared to London. -- careful. One of the big issues for | :48:55. | :48:59. | |
MPs was the bee valuation of business rates. People will say that | :49:00. | :49:05. | |
areas in Hull will not be affected so much, but will it? I am very | :49:06. | :49:15. | |
fortunate that I will have a cut of ?400 in business rates, which will | :49:16. | :49:19. | |
help me fulfil my obligations to the Pensions Regulator! Towards the end | :49:20. | :49:22. | |
of the year, I have plans to open the business rider, and I will have | :49:23. | :49:27. | |
to review those plans, because it will be a bigger leap in terms of | :49:28. | :49:31. | |
business rates. He announced some measures to help smooth the way, | :49:32. | :49:35. | |
would that be enough for you to go ahead with that plan? I would have | :49:36. | :49:40. | |
to look into it, if I can get hold of anybody on business rates at Hull | :49:41. | :49:44. | |
City Council, it would be nice to speak to them about it. For the | :49:45. | :49:49. | |
self-employed, some will say that was interesting for a Tory | :49:50. | :49:53. | |
Chancellor to make self-employed people pay more in national | :49:54. | :49:55. | |
insurance convolutions, what do you think? It is a move that you could | :49:56. | :50:01. | |
see coming, because they are losing an awful lot of revenue as a result | :50:02. | :50:06. | |
of this move to the gig economy, and those gaps have to be filled, but it | :50:07. | :50:11. | |
is important to help these businesses grow, they have to get | :50:12. | :50:14. | |
the balance right. Thank you very much for giving us your views. There | :50:15. | :50:18. | |
will be lots of changes that will affect you, the viewers, in finance, | :50:19. | :50:24. | |
let's find out more from our personal finance expert. | :50:25. | :50:30. | |
Yes, as we've been hearing, national insurance convolutions for the | :50:31. | :50:34. | |
self-employed will go up by one percentage point in April, and up | :50:35. | :50:38. | |
again next year by one percentage point up to 11%. The dividend | :50:39. | :50:43. | |
allowance is something that directors and shareholders of their | :50:44. | :50:47. | |
own companies can use to take ?5,000 with dividends out of their | :50:48. | :50:51. | |
companies as part of their personal allowance, that is going to be | :50:52. | :50:56. | |
reduced to ?2000 from next year. Laura has been in touch to say, I am | :50:57. | :51:00. | |
a single mum of two, children under the age of ten, was there anything | :51:01. | :51:07. | |
drastic for me? Nothing really drastic, Laura, but the personal | :51:08. | :51:15. | |
allowance will rise to ?11,500. That is the point above which you start | :51:16. | :51:20. | |
paying income tax, so there will be a little bit more money in your | :51:21. | :51:23. | |
pocket. For higher rate taxpayers, the rate is going to go, the | :51:24. | :51:29. | |
threshold is going to go from ?43,000 up to ?45,000, although that | :51:30. | :51:33. | |
will not apply in Scotland. And if you have money to save, from April, | :51:34. | :51:44. | |
you will get 2.2% on up to ?3000 of savings every year, although when it | :51:45. | :51:47. | |
was originally announced in the Autumn Statement, critics said it | :51:48. | :51:52. | |
was rather underwhelming. If you have got any questions for us, | :51:53. | :51:58. | |
please get in touch, 61124, or you can e-mail us. Back to you in | :51:59. | :52:02. | |
London. Thank you very much to everyone in | :52:03. | :52:11. | |
Hull, we will be back in a short while for more reaction. Delighted | :52:12. | :52:16. | |
to welcome to the studio of the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, | :52:17. | :52:18. | |
David Gauke, thank you for coming in. Here is a quote, a Conservative | :52:19. | :52:22. | |
judgment, you will be familiar with this quote, will not increase the | :52:23. | :52:27. | |
rates of VAT, income tax or national insurance in the next parliament, | :52:28. | :52:30. | |
why has that manifesto promise been broken? The intent of the manifesto | :52:31. | :52:36. | |
commitment was legislated for, covering class one national | :52:37. | :52:40. | |
insurance contributions, the rate that applies to employees. It did | :52:41. | :52:45. | |
not cover class four, which is what we are increasing today, and one of | :52:46. | :52:50. | |
the reasons for that was, at the same time we were reforming class | :52:51. | :52:53. | |
two, more accurately abolishing clash two, so you have got to | :52:54. | :52:58. | |
remember that almost self-employed people, if you look at all the | :52:59. | :53:02. | |
reforms, the national insurance contributions over the next couple | :53:03. | :53:05. | |
of years, most of them will be paying less in national insurance | :53:06. | :53:09. | |
contributions, not more. The relatively higher earners will be | :53:10. | :53:15. | |
paying more, that is true, but the majority of self-employed will pay | :53:16. | :53:18. | |
lower levels of NICs in three years' time. OK, so let's say that there | :53:19. | :53:27. | |
are four references to tax and your plans on tax in the manifesto, here | :53:28. | :53:32. | |
is another. We can commit to no increases in VAT, income tax or | :53:33. | :53:36. | |
national insurance. Tax rises on working people would harm our | :53:37. | :53:39. | |
economy, reduce living standards and cost jobs. Now, looking at what you | :53:40. | :53:47. | |
revealed today, notwithstanding the explanation you just given us, there | :53:48. | :53:50. | |
is an increase in national insurance which goes against at least the | :53:51. | :53:55. | |
spirit of that, is that not right? Well, what I would say, this is a | :53:56. | :54:00. | |
context where there is, there is quite substantial reform of national | :54:01. | :54:04. | |
insurance contributions, with many people winning from it, but we are | :54:05. | :54:08. | |
also faced with a growing unfairness, if you like, because | :54:09. | :54:13. | |
what we now have is a situation where national insurance | :54:14. | :54:15. | |
contributions are contributions to pay for certain benefits. If you are | :54:16. | :54:19. | |
employed and self-employed, traditionally there were quite big | :54:20. | :54:22. | |
differences between the benefits that you got, on things like the | :54:23. | :54:27. | |
state pension, for example. Well, actually, that difference is going | :54:28. | :54:32. | |
from 2016, we brought in the new state pension, so the self-employed | :54:33. | :54:35. | |
are in as good a position as the employed. We have said today that | :54:36. | :54:39. | |
one of the outstanding differences is on paternity and maternity pay, | :54:40. | :54:44. | |
and we are looking to get rid of that. And in a world where, | :54:45. | :54:49. | |
essentially, you are getting the same at the end of the process, you | :54:50. | :54:54. | |
should put the same amount in. And that is exactly what... Well, that | :54:55. | :54:58. | |
is what we are moving to, there is still a gap, but we are closing that | :54:59. | :55:02. | |
gap, and I think it is right that we do that. The Chancellor underlined | :55:03. | :55:07. | |
that point, and you have again, but I come back to you to say, you make | :55:08. | :55:11. | |
a promise not to raise national insurance, and then you raise it, | :55:12. | :55:17. | |
that is the issue you have got. You have explained the logic around it, | :55:18. | :55:21. | |
but you cannot get away from the fact that you made a promise and you | :55:22. | :55:25. | |
have not kept to it. We legislated, I took through the Bill that was | :55:26. | :55:31. | |
essentially... But you put national insurance up. At that time, we were | :55:32. | :55:35. | |
clear, within the legislation, we were focusing on the main rate of | :55:36. | :55:38. | |
national insurance contributions, which was class one, the 12% rate. | :55:39. | :55:47. | |
That is not clear, is it? We also explained, my memory is we explained | :55:48. | :55:50. | |
to Parliament that because of the reforms that we were doing, and | :55:51. | :55:55. | |
because we needed to look at the issue, because of that potential | :55:56. | :56:01. | |
unfairness, we excluded class four from... We can commit to no | :56:02. | :56:07. | |
increases. I also come back to the point that this problem is growing, | :56:08. | :56:13. | |
and as I say, in a context where we are making a new announcement today, | :56:14. | :56:18. | |
looking at maternity pay, specifically. Employed, given that | :56:19. | :56:23. | |
we have essentially removed the differences. -- for self employed. | :56:24. | :56:30. | |
We have removed all the major differences in the entitlements that | :56:31. | :56:33. | |
the self-employed get versus the employed, and I think in the context | :56:34. | :56:38. | |
of also, we do need to pay for the additional spending on social care, | :56:39. | :56:43. | |
skills, schools. The Chancellor explain that. It is right that we | :56:44. | :56:48. | |
take this step to say that it is a relatively, if you look across the | :56:49. | :56:53. | |
board, it is a relatively modest increase in terms of the national | :56:54. | :56:56. | |
insurance contributions that are levied on the self employed, but I | :56:57. | :57:01. | |
do think, in the circumstances, it is the right step. But you are not | :57:02. | :57:05. | |
acknowledging even that it is a promise that you have not kept. The | :57:06. | :57:12. | |
intent was on the main rates. I think that was how we... Very | :57:13. | :57:16. | |
difficult for someone reading that, it would seem to be a bit of a | :57:17. | :57:19. | |
stretch for you to say that you are not aware of the technicalities | :57:20. | :57:24. | |
within the definition - we can commit to no increases, that is very | :57:25. | :57:30. | |
clear. As I say, for the majority of self-employed, they are actually | :57:31. | :57:36. | |
seeing a reduction in terms of their contributions, and if you take into | :57:37. | :57:40. | |
account personal allowance, all self-employed earnings up to over | :57:41. | :57:46. | |
?32,000 a year will be paying less. That is understood, just picking you | :57:47. | :57:51. | |
up on the commitment, OK Laura? Isn't it the thing, Minister, that | :57:52. | :57:56. | |
people understand when you change your mind, but what people find | :57:57. | :57:58. | |
frustrating is when you clearly break a promise? Well, I think, you | :57:59. | :58:06. | |
know, we have looked at the situation... And you have changed | :58:07. | :58:10. | |
your mind, but what about the manifesto commitment? As I say, I | :58:11. | :58:13. | |
think we have got a situation where we have closed the gap in terms of | :58:14. | :58:18. | |
the benefits entitlements, effectively eliminated it, that we | :58:19. | :58:21. | |
have got a growing situation with the cost, and a sense that if we | :58:22. | :58:28. | |
don't take action, and Matthew Taylor is doing a review of these | :58:29. | :58:32. | |
issues about the way different people work. If we don't take | :58:33. | :58:37. | |
action, we are placing an unfair burden on the 85%... Which is part | :58:38. | :58:41. | |
of changing your mind, but it does not address what many people will | :58:42. | :58:44. | |
see as breaking your promise. The lack said what one of David | :58:45. | :58:50. | |
Cameron's former advisers said about this specific manifesto promise, | :58:51. | :58:53. | |
that it was basically made up on the roof and maybe a rather silly | :58:54. | :58:56. | |
promise to make in the first place, that you would commit forevermore | :58:57. | :59:03. | |
not to raise income tax, VAT or national insurance? If you look at | :59:04. | :59:07. | |
our record as a government over this period of time, you will see it is a | :59:08. | :59:11. | |
record where we are cutting direct taxes, we are holding the VAT, we | :59:12. | :59:19. | |
are cutting taxes through the personal allowance razors, and when | :59:20. | :59:22. | |
it comes to those direct taxes, we are not looking for more, but there | :59:23. | :59:28. | |
is a very specific case, and the more we look at this, the more we | :59:29. | :59:32. | |
can see there is a problem that is going to build up, and it is a | :59:33. | :59:36. | |
long-term problem. If we don't take action on this, we do place an | :59:37. | :59:41. | |
unfair burden, you know, if you are employed... You have made that case, | :59:42. | :59:45. | |
Minister, would you rule out making other increases to VAT or income tax | :59:46. | :59:49. | |
Kaymer that is the question people will ask, you cannot blame them for | :59:50. | :59:54. | |
saying, hang on a second, how many of these other commitments, you | :59:55. | :59:59. | |
mentioned VAT and income tax, should we disregard the sections of the | :00:00. | :00:02. | |
manifesto because you have already wiped one of them out? What else is | :00:03. | :00:08. | |
up for grabs? We have legislated in this Parliament, we will not | :00:09. | :00:13. | |
increase VAT, income tax, we will not increase class one national | :00:14. | :00:17. | |
insurance contributions. We have legislated, we would have to take | :00:18. | :00:19. | |
additional legislative action to be able to do that. As I say, when we | :00:20. | :00:24. | |
took this matter through the House of Commons, back in 2015, I think, | :00:25. | :00:31. | |
we specifically excluded class four national insurance contributions | :00:32. | :00:33. | |
because at that point there clearly was an issue, and as I say, put it | :00:34. | :00:39. | |
in the context of abolishing class two, which, you know, provides a tax | :00:40. | :00:44. | |
cut for all the self-employed in isolation, but still means a net tax | :00:45. | :00:48. | |
reduction in terms of national insurance contributions for the | :00:49. | :00:49. | |
majority. How many people are affected, I | :00:50. | :00:58. | |
should have asked this earlier, by this change? In terms of the number | :00:59. | :01:01. | |
of people who are self-employed, I think it is about 4.2 million, the | :01:02. | :01:08. | |
majority of whom will be paying less national insurance contributions in | :01:09. | :01:12. | |
three years' time the layout paying today. Can we pause for a second, a | :01:13. | :01:16. | |
bit of housekeeping for me because viewers in Scotland are leaving us | :01:17. | :01:19. | |
now but thank you for joining us and we wish you a good afternoon. Here | :01:20. | :01:25. | |
on the BBC News Channel and BBC Two, we are carrying on, and son, your | :01:26. | :01:30. | |
questions to the Minister? This change of message about no raising | :01:31. | :01:32. | |
of national insurance and then saying you did not mean a particular | :01:33. | :01:38. | |
class. There is an issue that entrepreneurialism, the government | :01:39. | :01:40. | |
said start your own business and it worked, people could pay more tax | :01:41. | :01:42. | |
because they were taking more risk, they were starting the red | :01:43. | :01:47. | |
businesses and there's been an enormous increase in | :01:48. | :01:49. | |
self-employment, about 50% of all the jobs that have been created | :01:50. | :01:53. | |
since the crisis of 2008 at come from the self-employed. Now you are | :01:54. | :01:57. | |
saying you're going to come down like a time of bricks and tax some | :01:58. | :02:00. | |
of the growth and looking at some other numbers, bearing in mind you | :02:01. | :02:05. | |
are already going to cancel class two national insurance, this looks | :02:06. | :02:08. | |
like if you add together the cut in the dividend allowance and the class | :02:09. | :02:13. | |
four increase, it amounts to a ?2 billion tax in the next five years | :02:14. | :02:17. | |
on the self-employed. What kind of message is that? That was not the | :02:18. | :02:21. | |
message we were sold a few years ago. I don't accept the point. This | :02:22. | :02:27. | |
is a government which is very supportive of small businesses. We | :02:28. | :02:32. | |
have done a whole host of things, today, in terms of business rates | :02:33. | :02:35. | |
but in things like the employment allowance, the cuts in corporation | :02:36. | :02:39. | |
tax, some of the changes to capital gains tax are very helpful for | :02:40. | :02:45. | |
smaller businesses. Absolutely, we recognise the importance of the | :02:46. | :02:48. | |
entrepreneur to the economy. But these are the same small businesses | :02:49. | :02:52. | |
who are facing water enrolment, you have given them some relief on the | :02:53. | :02:55. | |
business rate increase but only delayed it and they will come down | :02:56. | :02:58. | |
the road at some point. They will be feeling bruised by that. And most | :02:59. | :03:02. | |
small businesses benefit from the business rate reduction. -- | :03:03. | :03:09. | |
re-evaluation. That is before you put in the permanent extensional | :03:10. | :03:12. | |
small business rate relief and so on. We've done a lot for small | :03:13. | :03:15. | |
businesses. But the point I will make is if you have got essentially | :03:16. | :03:19. | |
three people doing essentially the same job, one is employed, one is | :03:20. | :03:24. | |
self-employed but unincorporated and the other is working through their | :03:25. | :03:29. | |
own company, and they are paying very substantial differences in the | :03:30. | :03:33. | |
level of tax and national insurance contributions, that creates an | :03:34. | :03:42. | |
unfairness on the employed, the 85%, who pay substantially more in tax | :03:43. | :03:46. | |
and national insurance and that problem will grow. The easiest thing | :03:47. | :03:50. | |
in the world would be for a government, and it might be very | :03:51. | :03:53. | |
politically easy to pretend the problem doesn't exist and it won't | :03:54. | :03:56. | |
be there but it will grow and grow and only you know, there's nothing | :03:57. | :04:02. | |
wrong, in fact, it is no bad thing at all that we have large levels of | :04:03. | :04:05. | |
self-employment in this country but if it creates an unfair burden on | :04:06. | :04:12. | |
the employed, then you are storing up a problem and at some point, the | :04:13. | :04:16. | |
government has to act and better to act now than later. Some people | :04:17. | :04:20. | |
would say, and the point was made earlier, what you should do is look | :04:21. | :04:23. | |
at the employers who are using self-employed status of their | :04:24. | :04:26. | |
workers, I'm thinking of the delivery companies of this world, | :04:27. | :04:32. | |
who using the self-employed status for their benefit. Why did you start | :04:33. | :04:40. | |
there? Why did you go after the boys first? I can see why you make that | :04:41. | :04:44. | |
point and it is a fair challenge to us and the answer is, this is a much | :04:45. | :04:48. | |
more complicated problem. Matthew Taylor is undertaking a review for | :04:49. | :04:52. | |
the government. He has given us his interim findings in a letter today. | :04:53. | :04:57. | |
But he is reporting back later this year. I think it is right that we | :04:58. | :05:01. | |
look at some of those issues. Firstly, we have to deal with what | :05:02. | :05:05. | |
is described as falls self-employment but some of this is | :05:06. | :05:08. | |
genuine self-employment but it does not really fall within any of the | :05:09. | :05:11. | |
usual parameters and the economy is changing and there are different | :05:12. | :05:15. | |
jobs. As I say, if there is a vast disparity in the way in which we tax | :05:16. | :05:20. | |
those people, you know, it can create distortions and it can create | :05:21. | :05:24. | |
unfairness. It is right we address it but it is a more complicated one | :05:25. | :05:28. | |
and we need to make sure we take our time to get it right. What about | :05:29. | :05:34. | |
employers, will they also face tax increases into the future as you | :05:35. | :05:37. | |
review the situation? There's obviously clear disparities if you | :05:38. | :05:42. | |
do employ people on self-employed status. You get a great advantage as | :05:43. | :05:47. | |
an employer because of the reduced national insurance contributions and | :05:48. | :05:52. | |
pension contributions, no holiday entitlement, etc. Surely that has to | :05:53. | :05:57. | |
change as well? It comes back to what I said earlier, it is a really | :05:58. | :06:00. | |
complicated area and I think it is right we are looking at this. But | :06:01. | :06:05. | |
with a view to increasing the burden is on employers? That is a huge | :06:06. | :06:09. | |
thing to take on. In terms of shifting it, the reality is that if | :06:10. | :06:16. | |
you are an employer with employees, you pay national insurance | :06:17. | :06:20. | |
contributions at nearly 14%. That is a substantial. If you go down a | :06:21. | :06:23. | |
different route, you might not pay anything at all and again, that is a | :06:24. | :06:27. | |
similar type of distortion, a similar type of unfairness, you | :06:28. | :06:33. | |
like. That is something that we need to look at but we need to look at | :06:34. | :06:37. | |
quite carefully. But with a view to changing it, clearly? With a view to | :06:38. | :06:41. | |
trying to level the playing field. Is that enough you have done now, to | :06:42. | :06:46. | |
get rid of this disparity, as you see it, between being self-employed | :06:47. | :06:50. | |
and employed? Is that the end of it now? Can you remake your manifesto | :06:51. | :06:53. | |
pledge, even though you did not stick to the first one, can you make | :06:54. | :07:03. | |
a pledge for no more increases in national insurance? I think we have | :07:04. | :07:05. | |
got the balance right now. So no more increases? I think we have the | :07:06. | :07:08. | |
balance right now and Matthew Taylor's report, we have to wait to | :07:09. | :07:11. | |
see what it was a but we have tilled the balance in a direction which I | :07:12. | :07:14. | |
think is fairer for those who eventually see themselves paying | :07:15. | :07:17. | |
quite a lot more if they are employed than if they were | :07:18. | :07:20. | |
self-employed. We are battling the clock minister and you need to go | :07:21. | :07:24. | |
but a quick one from Laura. I was going to say, everyone will be | :07:25. | :07:27. | |
looking very carefully at the legislation from that tax law in | :07:28. | :07:32. | |
2015. I'm interested, briefly, beyond painting a broad canvas at | :07:33. | :07:36. | |
the start, hardly any mention of Brexit from the Chancellor. Was he | :07:37. | :07:38. | |
deliberately tiptoeing around the subject because it is a | :07:39. | :07:42. | |
controversial on the benches behind him? I don't think so, but Brexit is | :07:43. | :07:46. | |
a massive issue for the country and the government but we also have to | :07:47. | :07:50. | |
get on and do the other things. We have to make sure we have a social | :07:51. | :07:53. | |
care system that is working properly. We have to make sure we | :07:54. | :07:57. | |
invest in skills. We have to make sure we have sound public finances, | :07:58. | :08:00. | |
thinking about the long term there. Today was a day where, I know | :08:01. | :08:06. | |
everyone is very focused on Brexit but today was the day when we needed | :08:07. | :08:10. | |
to address some of the other issues that we have as a country and I the | :08:11. | :08:15. | |
Chancellor did that very well. Are you not worried that the numbers | :08:16. | :08:18. | |
suggest wages are still going to be falling back and National Living | :08:19. | :08:21. | |
Wage is predicted to be less than it was the last time? People will still | :08:22. | :08:25. | |
be really feeling the pinch for a long time according to today's | :08:26. | :08:29. | |
numbers. The way we address that and get living standards improving on a | :08:30. | :08:33. | |
sustainable basis is about improving productivity. That means the | :08:34. | :08:37. | |
investment in infrastructure we saw in the Autumn Statement, the | :08:38. | :08:43. | |
investment in skills we saw today, a competitive tax system, which, when | :08:44. | :08:45. | |
you look at encouraging investment, what we have done in terms of | :08:46. | :08:48. | |
corporation tax. All those things will drive up productivity and | :08:49. | :08:51. | |
living standards and that is the way we can ensure we are a prosperous | :08:52. | :08:55. | |
country. Minister, good of you to comment as usual on Budget day and | :08:56. | :08:59. | |
thank you for fielding our question. David Gauke, | :09:00. | :09:01. | |
the Chief Secretary to the Treasury. I will remind you very quickly of | :09:02. | :09:06. | |
the today as we see them. We have been talking about national | :09:07. | :09:10. | |
insurance for self-employed workers, rising to 10% in April next year and | :09:11. | :09:16. | |
11% in April 2000 19. The additional funding for social care, we did not | :09:17. | :09:20. | |
discuss that but we mentioned it earlier, an additional ?2 billion of | :09:21. | :09:23. | |
funding over the next three years for social care in England because | :09:24. | :09:26. | |
we know of the huge pressures on the system and funding announced four | :09:27. | :09:29. | |
new grammar schools and new free schools, 110 of them in England, | :09:30. | :09:35. | |
very much one of the Prime Minister's principal projects, | :09:36. | :09:37. | |
something she is very keen to promote. The other main measures, | :09:38. | :09:42. | |
?300 million fund for firms facing large business rate increases. Simon | :09:43. | :09:46. | |
was talking about the measures to try to relieve some of the pressure | :09:47. | :09:52. | |
after that revaluation. As part of that, a ?1000 business rate discount | :09:53. | :09:56. | |
for pubs with a rateable value of under ?100,000, which is the vast | :09:57. | :10:00. | |
majority of pubs in England. And the National savings bond for savers, as | :10:01. | :10:07. | |
interest rates are very low, this will pay 2.2% on deposit up to ?3000 | :10:08. | :10:12. | |
from April. Lots of other measures, too, but we have condensed that to | :10:13. | :10:17. | |
half a dozen at this point. Let's go straight out to the green outside | :10:18. | :10:19. | |
parliament and join Jane. some of the issues with my guess you | :10:20. | :10:28. | |
have joined me. I should explain there's a very noisy pensions | :10:29. | :10:32. | |
protest behind me. Douglas Carswell of Ukip and Tim Farron of the | :10:33. | :10:35. | |
Liberal Democrats, I hope we can just about he read other thing! | :10:36. | :10:39. | |
Douglas Carswell, you have said quite a few times that you hoped | :10:40. | :10:42. | |
Phillip Hammond would be more fiscally responsible than his | :10:43. | :10:46. | |
predecessor. Do you think he has been? I'm a bit worried that the | :10:47. | :10:49. | |
amount of public debt is heading back up again. The best that can be | :10:50. | :10:57. | |
said for this Budget is that it is very dull and not flashy but it's | :10:58. | :11:00. | |
not fundamentally sorting out the biggest problem we face which is the | :11:01. | :11:02. | |
accumulation of big amounts of public debt. At the same time as the | :11:03. | :11:05. | |
public debt is going back up, he is managing to attack the self-employed | :11:06. | :11:10. | |
and self-employed national insurance contributions. I'm not happy about | :11:11. | :11:13. | |
either of those things. Tim Farron, you are nodding through some of | :11:14. | :11:17. | |
that. Yes, the obvious being from the Budget is you cannot have well | :11:18. | :11:21. | |
funded health services, social care or education or indeed to solve the | :11:22. | :11:25. | |
problems of the things we are complaining about today with a hard | :11:26. | :11:28. | |
Brexit. You choose to leave the single market and the customs union, | :11:29. | :11:32. | |
which was not on the ballot paper, then there is a cost, 100 billion | :11:33. | :11:36. | |
extra borrowing and 60 billion war chest to pay for the loss of trade | :11:37. | :11:40. | |
and income and tax receipts relating to a hard Brexit. It is right for us | :11:41. | :11:44. | |
to point that out. We think today, if you look at the attack on | :11:45. | :11:48. | |
business in particular, the little sticking plaster, if that am of the | :11:49. | :11:52. | |
relief to those who will be hit by business rate increases is nothing | :11:53. | :11:58. | |
at all and if you look at the impact of the national insurance | :11:59. | :12:00. | |
contribution rises on self-employed people, it is immense. Something | :12:01. | :12:05. | |
like one in four people in my constituency the South Lakes are | :12:06. | :12:07. | |
self-employed and it will be huge blow to them. It seems to me that we | :12:08. | :12:10. | |
have a government who thinks they can take business for granted | :12:11. | :12:12. | |
because they have a dreadful opposition who does not keep them on | :12:13. | :12:16. | |
their toes. We'll come back to some of that but isn't that part of the | :12:17. | :12:19. | |
point, Douglas Carswell, Philip Hammond has to be | :12:20. | :12:32. | |
cautious because he has to retain the war chest? By definition, we | :12:33. | :12:35. | |
don't know what is coming. It is not a case of Brexit, and at some point, | :12:36. | :12:38. | |
the Japanese and Italian bond markets are going to go pop and | :12:39. | :12:41. | |
governments will find... But it is another layer of uncertainty? The | :12:42. | :12:43. | |
gross predictions have gone up from 1.4%, to 2.2%. It is pretty healthy | :12:44. | :12:50. | |
growth. Just south of 2% for the next four or five years. Given the | :12:51. | :12:55. | |
OBR's success rate at forecasting these things, I'm not sure we can | :12:56. | :12:58. | |
take anything beyond the next 18 months seriously. But in terms of | :12:59. | :13:02. | |
growth projections, there is some pretty good news today. Tim Farron, | :13:03. | :13:07. | |
can we find some positives? Your party were very keen to see more | :13:08. | :13:10. | |
investment in health and social care and quite a lot of money coming | :13:11. | :13:14. | |
forward for social care. Do you think the government finally thinks | :13:15. | :13:17. | |
this is an area that needs tackling? ?2 billion sounded good until he | :13:18. | :13:22. | |
said it was over three years, we need something like 4 billion every | :13:23. | :13:26. | |
year as a minimum so it is a poor but it is a reminder of what limited | :13:27. | :13:30. | |
room for manoeuvre he has got. As Douglas pointed out, we are at the | :13:31. | :13:33. | |
mercy of the international money market and one of the reason this we | :13:34. | :13:36. | |
have chosen to sever our ties with the world's biggest and most | :13:37. | :13:39. | |
powerful market which is the 120 miles away across the Channel. I'd | :13:40. | :13:44. | |
rather not fight the referendum but I'm happy to. What this Budget | :13:45. | :13:48. | |
really tells us is that the significant economic decisions will | :13:49. | :13:52. | |
be taken in about six months' time. This very big decisions on business | :13:53. | :13:55. | |
rates, the fact there is no substantive answer to the big | :13:56. | :14:00. | |
question, how we fund social care, I think, in a sense, this Budget kicks | :14:01. | :14:04. | |
things into touch to be deferred in six months' time. Isn't that partly | :14:05. | :14:08. | |
because we are now heading into an autumn Budget as well? There is | :14:09. | :14:12. | |
great uncertainty as well. The point about growth is significant and the | :14:13. | :14:16. | |
growth we have, which is modest but it's there, is based almost entirely | :14:17. | :14:24. | |
on consumer spending and the great fear about that is, as inflation | :14:25. | :14:26. | |
goes up, which is predicted, we have all seen petrol prices go up by 15% | :14:27. | :14:29. | |
over the last six to 12 months, those kind of things stop people | :14:30. | :14:32. | |
spending money and if your entire economy is based on consumer | :14:33. | :14:34. | |
spending, you are in trouble which is why he needed to invest for the | :14:35. | :14:38. | |
long-term and he has not done that. Is there some better news much | :14:39. | :14:42. | |
longer term, looking at the education announcements, T-levels, a | :14:43. | :14:45. | |
lot of rhetoric about making Britain fighting fit for the future, I mean, | :14:46. | :14:49. | |
a recognition that vocational qualifications are worthy and | :14:50. | :14:54. | |
imported is a good thing? Important, and to blur the line between | :14:55. | :14:57. | |
vocational and academic education is a long sought call that I share with | :14:58. | :15:01. | |
the Chancellor. The problem we have in all of this is that it is new | :15:02. | :15:04. | |
gimmickry, new words and slogans that don't mean much different to | :15:05. | :15:08. | |
what we have had in the past, replacing qualifications that | :15:09. | :15:12. | |
already have a good brand recognition with employers, for | :15:13. | :15:14. | |
instance. The real issue, if you want to improve education, it is | :15:15. | :15:22. | |
about money, 3 billion will be lost in the next three years in schools | :15:23. | :15:25. | |
funding and give them a third of the Berlin to pet projects like grammar | :15:26. | :15:28. | |
schools to free schools, whether you agree with them a lot, it is a | :15:29. | :15:31. | |
diversion from the real problem which is giving teachers the tools | :15:32. | :15:32. | |
they need to teach our kids. Isn't it about diversification? | :15:33. | :15:43. | |
Isn't it about saying stem topics are very important, we need to get | :15:44. | :15:48. | |
more children interested in that, particularly girls on International | :15:49. | :15:52. | |
Women's Day, and to make Britain a modern, forward-looking country? | :15:53. | :15:57. | |
Vocational education is critically important, and that intent within | :15:58. | :16:01. | |
this Budget is that we should welcome that, but the detail is | :16:02. | :16:05. | |
worrying, some of it. The money is going to the pet projects, the crazy | :16:06. | :16:13. | |
thing is that some wonk in the DfE has dreamt up, and now every teacher | :16:14. | :16:21. | |
has to live with it. Just a pet project, the approach to education? | :16:22. | :16:25. | |
In my constituency, the Government managed to spend ?3 million on a | :16:26. | :16:28. | |
Bradley is cool that they closed after three years. Spending more | :16:29. | :16:34. | |
money differently is very welcome. -- on a brand-new school. We need to | :16:35. | :16:39. | |
make sure these reforms don't just improve education in some of the | :16:40. | :16:44. | |
better off parts of London. Douglas Carswell, Tim Farron, thanks very | :16:45. | :16:48. | |
much for joining us. Much more from a very noisy College Green to come. | :16:49. | :16:56. | |
Quite noisy at there, we heard the guests loud and clear, thank you | :16:57. | :17:01. | |
very much. We will be talking to the SNP in just a moment, but I thought | :17:02. | :17:05. | |
I would take you through some of the figures to do with precise duties on | :17:06. | :17:09. | |
tobacco and alcohol, because they were not specified in the budget | :17:10. | :17:14. | |
speech. Why don't we take you through them? By the way, it is also | :17:15. | :17:18. | |
important to underline that some of these changes were put in place in | :17:19. | :17:22. | |
2014, so they are just coming through the system now much they | :17:23. | :17:26. | |
were not all announced in one go today. But, for example, a packet of | :17:27. | :17:31. | |
20 cigarettes will cost 35p more from 6pm this evening, as a result | :17:32. | :17:39. | |
of changes in the Budget. It will cost, actually, the changes that | :17:40. | :17:44. | |
were put in place in 2014, those are still coming through. It will cost | :17:45. | :17:51. | |
42p for a 30 grams packet of hand-rolling tobacco. A pint of beer | :17:52. | :17:59. | |
will cost 2p more from Monday, and other changes to duty on our colour | :18:00. | :18:03. | |
coming through. A bottle of whisky, 36 sense the Mike -- 36p more. Those | :18:04. | :18:15. | |
changes coming through from Monday. Not all of those are measures that | :18:16. | :18:20. | |
were announced today, some were brought in two years ago. I will go | :18:21. | :18:24. | |
straight to the Houses of Parliament, we are joined by the | :18:25. | :18:29. | |
SNP's Roger Mullin, thank you for joining us, congratulations on the | :18:30. | :18:32. | |
best tie in the House of Commons today, no question about that! Thank | :18:33. | :18:38. | |
you very much indeed! Why don't I ask you first, Roger, what is your | :18:39. | :18:42. | |
main take on the Budget today? We had the announcement on extra money | :18:43. | :18:46. | |
for the Scottish Government. My main take is the Chancellor is living in | :18:47. | :18:51. | |
a parallel universe. How on earth anyone can talk about the Budget for | :18:52. | :18:54. | |
an hour and not mention the biggest challenges facing the UK is beyond | :18:55. | :18:59. | |
me, no mention of Brexit, no mention of how he will fill the gap in the | :19:00. | :19:05. | |
loss of revenues in agriculture or the university sector. And doing | :19:06. | :19:08. | |
absolutely nothing to tackle the problem of austerity on the one | :19:09. | :19:11. | |
hand, which the Government has chosen, and the squeezing of savings | :19:12. | :19:16. | |
of pensioners and the like on the other hand, created by the Bank of | :19:17. | :19:21. | |
England policies. So in every major issue, he failed to comment. Given | :19:22. | :19:26. | |
that he outlined the nature of the debt that the UK is an two, and | :19:27. | :19:31. | |
continues to be an two, did you really think he had the leeway to | :19:32. | :19:40. | |
address those problems? -- be under. He has to address the issues of | :19:41. | :19:47. | |
leaving the European Union, because he keeps telling us we are leaving | :19:48. | :19:51. | |
the European Union, and I have looked at some of the documents | :19:52. | :19:56. | |
accompanying the speech, and his assumptions are wholly flawed, | :19:57. | :19:58. | |
parallel straight lines, her weight of them saying, we don't know how to | :19:59. | :20:03. | |
plan for the future, therefore we are doing nothing about facing the | :20:04. | :20:08. | |
challenges of Brexit. -- a way. I think this is a deeply worrying | :20:09. | :20:15. | |
Budget, deeply worrying as we are about to trigger Article 50 and get | :20:16. | :20:20. | |
negotiations started to exit. He did mention North Sea oil and gas, he | :20:21. | :20:25. | |
talked about tapering revenue from there. I'm just wondering, in the | :20:26. | :20:30. | |
light of that, do you agree with some of your own colleagues in the | :20:31. | :20:34. | |
SNP who think that your economic case for independence should no | :20:35. | :20:37. | |
longer include oil revenues because of the fact that they have dipped so | :20:38. | :20:44. | |
significantly? I think what the argument is, looking at the future, | :20:45. | :20:49. | |
we can base our economy very strongly, the whole breadth of the | :20:50. | :20:54. | |
economy, and I'll is, in that sense, a bonus. I think there has been a | :20:55. | :20:59. | |
bit of misrepresentation. I have no problem with looking to the future | :21:00. | :21:05. | |
and making sure the revenues from oil properly husbanded for the first | :21:06. | :21:11. | |
time. Correct me if I am wrong, I think Andrew Wilson said that making | :21:12. | :21:15. | |
oil numbers a central place in 2014 was a mistake, so do you agree with | :21:16. | :21:19. | |
that? The logic would be that you move away when you make a case in | :21:20. | :21:24. | |
future. I prefer to look to the future, I don't share Andrew's | :21:25. | :21:30. | |
interpretation of 2014, but that is immaterial, what and who myself | :21:31. | :21:33. | |
think about that. What is important is how we build the future, and we | :21:34. | :21:38. | |
want to create a future for Scotland that is built on growth in across | :21:39. | :21:44. | |
the whole breadth of the economy. That is the really important | :21:45. | :21:47. | |
message. So a case for independence, whenever it comes again, we'll have | :21:48. | :21:52. | |
to partly depend on the whole question of oil revenues, as it did | :21:53. | :21:58. | |
in 2014? -- will have to. It will have to depend on the entire | :21:59. | :22:02. | |
Scottish economy, it would be foolish to say otherwise. There are | :22:03. | :22:05. | |
so money facets to it, it is changing so fast, we have one of the | :22:06. | :22:09. | |
fastest-growing new technology sectors in Europe, so many riches in | :22:10. | :22:14. | |
terms of whisky, which I see they are bumping up duty on again today. | :22:15. | :22:18. | |
So there is such strength across the economy, to focus only on one aspect | :22:19. | :22:23. | |
would not be sensible, would not be in Scotland's interest. You mention | :22:24. | :22:29. | |
the big Brexit issue clearly, and there was some kind of mention right | :22:30. | :22:34. | |
at the start, but you are right, Roger, it didn't feature later on. | :22:35. | :22:39. | |
In the context of Brexit, given that your party conferences happening | :22:40. | :22:43. | |
very soon, when can we expect a more clear signal, if you like, from | :22:44. | :22:46. | |
Nicola Sturgeon and from your other colleagues about your plans in terms | :22:47. | :22:51. | |
of revisiting the whole independence issue? It depends on two things, | :22:52. | :22:57. | |
Huw, when Article 50 is going to be triggered. In my humble opinion, it | :22:58. | :23:01. | |
would be foolish to make any definitive comment until after that | :23:02. | :23:05. | |
period. Secondly, it crucially depends on the written response from | :23:06. | :23:08. | |
the UK Government to the Scottish Government's proposals of last year. | :23:09. | :23:15. | |
We know neither of those things, so it would be sensible to wait until | :23:16. | :23:18. | |
we get both of those points resolved before we make a final decision. I | :23:19. | :23:24. | |
heard one minister recently saying, a Westminster ministers saying that | :23:25. | :23:28. | |
it would make no sense to have an independence referendum until you | :23:29. | :23:31. | |
saw the shape of the final Brexit deal, which of course is 2019 or | :23:32. | :23:35. | |
thereabouts. What is your thought on that? We are going to have to see | :23:36. | :23:40. | |
the final deal 18 months in, because it is a six-month period for the | :23:41. | :23:45. | |
deal to be approved by all the countries in Europe, and it is going | :23:46. | :23:49. | |
to be in the public domain. We will know in about 18 months what the | :23:50. | :23:53. | |
shape of the exiting deal is going to be, so it won't take the full two | :23:54. | :23:58. | |
years for that. Secondly, we are going to get information as things | :23:59. | :24:02. | |
come along, we are going to have to keep other institutions informed, | :24:03. | :24:05. | |
like the Council of Ministers. I think we will have a very good sense | :24:06. | :24:10. | |
of where the UK is going, we will begin to get that within a few | :24:11. | :24:14. | |
months of the triggering of Article 50. Let's talk about the other | :24:15. | :24:19. | |
sense, your sense of where public opinion is moving in Scotland right | :24:20. | :24:23. | |
now, what is your sense of that? Well, I can only judge it on two | :24:24. | :24:28. | |
things, the most recent poll that I am aware of suggested 49% would vote | :24:29. | :24:33. | |
yes, a big improvement on when Alex Salmond triggered the last election | :24:34. | :24:39. | |
referendum, 28% yes at that time. The second thing is what is | :24:40. | :24:43. | |
happening on the ground. My view on the ground is that there is an | :24:44. | :24:47. | |
expectation that there has got to be a change. And in the future. Whether | :24:48. | :24:54. | |
that change is the UK Government allowing us to stay in the single | :24:55. | :24:58. | |
market, or whether we move towards an independence referendum, in some | :24:59. | :25:02. | |
senses, that is in the choosing of the UK Government. Will they man up | :25:03. | :25:08. | |
and give us a bespoke deal? Very interesting, as ever, Roger, thank | :25:09. | :25:15. | |
you very much for joining us. Roger Mullin is of the SNP giving us is | :25:16. | :25:19. | |
responses to the Budget and the big question of if and when the First | :25:20. | :25:27. | |
Minister will come forward with a second independence referendum. It | :25:28. | :25:32. | |
is a good moment to go back to Hull and joint Jo. | :25:33. | :25:38. | |
Yes, Huw, you know how much politicians love to Don hard hats | :25:39. | :25:42. | |
and high-vis jackets. Well, that is exactly what these ladies here are | :25:43. | :25:48. | |
packaging up for distribution. Safety equipment and protective | :25:49. | :25:52. | |
clothing. This is a company that has been in the same family for four | :25:53. | :25:57. | |
generations. It is a success story in Hull, it employs about a dividend | :25:58. | :26:02. | |
50 people. We have talked already to the managing director, let's find | :26:03. | :26:05. | |
out what other people in the area think to Philip Hammond's statement. | :26:06. | :26:13. | |
Jo is a cafe owner, Darren is the deputy leader of Hull City Council. | :26:14. | :26:16. | |
One of the big issues that was going to come up in this statement, this | :26:17. | :26:21. | |
Budget, was social care and the pressures on it. For a council like | :26:22. | :26:24. | |
yours, were you relieved to hear there will be a cash injection? We | :26:25. | :26:32. | |
were relieved partly, the sector has lost ?4.6 billion, so the idea of | :26:33. | :26:36. | |
putting 1 billion back in next year is welcome, but it is not enough, | :26:37. | :26:41. | |
and whilst we welcome that, we look forward to the green paper that they | :26:42. | :26:45. | |
are talking about, because there needs to be urgent reform for adult | :26:46. | :26:50. | |
social care. As we know, when adult social care sneezes, the whole NHS | :26:51. | :26:53. | |
catches a cold, and it is important that we recognise that most of the | :26:54. | :26:59. | |
precepts of those councils up and down the land has only just said the | :27:00. | :27:02. | |
increases in the living wage. We need new money for health and social | :27:03. | :27:06. | |
care to replace the money taken out in the last five years. So you are | :27:07. | :27:11. | |
waiting to hear about the long-term solutions, the proposals being put | :27:12. | :27:15. | |
forward by the Government. As a local business, Hull is UK City of | :27:16. | :27:19. | |
Culture, that must be good for business. Definitely, it is | :27:20. | :27:24. | |
uplifting. It is good, people are more positive, the business is doing | :27:25. | :27:31. | |
well. Will that be enough to offset the rise in the national living | :27:32. | :27:33. | |
wage? That is something that was announced in the autumn but will | :27:34. | :27:38. | |
come into force next month. The good news about business rates will help | :27:39. | :27:41. | |
offset that, and the business doing so well will obviously be a good | :27:42. | :27:45. | |
thing as well. We may have to increase prices, hopefully not much. | :27:46. | :27:50. | |
I employ ten people. Are you thinking of expanding? Not in the | :27:51. | :27:55. | |
near future. What about information? The projection is it will go up to | :27:56. | :28:01. | |
about 2.4%, the highest it has been in quite a while, what impact does | :28:02. | :28:05. | |
that have? We will have to increase prices in line with that, because | :28:06. | :28:08. | |
otherwise we will not make any money, basically! So it will make | :28:09. | :28:13. | |
quite a difference. What about other money coming into Hull? There was an | :28:14. | :28:18. | |
announcement on broadband, 90 million going into the Northern | :28:19. | :28:21. | |
Powerhouse in terms of transport, that must be welcomed. Yes, but it | :28:22. | :28:27. | |
is a bit timid, really, because we as a council have invested ?70 | :28:28. | :28:32. | |
million in the infrastructure of the city, and businesses have invested | :28:33. | :28:36. | |
about ?1 billion. In that perspective, it is a very small | :28:37. | :28:39. | |
amount nationally. What we need to do is see real evidence on the | :28:40. | :28:43. | |
ground. There is not even electrified rail between Hull and | :28:44. | :28:48. | |
Selby, that has to be a priority, because if the Chancellor is serious | :28:49. | :28:51. | |
about productivity, electrified trail between Hull and Selby, | :28:52. | :28:55. | |
connecting our railways to the rest of the country, is a must for this | :28:56. | :29:00. | |
area. I wanted to see less timid capital investment, because the time | :29:01. | :29:04. | |
to invest in infrastructure is during a recession. What about the | :29:05. | :29:08. | |
issue of self-employed people? National insurance contributions | :29:09. | :29:13. | |
going up, maybe a breach of a manifesto commitment, will that | :29:14. | :29:18. | |
affect you or people you know? Some people I know, yes, definitely. I am | :29:19. | :29:22. | |
employed by my company, so I pay national insurance like anybody else | :29:23. | :29:26. | |
does. A lot of people will be affected. Amongst your friends, your | :29:27. | :29:31. | |
family, are they mainly self employed? Are people working for | :29:32. | :29:35. | |
themselves? Half and half. So barely evenly split? What about UK City of | :29:36. | :29:44. | |
Culture, good news all round? Brilliant, we had 240,000 visitors | :29:45. | :29:48. | |
in the first few weeks, and people are talking about Hull for all the | :29:49. | :29:53. | |
right reasons, and on the BBC weather map every night! People know | :29:54. | :29:57. | |
where it is, come and visit. A positive on the BBC Weather map! | :29:58. | :30:04. | |
There are issues coming into force from a personal finance perspective, | :30:05. | :30:05. | |
we can go to Ruth Alexander. We have had some questions from the | :30:06. | :30:14. | |
audience. Robert asks what the government is doing to encourage | :30:15. | :30:18. | |
people to save? Something the Chancellor mentioned and something | :30:19. | :30:21. | |
he has previously announced was the national savings bond where you will | :30:22. | :30:26. | |
be able to save up to ?3000 per year and get 2.2% on it. Interest rates | :30:27. | :30:31. | |
are not high so it does not sound that great, though. Valerie wants to | :30:32. | :30:35. | |
know, what about increases in petrol and beer and spirits? Fuel duty will | :30:36. | :30:40. | |
remain frozen for the seventh year in a row and alcohol duty will rise | :30:41. | :30:44. | |
by inflation from Monday, so about 2p on a pint of beer and about 30p | :30:45. | :30:50. | |
on a litre of whiskey. We would love to hear more of your question so get | :30:51. | :30:57. | |
in touch, text 61124, e-mail us at [email protected] or tweet us. | :30:58. | :31:00. | |
Back to the studio. Thank you very much to Ruth and Jo | :31:01. | :31:08. | |
Coburn and we will be back in Hull in a short while. The time is one | :31:09. | :31:12. | |
minute past three and this is the point at which we say goodbye to | :31:13. | :31:15. | |
viewers on the BBC News channel but I will see you at 5pm, hopefully. | :31:16. | :31:19. | |
Thank you for joining us and we will see you later. And here on the | :31:20. | :31:25. | |
special coverage of the Budget 2017, I am still here with Kamal Ahmed and | :31:26. | :31:29. | |
Laura Kuenssberg and Simon Jack. We are hoping at some point to be | :31:30. | :31:32. | |
joined by the Shadow Chancellor, John McDonnell, but we are having a | :31:33. | :31:36. | |
run around to look for him so if he is watching, we need you in the | :31:37. | :31:40. | |
studio, John! If you could make your way over, that would be great. | :31:41. | :31:43. | |
Laura, talking about the precise measures, what did we make of David | :31:44. | :31:50. | |
Gauke's let's Jose, defence of the changes, given the kind of quotes I | :31:51. | :31:52. | |
read from the manifesto, which suggested clearly that the spirit of | :31:53. | :31:59. | |
the promise has been broken. As you say, it is not a good place for the | :32:00. | :32:02. | |
government to be, even if you are diplomatic and say they have broken | :32:03. | :32:06. | |
the spirit of the manifesto, a lot of the viewers would think they have | :32:07. | :32:09. | |
broken the manifesto promise. What is interesting about this is that | :32:10. | :32:13. | |
just in the last half an hour or so, as Tory backbenchers have been | :32:14. | :32:16. | |
popping up during the Budget debate which is still going on over the | :32:17. | :32:19. | |
road in the Commons, there have been a couple of people like Anna Soubry, | :32:20. | :32:25. | |
a prominent rebel Remain but on the other side, John Redwood, a real | :32:26. | :32:30. | |
fiscal conservative and Eurosceptic, raising questions about whether or | :32:31. | :32:33. | |
not this is the kind of rude that the government wants to go down. Two | :32:34. | :32:36. | |
things are really important about how much trouble the government will | :32:37. | :32:42. | |
be in over this. How much is it going to hit people in their pay | :32:43. | :32:46. | |
packet? The figure the Chancellor used was 60p per week if I remember | :32:47. | :32:50. | |
correctly. We are not talking about an enormous amount though I will | :32:51. | :32:54. | |
have to look at the calculations carefully, as ever. But secondly, | :32:55. | :32:58. | |
does the Tory party internally have enough people inside who will be | :32:59. | :33:03. | |
cross about it to really kick up a stink? Those two things, we can't be | :33:04. | :33:06. | |
sure about at the moment but I think clearly in terms of an immediate | :33:07. | :33:11. | |
political problem out of this Budget, that is the thing that is it | :33:12. | :33:14. | |
cheered, I suppose. We were listening to Mr Corbyn very closely | :33:15. | :33:18. | |
and as I understand it, and I hope I'm safe in saying this, I don't | :33:19. | :33:30. | |
think he picked up in any way on the national insurance changes | :33:31. | :33:32. | |
specifically. As I say, they can get back to us if I'm wrong about that | :33:33. | :33:35. | |
but he did not make a big thing about it. It does not appear that | :33:36. | :33:38. | |
way but as you say, we are checking back on it. That seems to be a | :33:39. | :33:40. | |
rather significant missed opportunity. You had the government | :33:41. | :33:42. | |
breaking a manifesto commitment and the Leader of the Opposition not | :33:43. | :33:51. | |
picking up majorly on that. His main accusation however, against the | :33:52. | :33:55. | |
government and his description of it was a Budget of complacency. Mr | :33:56. | :33:57. | |
Corbyn went through many of the group that he believes very firmly | :33:58. | :34:01. | |
have been let down by this government, people who have been on | :34:02. | :34:07. | |
wages frozen in the public sector for a long time, people who are | :34:08. | :34:10. | |
finding it difficult because of benefit freezes and they have been | :34:11. | :34:15. | |
in that situation for a long time. But we always say on this day, | :34:16. | :34:20. | |
responding to the Chancellor, as the Leader of the Opposition, who is not | :34:21. | :34:23. | |
somebody close to the numbers, is one of the hardest tasks out there | :34:24. | :34:27. | |
and we know already that Mr Corbyn is not the most effective Commons | :34:28. | :34:31. | |
performer that there is. We also know behind him on the benches, he's | :34:32. | :34:35. | |
got a lot of division to deal with. I don't think this will go down as | :34:36. | :34:38. | |
one of the most devastatingly effective responses to Budget by the | :34:39. | :34:47. | |
Leader of the Opposition. As we have mentioned the national insurance | :34:48. | :34:51. | |
issues and as we look at it in a little more detail, what for you | :34:52. | :34:54. | |
will people take away from this? Is it going to be the fact he is | :34:55. | :34:58. | |
allocated ?2 billion to social care which has been such a big headline | :34:59. | :35:01. | |
issue over the last few months, given the massive pressures on the | :35:02. | :35:05. | |
system? Or is it the fact that some of the borrowing and growth figures | :35:06. | :35:08. | |
have been changed at least in the near term? There are a number of | :35:09. | :35:12. | |
things, firstly that the improvement in the public finances he believes | :35:13. | :35:18. | |
are short-term. I think that is quite a political position to take | :35:19. | :35:21. | |
because he thinks he is therefore shooting the Labour fox which is | :35:22. | :35:24. | |
this idea that because the public finances are better this year, you | :35:25. | :35:27. | |
should be able to spend more because you have more headroom. He says he | :35:28. | :35:31. | |
only has more headroom for the year, and then next year, the public | :35:32. | :35:34. | |
borrowing levels will be back to where they were forecast before. It | :35:35. | :35:39. | |
was interesting that although there was better news this year, quite a | :35:40. | :35:45. | |
surprising amount of skill Paul Wood news for future years. They are | :35:46. | :35:48. | |
still preparing the country for the idea that austerity is not over. I | :35:49. | :35:52. | |
think that was one big point. I think on things like social care, | :35:53. | :35:56. | |
and he has spoken about this notion that yes, there can be some sticking | :35:57. | :36:02. | |
plaster approaches, so a bit more money, ?2 billion is not | :36:03. | :36:05. | |
insignificant but in terms of the social care issue, it is quite a | :36:06. | :36:09. | |
small amount. But he launched a review on social care which will be | :36:10. | :36:12. | |
much more significant than the amount he put in today. I think that | :36:13. | :36:16. | |
is an important thing that we will see the results of in the Autumn | :36:17. | :36:22. | |
Statement. Sorry, the Autumn Budget later this year and in the next few | :36:23. | :36:25. | |
years. The other big thing is the change on taxation and rights on the | :36:26. | :36:29. | |
way we work. One of the biggest changes for the economy is this idea | :36:30. | :36:35. | |
that people are going to be working in technology companies, in | :36:36. | :36:41. | |
self-employment, what is called the gig economy, hyper flexible, quite | :36:42. | :36:47. | |
precarious work which is taxed very differently from the way people who | :36:48. | :36:50. | |
are employed by companies directly, the way they are taxed. I think this | :36:51. | :36:55. | |
big change is a really important part of the next five years of how | :36:56. | :36:59. | |
this country is with increasing automation. I think it was quite | :37:00. | :37:04. | |
deliberate that Brexit was not a big part of this Budget. I think the | :37:05. | :37:08. | |
Treasury, to use the most horrible word, is likely sick of Brexcuses! | :37:09. | :37:17. | |
You're right, that is a horrible word. Are never use it again, don't | :37:18. | :37:22. | |
worry, that everything the country does is somehow linked to the Brexit | :37:23. | :37:26. | |
negotiations. This country, economically, has big problems on | :37:27. | :37:32. | |
productivity, skills, health care, automation, New World of work. They | :37:33. | :37:37. | |
are frankly nothing to do with whether we are in or out of the | :37:38. | :37:42. | |
European Union and actually, Mr Hammond has raised all of those | :37:43. | :37:46. | |
areas as paths that the government is going to attempt to solve. | :37:47. | :37:51. | |
Although the Budget was small, the issues were huge. Word saying on | :37:52. | :37:55. | |
social care, you're absolutely right, for number ten, this has | :37:56. | :37:59. | |
rapidly been rising up the rails as one of Theresa May's biggest | :38:00. | :38:03. | |
preoccupations in terms of domestic problems, so putting Brexit to one | :38:04. | :38:08. | |
side. What has happened is in the last few months, Theresa May went to | :38:09. | :38:11. | |
government departments and said, "I want a piece of work on my desk in | :38:12. | :38:14. | |
time for the Budget that basically tells me the situation on the | :38:15. | :38:18. | |
ground. From then on, we will go forward and try to find a solution | :38:19. | :38:23. | |
to fix it". That is essentially what Philip Hammond announced today, they | :38:24. | :38:26. | |
will come up with something in the autumn but there's already | :38:27. | :38:28. | |
internally in government a lot of disagreement on what the solution | :38:29. | :38:35. | |
looks like. Significant, politically, though, that he, | :38:36. | :38:37. | |
against the wishes of maybe some other people, absolutely ruled out | :38:38. | :38:39. | |
going back to the so-called death tax, a payment on the estates to pay | :38:40. | :38:43. | |
for social care. Let's talk to the business editor | :38:44. | :38:51. | |
for Northern Ireland, John Campbell. Extra money for Scotland and Wales | :38:52. | :38:55. | |
and Northern Ireland today. Put it in context and where will it go? | :38:56. | :38:57. | |
In context, it is peanuts, ?90 million is not very much at all over | :38:58. | :39:05. | |
three years. The difficulty for Northern Ireland at the moment of | :39:06. | :39:08. | |
courses we have a political crisis and behind that, we have a Budget | :39:09. | :39:12. | |
crisis. The Stormont executive has not got around to settling the | :39:13. | :39:17. | |
Budget for the next financial year, 2017-18, so they are in no position | :39:18. | :39:20. | |
to be allocating any of the money anyway. If the executive does not | :39:21. | :39:24. | |
put a Budget together in the next three weeks, then emergency | :39:25. | :39:28. | |
procedures take place and civil servants will effectively be in | :39:29. | :39:31. | |
charge of storm on finances. They have the ability to keep the lights | :39:32. | :39:35. | |
on but they don't have the ability to start any new spending | :39:36. | :39:37. | |
programmes, set their own policies or allocate any additional money. | :39:38. | :39:43. | |
You mentioned of course the political turmoil and the fact there | :39:44. | :39:46. | |
is a vacuum. I'm wondering, at this point, when we are talking about | :39:47. | :39:51. | |
allocations and the fact there is no Budget, wherefore you are the main | :39:52. | :39:55. | |
demands? Where do people clearly want to focus the extra investment | :39:56. | :39:59. | |
in Northern Ireland at this point? Health is always the big one, the | :40:00. | :40:03. | |
same as the rest of the UK, health is the big issue. We know waiting | :40:04. | :40:06. | |
lists in Northern Ireland are a bigger problem than in any other | :40:07. | :40:10. | |
part of the UK and also big problems in A so it is always crying out | :40:11. | :40:13. | |
for more money. Infrastructure spending, we got a little bit extra | :40:14. | :40:17. | |
in the Autumn Statement which has not been allocated yet and there's | :40:18. | :40:21. | |
lots of demand for that in terms of the road system. Thank you for | :40:22. | :40:24. | |
joining us. John Campbell with the latest reaction in Belfast for us. | :40:25. | :40:27. | |
Our economics editor in Belfast. We can get some more | :40:28. | :40:30. | |
political reaction now. Jonathan Edwards from Plaid Cymru | :40:31. | :40:32. | |
and Jonathan Bartley from the Greens Thank you for waiting patiently. Mr | :40:33. | :40:45. | |
Edwards, ?200 million of extra allocation for the Welsh government. | :40:46. | :40:48. | |
Do you welcome that and where should it be spent? I think that's going to | :40:49. | :40:53. | |
be a bit of a hard sell in Wales, to be perfectly honest. You are talking | :40:54. | :40:57. | |
about the Welsh government is responsible for health services, | :40:58. | :41:00. | |
education, a whole range of public services. The UK Government is | :41:01. | :41:06. | |
spending ?300 million on Buckingham Palace, ?5 billion on the building | :41:07. | :41:10. | |
behind me, ?200 million for Wales is a particularly hard sell for the | :41:11. | :41:14. | |
Tory government. Where should the priority be and if you are asking | :41:15. | :41:18. | |
for an extra allocation, where would it come from? Listen, what we should | :41:19. | :41:23. | |
have is a policy for driving economic growth. If you look at the | :41:24. | :41:27. | |
OBR report which accompanies the Budget and you compare it to last | :41:28. | :41:30. | |
year, for the entire forecasting period, economic growth is down. One | :41:31. | :41:36. | |
of the main reasons for that is business investment is plummeting. | :41:37. | :41:39. | |
Businesses are sitting on stockpiles of cash. They are not using it | :41:40. | :41:43. | |
because of the uncertainty around Brexit. Where was the announcement | :41:44. | :41:47. | |
today to stimulate business investment? Where was the | :41:48. | :41:50. | |
announcement on capital allowances? And talking about Brexit, I know | :41:51. | :41:53. | |
everyone is suffering from Brexit fatigued but next week the Prime | :41:54. | :41:57. | |
Minister is launching the process of leaving the European Union. She's | :41:58. | :42:01. | |
going for the most extreme Brexit option possible, leaving the single | :42:02. | :42:05. | |
market and the customs union. The framework which has governed our | :42:06. | :42:08. | |
trade policy for the last 40 years, there was not a mention of Brexit in | :42:09. | :42:13. | |
the Budget. We are talking about transformational changes and Wales, | :42:14. | :42:16. | |
with our export surplus, is more exposed to the extreme policies of | :42:17. | :42:21. | |
this UK Government. It was incredible the Chancellor did not | :42:22. | :42:25. | |
even mention Brexit in the Budget. Jonathan Bartley, thank you for | :42:26. | :42:30. | |
joining us, what is the greens perspective on the Budget? It would | :42:31. | :42:32. | |
have been nice to have one mention of climate change in the speech. It | :42:33. | :42:36. | |
was noticeable by its absence. This is a Budget which is not preparing | :42:37. | :42:40. | |
us for the 21st-century challenges we have to face. You would think | :42:41. | :42:44. | |
there was not a crisis in the NHS, that the social care system wasn't | :42:45. | :42:48. | |
on its knees, that we did not have average earnings still below the | :42:49. | :42:53. | |
2008, pre-financial crisis level. This is a Budget which is | :42:54. | :42:56. | |
complacent, devoid of vision, not preparing us for the huge challenges | :42:57. | :43:01. | |
we face going forward. Gentlemen, I'm really sorry that time is | :43:02. | :43:03. | |
against us but thank you both for joining us. Jonathan Edwards and | :43:04. | :43:08. | |
Jonathan Bartley. Back in the studio, we're joined by Labour's | :43:09. | :43:11. | |
John McDonnell, the Shadow Chancellor. You had us worried! We | :43:12. | :43:15. | |
were looking at the clock and wondering if you would come but | :43:16. | :43:18. | |
thank you for joining us. I was doing my duty in the chamber. What | :43:19. | :43:22. | |
did you make of it? Wright scandalous, I was really angry when | :43:23. | :43:26. | |
I listen to it. He takes money off the self-employed, many of them and | :43:27. | :43:30. | |
learners and a lot of them struggling, Bos how much he is | :43:31. | :43:37. | |
reducing for corporations. And at the same time that the one thing I | :43:38. | :43:39. | |
was looking forward the NHS and social care. Social care, sticking | :43:40. | :43:42. | |
plaster. I genuinely thought in all the rumours this morning, he was | :43:43. | :43:46. | |
going to put ?2 billion immediately, but ?2 billion over three years is | :43:47. | :43:50. | |
nowhere near what is needed. NHS, a bit of capital money and nothing | :43:51. | :43:55. | |
more. It is scandalous, this Budget. Why didn't Mr Corbyn mention the | :43:56. | :43:58. | |
national insurance changes, as far as I can see? You have mentioned | :43:59. | :44:04. | |
them straightaway. Was it a miss? He mentioned the overall issue about | :44:05. | :44:07. | |
tax burdens and we wanted to get the figure precisely right and we were | :44:08. | :44:10. | |
number crunching in the background. It was quite shocking. I expected | :44:11. | :44:15. | |
something in terms of the self-employed but I expected there | :44:16. | :44:19. | |
to be Brett protections. -- better protections. What it means is that | :44:20. | :44:26. | |
the always serves your copy will have a tax increase and the company | :44:27. | :44:30. | |
that employs them will have a tax cut. That was the point, Ahmed was | :44:31. | :44:34. | |
making earlier, why start with the work and not the business? Exactly. | :44:35. | :44:39. | |
You mentioned a few things, social care, lots of demands for today to | :44:40. | :44:43. | |
put ?2 billion into social care and he has done that over a certain | :44:44. | :44:48. | |
time. No, he's done it over three years. But it adds up to ?2 billion. | :44:49. | :44:53. | |
But they need it now, I've toured local authorities and health | :44:54. | :44:55. | |
authorities around the country and they all say they are at a tipping | :44:56. | :44:59. | |
point. Many people already are not getting the social care they should. | :45:00. | :45:02. | |
We are at a tipping point with social care, people winding up in | :45:03. | :45:05. | |
hospital, not able to get out because the care is not in the | :45:06. | :45:11. | |
community. They say they need ?1.9 billion now. This is over three | :45:12. | :45:15. | |
years. He almost led our expectation is that we were going to get it and | :45:16. | :45:19. | |
I was going to put into my own speech, "Well done, at least you've | :45:20. | :45:24. | |
listened", and he didn't, it was a sticking plaster. Nothing on the NHS | :45:25. | :45:27. | |
apart from some capital money. There's a crisis going on out there, | :45:28. | :45:32. | |
33,000 excess deaths, that's not me talking, that is an independent | :45:33. | :45:36. | |
assessment. People are being treated on trolleys. The BBC has run some | :45:37. | :45:40. | |
excellent programmes in recent weeks about the NHS. He just doesn't get | :45:41. | :45:45. | |
it. They live in a different world from the rest of us. | :45:46. | :45:52. | |
What should he have put into the NHS today? Up to 10 billion, it should | :45:53. | :46:01. | |
have been immediate, it is a huge investment, but you cannot, on the | :46:02. | :46:06. | |
one hand, be increasing taxes on the middle earners, giving away capital | :46:07. | :46:11. | |
gains tax... But to find 10 billion, you probably would need to boost | :46:12. | :46:14. | |
taxes, wouldn't you? He has had a good month in terms of taxation, he | :46:15. | :46:19. | |
had a bit of leeway today, and he never used it for the purposes that | :46:20. | :46:24. | |
most people would want. The Office for Budget Responsibility says, yes, | :46:25. | :46:28. | |
there was quite a big tax gain this year, but the borrowing levels for | :46:29. | :46:32. | |
next year are very similar to previous forecasts. He has given | :46:33. | :46:39. | |
himself a bit of headway in case of Brexit... You would have used it | :46:40. | :46:41. | |
straightaway? Yes, towards health, and I wouldn't have been giving the | :46:42. | :46:45. | |
corporations and the wealthy tax cuts. What made me angry, he gets up | :46:46. | :46:52. | |
and boasts about reductions in corporation tax, then hits the | :46:53. | :46:55. | |
middle earners, the self-employed, then he does not think on health and | :46:56. | :47:00. | |
social care. But as corporation tax has gone down, receipts have gone | :47:01. | :47:04. | |
up. I don't accept that, because investment is not happening. The | :47:05. | :47:10. | |
corporations are sitting on 500 billion not investing, simple as | :47:11. | :47:13. | |
that. It hasn't prised open the investment that he promised it | :47:14. | :47:18. | |
would. But receipts from corporation tax have gone up. To a certain | :47:19. | :47:23. | |
extent, yes, but not on the scale we need. So cutting it increases the | :47:24. | :47:29. | |
take. No, it does not ensure we get... Those are the figures, John. | :47:30. | :47:34. | |
There is an element of that, but there are other factors, and the | :47:35. | :47:42. | |
main one and making sure that corporations contribute more, is | :47:43. | :47:48. | |
pricing their end in comeback into the economy. On the money that you | :47:49. | :47:53. | |
would put into the NHS, would you be willing to borrow all of it? How | :47:54. | :48:00. | |
much would you be borrowing? I would make sure we did not cut corporation | :48:01. | :48:05. | |
tax. That is 70 billion over the next few years. A lot of people | :48:06. | :48:10. | |
doubt that figure, 70 billion over a few years. If you were Chancellor | :48:11. | :48:17. | |
now... 70 billion has been stacked up independently, that is what is | :48:18. | :48:20. | |
going to happen over the next few years, we would invested in public | :48:21. | :48:24. | |
services. We would not be cutting taxes to the wealthy and | :48:25. | :48:29. | |
corporations, simple as that. Those figures are disputed by some, but | :48:30. | :48:33. | |
let's said that aside, if you were Chancellor now and wanted to be 10 | :48:34. | :48:37. | |
billion into the NHS, would you be willing to borrow all of that right | :48:38. | :48:42. | |
now? Two things there, we would not be in the situation we're in now, | :48:43. | :48:47. | |
because I would not cuts taxes to corporations. We would have used | :48:48. | :48:50. | |
that money to invest in public services. In terms of the Lee -- the | :48:51. | :48:57. | |
leeway he has got, he is saving it for an emergency in Brexit, but | :48:58. | :49:01. | |
there is an emergency in our hospitals now. Sorry to interrupt, I | :49:02. | :49:06. | |
don't want anybody to think I am making stuff up! As if! Revenue from | :49:07. | :49:15. | |
corporation tax, just to be clear on this, in 2009-10, it raised around | :49:16. | :49:23. | |
36 billion. In 2015-16, a significant cut, 44 billion. So if | :49:24. | :49:27. | |
you cuts corporation tax... We had some growth in the economy overall, | :49:28. | :49:31. | |
that is why we got the additional tax receipts in. It does not follow | :49:32. | :49:36. | |
that it came as a result of the Government cutting corporation tax, | :49:37. | :49:40. | |
or that the growth came from that. You talk about companies failing to | :49:41. | :49:46. | |
invest, is the best way to incentivise that by hitting them | :49:47. | :49:50. | |
with additional taxes? The best way is long-term stable investment by | :49:51. | :49:55. | |
the state itself. If you were to reduce state investment, it | :49:56. | :49:57. | |
discourages private sector investment, so what you would be | :49:58. | :50:02. | |
doing is adopting Labour policy by having a national investment bank, | :50:03. | :50:06. | |
pull money and to prise open, usually about two and a half times | :50:07. | :50:09. | |
in the European Union investment bank, private money. We have at | :50:10. | :50:13. | |
classic underinvestment for the last seven years, so therefore there | :50:14. | :50:16. | |
haven't been the opportunities for the private sector to invest, | :50:17. | :50:20. | |
stimulators by the state. Can I ask you about the self-employment issue? | :50:21. | :50:24. | |
It does get to what the Government is opening the door to, this notion | :50:25. | :50:31. | |
of a disparity between self-employed people's taxation and those who are | :50:32. | :50:36. | |
employed, do you agree that disparity needs to be levelled out, | :50:37. | :50:42. | |
or do you believe the tax advantages of being self-employed should be | :50:43. | :50:46. | |
maintained? The bigger disparity is at the higher wage levels, OK, | :50:47. | :50:51. | |
because once you get past the higher earnings limit, your national | :50:52. | :50:53. | |
insurance contribute in force from 12% down to 2%. That is like all | :50:54. | :51:00. | |
employees. If you are going to do anything at all with regard to | :51:01. | :51:06. | |
that... There was no disparity there. But if you are looking to | :51:07. | :51:09. | |
raise money, it would be those who are earning the most, and that is | :51:10. | :51:14. | |
what he has done, hit the middle and low earners. It would have been | :51:15. | :51:18. | |
better for him to have a proper consultation and discussion on this, | :51:19. | :51:21. | |
because if people had been asked, do you want corporations' taxes cut, | :51:22. | :51:31. | |
the wealthiest? I think... You think it should have been aimed elsewhere | :51:32. | :51:35. | |
will stop if you were Chancellor now, would you reverse it? We will | :51:36. | :51:39. | |
see where we go from here in terms of what happens around | :51:40. | :51:41. | |
self-employment. I thought what the Government was going to do was have | :51:42. | :51:46. | |
a sensible consultation about self-employment overall, because | :51:47. | :51:49. | |
that is what they said a few months ago, in terms of its growing, what | :51:50. | :51:54. | |
is bogus self-employment, what Israel self-employment? How do we | :51:55. | :51:59. | |
adapt to the gig economy? What sort of benefits do they get? He has | :52:00. | :52:02. | |
taken money off them and promised jam tomorrow. I can see why there is | :52:03. | :52:09. | |
a sense of grievance. In technical terms, in terms of fairness, if you | :52:10. | :52:15. | |
enter ?20,000, so you are a nurse in a local hospital, and your next-door | :52:16. | :52:19. | |
neighbour is a self-employed person, an agency nurse bats, declaring | :52:20. | :52:24. | |
themselves a self-employed, and they are paying significantly less than | :52:25. | :52:28. | |
you are in tax, do you accept that there is an issue of fairness? That | :52:29. | :52:34. | |
is the Treasury's case. The Treasury's case is that it should be | :52:35. | :52:37. | |
levelled up, but they are also saying that the employed get | :52:38. | :52:40. | |
additional benefits that the self-employed do not, and in the | :52:41. | :52:44. | |
future we will have a consultation and tell you what the outcome of | :52:45. | :52:48. | |
that is at some later date. If you are going to do something like this, | :52:49. | :52:52. | |
you have to treat everyone fairly, and you have to do it | :52:53. | :52:56. | |
simultaneously. But the self-employed person will still be | :52:57. | :53:01. | |
paying less, even with this levelling up. Yeah, but the issue | :53:02. | :53:06. | |
is, people have a general sense of unfairness. You pay in in national | :53:07. | :53:11. | |
insurance, in return you get certain benefits. If you pay the same as | :53:12. | :53:17. | |
everyone else and you're not getting the same benefits, no wonder there | :53:18. | :53:22. | |
is a sense of grievance. Why did he bounce this into this Budget at this | :53:23. | :53:26. | |
point in time? He was scrabbling around for additional money. And | :53:27. | :53:30. | |
then he does not put it where it is needed, into either social care or | :53:31. | :53:34. | |
health. You accept there is an phone is but he should have thought about | :53:35. | :53:41. | |
it more carefully? -- there is an fairness. That has to be on both | :53:42. | :53:46. | |
sides, you cannot have it on both sides. We are out of time, John, | :53:47. | :53:51. | |
thank you very much for coming in. Straight back to Hull to join Jo. | :53:52. | :53:56. | |
Well, Huw, Chancellor Philip Hammond said he wanted to make Britain the | :53:57. | :54:00. | |
best place to start and grow a business. This factory in hell has | :54:01. | :54:05. | |
been in the same family for four generations, so they are one of the | :54:06. | :54:09. | |
city's success stories, but did the Chancellor put his money where his | :54:10. | :54:16. | |
mouth is? Andrew Horncastle, you run a property development company, the | :54:17. | :54:21. | |
lowering of corporation tax has been confirmed, will that help business? | :54:22. | :54:28. | |
Yeah, bringing it down is where we want it to be. At the end of the | :54:29. | :54:32. | |
day, with Brexit coming up, we need to be very competitive, so | :54:33. | :54:38. | |
corporation tax is something that people will notice. The criticism | :54:39. | :54:42. | |
from the opposition is that there is a risk of making Britain a low tax, | :54:43. | :54:47. | |
bargain basement economy, you don't agree? I do not think there is any | :54:48. | :54:52. | |
risk of that, we create great products, we have got great people, | :54:53. | :54:58. | |
and I think that people will want to buy those products from us. One of | :54:59. | :55:04. | |
the things you are concerned about his skills - were you buoyed by the | :55:05. | :55:08. | |
fact that the Chancellor is talking about parity between technical and | :55:09. | :55:12. | |
academic qualifications? Very buoyant, and it is important that we | :55:13. | :55:18. | |
all recognise the importance of trade skills, technical skills, | :55:19. | :55:21. | |
vocational skills, and how valuable they are. When young people speak to | :55:22. | :55:28. | |
me and ask me, you know, what should they do? I encourage them to get a | :55:29. | :55:33. | |
trade, because having a trade is something that no-one can take away | :55:34. | :55:37. | |
from you, and even if you don't pursue it immediately, it is | :55:38. | :55:41. | |
something you can come back to. Retention of staff is important, | :55:42. | :55:46. | |
particularly in an area like Hull, what was your reaction to the | :55:47. | :55:50. | |
controversy over the business rates revaluation and the height in | :55:51. | :55:54. | |
national insurance contributions. Employed people? The business rates | :55:55. | :55:59. | |
issue has been in the news recently, and it is more related to the south, | :56:00. | :56:03. | |
where property prices have been rising. In the north, we have not | :56:04. | :56:07. | |
seen that, so that is not the major issues here. What is encouraging is | :56:08. | :56:13. | |
the increase in the threshold of the small business rates, where it is | :56:14. | :56:19. | |
going from ?6,000 to ?12,000, that will help a lot of small businesses | :56:20. | :56:26. | |
in the North. On national insurance, I think we should be encouraging | :56:27. | :56:31. | |
people to go into self-employment, start businesses, so I am not so | :56:32. | :56:35. | |
sure about that one. Andrew Horncastle, thank you very much. | :56:36. | :56:40. | |
There were lots of things that were announced in the autumn but which | :56:41. | :56:44. | |
are coming through the system, and those will be important to our | :56:45. | :56:49. | |
viewers too. Let's go to our personal finance expert, Ruth | :56:50. | :56:53. | |
Alexander, to take us through some of those issues. | :56:54. | :57:02. | |
Thanks very much, yes, a question from Anne, on the cap on certain | :57:03. | :57:10. | |
household benefits, ?26,000 a year in London, ?20,000 outside London, | :57:11. | :57:16. | |
and unfortunately, Anne, the answer is not that much. Quite a lot of the | :57:17. | :57:20. | |
measures announced by the Chancellor, and a lot of them had | :57:21. | :57:23. | |
been previously announced, they actually affect people who earn | :57:24. | :57:29. | |
above a certain level. So for example the personal allowance | :57:30. | :57:32. | |
threshold, above which you pay income tax, that will go up, we knew | :57:33. | :57:38. | |
that already, up to ?11,500. If you earn above that amount, you will | :57:39. | :57:41. | |
have a few more pounds in your pocket. The higher rate tax | :57:42. | :57:46. | |
threshold will kick in later, the 40% threshold, that is going up to | :57:47. | :57:51. | |
?45,000. But that doesn't apply to people who are living in Scotland. | :57:52. | :57:58. | |
Back to you in the studio. Ruth, thanks very much, thank you to | :57:59. | :58:03. | |
all your guests with Jo. Quick final thoughts in the studio, Simon | :58:04. | :58:08. | |
Gerrard welcome relief on business rates, this was a nice late and | :58:09. | :58:12. | |
problem for a small number of companies, a reasonable amount of | :58:13. | :58:16. | |
money but a long-term problem that will return. For the self-employed, | :58:17. | :58:22. | |
they will see tax rises. Very little incentive for new investment for big | :58:23. | :58:27. | |
businesses. Kamal Ahmed? Bigger growth for this year, but pain | :58:28. | :58:31. | |
probably delayed rather than cancelled, downgrading the growth | :58:32. | :58:36. | |
forecast to next year. Safety first, but with the risk of a big row over | :58:37. | :58:41. | |
those rate increases in national insurance. The talking will go on, | :58:42. | :58:45. | |
thank you for being good company. There is coverage on the BBC News | :58:46. | :58:49. | |
Channel and plenty of detail online with background, blogs, I have no | :58:50. | :58:54. | |
doubt, from my three colleagues, and indeed all the reaction which is | :58:55. | :58:58. | |
still coming in. You can follow all of that on all the platforms. For | :58:59. | :59:04. | |
now, from all of the team here at Westminster, on Budget day, thanks | :59:05. | :59:05. | |
for watching and goodbye. Oh, the dragon. | :59:06. | :59:40. | |
Dylan Thomas. Richard Burton. | :59:41. | :59:42. | |
Barry Island. The River Shannon. | :59:43. | :59:44. | |
We invented the submarine. | :59:45. | :59:49. |