Parliamentary Debates (Hansard)

Friday Volume 594 20 March 2015 No. 129 HOUSE OF COMMONS OFFICIAL REPORT PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES (HANSARD) Friday 20 March 2015 £5·00 © Parliamentary Copyright House of Commons 2015 This publication may be reproduced under the terms of the Open Parliament licence, which is published at www.parliament.uk/site-information/copyright/. 1011 20 MARCH 2015 Budget Resolutions and Economic 1012 Situation spending beyond our means. Nobody now talks about House of Commons plan B. We stood firm, and as a result today the deficit has been brought down by a half. Living standards are Friday 20 March 2015 rising and a record number of people have found jobs. With our council tax freeze, there is more money in people’s pockets. The Budget is built on economic success. The House met at half-past Nine o’clock It will make our economy more resilient and protect taxpayers’ money. It will bring down the deficit and PRAYERS ensure that Britain pays its way in the world, so much so that the shadow Chancellor said that there is nothing in The Chairman of Ways and Means took the Chair as the Budget that Labour would vote against. Now the Deputy Speaker (Order 4 July, and Standing Order hon. Member for Blaydon (Mr Anderson) will tell me No. 3). why the shadow Chancellor was wrong. Ways and Means Mr David Anderson (Blaydon) (Lab): I will tell the right hon. Gentleman what I want to tell him. He cited Budget Resolutions and Economic a Yorkshire phrase, but what we have seen over the past five years is closer to another Yorkshire phrase: “What’s Situation thine’s mine, what’s mine’s my own.” That is how they operate in the right hon. Gentleman’s party, and they AMENDMENT OF THE LAW always have. Debate resumed (Order, 19 March). Mr Pickles: I kind of regret giving way to the hon. Question again proposed, Gentleman. That sort of bellicose description is not (1) That it is expedient to amend the law with respect to the worth considering. After all, Yorkshire is at the very National Debt and the public revenue and to make further heart of our economic growth, but naysayers like him— provision in connection with finance. (2) This Resolution does not extend to the making of any Jim Fitzpatrick rose— amendment with respect to value added tax so as to provide– (a) for zero-rating or exempting a supply, acquisition or Mr Pickles: I shall give way to my dear friend. importation; (b) for refunding an amount of tax; Jim Fitzpatrick: I thank the Secretary of State for (c) for any relief, other than a relief that– giving way. I apologise for interrupting him prematurely (i) so far as it is applicable to goods, applies to goods of at the beginning of his speech. I was just very curious to every description, and (ii) so far as it is applicable to services, applies to know whether, in outlining the economic recovery, he services of every description. was going to refer to the report from the Institute for Fiscal Studies, which was covered by yesterday’s Telegraph 9.34 pm and today’s Guardian and says that the 300,000 immigrants have fuelled the recovery. What does that do to the UK The Secretary of State for Communities and Local Independence party’s fox and some of the Members on Government (Mr Eric Pickles): This Government have the Government Benches who have been raising put Britain on the road to economic recovery. In 2010, immigration as a scare story? our country was on the cliff edge, staring into an abyss of financial oblivion. The economy was stalling, Mr Pickles: Of course if we create more jobs in the unemployment was rising and the national debt was UK than in the rest of the European Union combined, spiralling out of control. From day one, pulling the it is not surprising that we are doing well, and that country back on to safer, more secure ground was our people are leaving our great friends in France to come top priority. here to increase our prosperity. I am surprised that the hon. Gentleman, who has such a distinguished record Jim Fitzpatrick (Poplar and Limehouse) (Lab): Will of supporting the firefighters, did not wish to congratulate the right hon. Gentleman give way? the Government on changing the rules to ensure that spouses of firefighters who die in action will be able to Mr Pickles: In a few moments I will. It would be remarry, should they desire to do so, and not lose their rather nice if I was able to start the speech, because I am pension. sure that the hon. Gentleman would like something to critique. Mike Gapes (Ilford South) (Lab/Co-op): The Secretary Five years later, it is a different story: we have stepped of State has referred to halving the deficit. Will he back from the cliff edge, our growth rate is faster than remind us of the policies his party was advocating in that of anywhere in the G7, and our job creation is the 2010, which should have eliminated the deficit by now? envy of the developed world. It all confirms the old Will he admit that this Government are a total failure in Yorkshire proverb, “Where there’s muck, there’s brass” respect of their own aims? and, boy, did Labour leave us a lot of muck. We have managed to start cleaning up the mess only because we Mr Pickles: Essentially, what the hon. Gentleman has stuck to our long-term economic plan. We stood our said is that his party created an almighty mess and we ground when ferocious economic headwinds blew in have not been quick enough on the broom. He thinks from the eurozone. We did not listen to those who said we should have cut deeper, kicked harder and been that the only solution was more borrowing and more tougher, but we are a compassionate coalition Government 1013 Budget Resolutions and Economic 20 MARCH 2015 Budget Resolutions and Economic 1014 Situation Situation [Mr Pickles] delivery of nearly 100,000 homes all on brownfield land. That is exactly where the public want to see new and we had to take those things into consideration. Had housing so that we can protect our precious green belt we gone any faster, there would have been social and our beautiful countryside. consequences. We have gone about the process without causing the problems that the hon. Gentleman would Emily Thornberry (Islington South and Finsbury) have been so difficult about. (Lab): On the subject of producing housing where the public need it, I am sure the Secretary of State knows Gregory Barker (Bexhill and Battle) (Con): Does my that there are 19,000 families on the waiting list for right hon. Friend agree that these interventions show housing in Islington, that the average price of a home in that Labour Members not only do not have a long Islington is £630,000, and that 40% of my constituents economic plan—[Laughter.] I mean long-term economic live in social housing. Is he able to provide housing for plan. Not only do they not have a long-term economic Islington people? What is his plan for affordable housing plan, but they do not have a clue. in central London? Mr Pickles: My right hon. Friend is prescient in all Mr Pickles: I have just explained that to the hon. things, and his Freudian slip is absolutely right: Labour Lady. Members on the Government Benches do not look has a non-economic plan and it is not going to work. I down their noses at people who have white vans outside do not think that they will get a chance to use it. their houses. Those of us on this side of the House understand the importance of this. That is why it is we The Budget will also ensure that our economic recovery who will be working on brownfield sites so that the hon. continues to benefit every area of the country. Some Lady can occasionally visit the poor in her constituency. claim, as we have heard this morning, that London and the south-east are reaping all the rewards, but that is Emily Thornberry: Rather than making cheap and nonsense. Nowhere is generating jobs faster than the rather silly points, which demeans the right hon. Gentleman, north-west, and Yorkshire is creating more jobs than would he like to answer my question? Where is the the whole of France. Our French friends may have given Government help for building affordable housing in us liberté, fraternité and égalité, but my old home county central London? is providing creativity, industry and Yorkshire Tea. Our economy is growing because this Government Mr Pickles: We are talking about something in the understand what makes the economy tick. We believe region of £400 million in London. The hon. Lady needs that all growth is local and that local people are best to understand that she is the queen of the cheap point. placed to make decisions about their area. That is None of us will forget the tweet she sent out— especially true where we have improved planning and [Interruption.] increased house building. Labour’s top-down housing targets trampled on the democratic wishes of local Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Lindsay Hoyle): Order. Just communities and built nothing but resentment. Majestic to help everybody, it should be the Chair who everybody promises of eco-towns never got beyond the paper they speaks to and addresses. were written on.

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