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Friday Volume 542 23 March 2012 No. 285 HOUSE OF COMMONS OFFICIAL REPORT PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES (HANSARD) Friday 23 March 2012 £5·00 © Parliamentary Copyright House of Commons 2012 This publication may be reproduced under the terms of the Parliamentary Click-Use Licence, available online through The National Archives website at www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/information-management/our-services/parliamentary-licence-information.htm Enquiries to The National Archives, Kew, Richmond, Surrey TW9 4DU; e-mail: [email protected] 1045 23 MARCH 2012 Budget Resolutions and Economic 1046 Situation This Government ultimately have a laser focus on House of Commons making Britain the best place in the world to start, finance and grow a business. Friday 23 March 2012 Mr Stewart Jackson (Peterborough) (Con): On the subject of Labour waste and profligacy, is my right hon. Friend aware that the Institute for Fiscal Studies says The House met at half-past Nine o’clock that had Labour been re-elected, it would have borrowed an extra £200 billion, which would have had a huge PRAYERS impact on interest rates, in particular, and, given the debt legacy in households, a calamitous impact on the [MR SPEAKER in the Chair] economy generally? Ways and Means Justine Greening: My hon. Friend is absolutely right. Labour Members have learned nothing from the mess Budget Resolutions and Economic they handed over to us. They see us in a debt crisis and Situation their solution is to keep on borrowing—keep on digging— and we all know who would pick up that bill. AMENDMENT OF THE LAW Mr Russell Brown (Dumfries and Galloway) (Lab) Debate resumed (Order, 22 March). rose— Question again proposed, (1) That it is expedient to amend the law with respect to the Owen Smith (Pontypridd) (Lab) rose— National Debt and the public revenue and to make further provision in connection with Justine Greening: I will not give way; I am still replying finance. to an intervention. The worst thing that Britain could (2) This Resolution does not extend to the making of any do right now is to listen to the siren voices of the amendment with respect Opposition. They are very good at criticising, but they to value added tax so as to provide— have absolutely no credible alternative, and that is probably (a) for zero-rating or exempting a supply, acquisition or importation, the key message that will come across to the public who (b) for refunding an amount of tax, are watching this debate. (c) for any relief, other than a relief that— From easing access to credit and bringing down the (i) so far as it is applicable to goods, applies to goods of every cost of borrowing for small businesses, to cutting description, and corporation tax and reforming the planning system, the (ii) so far as it is applicable to services, applies to services of measures set out in this Budget will help to get growth every description. back into our economy. They will also help to rebalance 9.34 am the economy by supporting our companies—wealth creators shifting UK plc from a spend-and-borrow path The Secretary of State for Transport (Justine Greening): under the previous Government to a make-and-sell It is a great pleasure to be able to resume the debate on future under this one. the Budget today. This is the coalition Government’s third Budget. It is a Budget that helps Britain to earn its Owen Smith: Will the Minister confirm that the Office way in the world, rewards working families, backs business, for Budget Responsibility tells us that next year the and sticks to our course of clearing up the economic volume of investment by British companies in the UK mess that the previous Government left us. This Budget, will go down by 0.7%—that is, 7% down on the previous like the last two, cannot be divorced from the urgent year’s estimate? Is that right? need to deal with Labour’s debts. Let us remember the crisis that we inherited less than two years ago. The Justine Greening: If the hon. Gentleman reads the state was borrowing one in four of every pound it spent whole OBR report, he will realise that Britain is an and spending £120 million a day on debt interest alone. economy that operates in a global marketplace. Of The country was taken to the brink of bankruptcy by a course, his solution to the challenges faced in that profligate Labour Government, leaving our people with global marketplace is to go and join all the countries the biggest deficit in the developed world. that are facing problems, not to tackle our own economic This Budget marks another step on the road to a crisis that his party left us. I assume that most, if not all strong and stable economy, and that is why we are the interventions that I get from Labour Members will sticking to our deficit reduction plan, winning credibility be cherry-picked statistics that offer no alternative solutions in the markets and keeping interest rates low. to the challenges facing Britain. Mike Gapes (Ilford South) (Lab/Co-op): Will the right hon. Lady explain why this Government are going Mr Russell Brown rose— to add £150 billion to total borrowing? Is that a sign of success? Justine Greening: I wonder whether the hon. Gentleman has an alternative. Justine Greening: Many people who see that the hon. Gentleman’s party’s strategy is to borrow in the middle Mr Brown: I am not about to cherry-pick a statistic, of a debt crisis will wonder why he is asking that but let me give the Secretary of State some facts. I appreciate question. I presume it is because he thinks that borrowing that she was not here at the time, but when the Labour is not high enough. Government came into power in 1997, the servicing of 1047 Budget Resolutions and Economic 23 MARCH 2012 Budget Resolutions and Economic 1048 Situation Situation [Mr Russell Brown] Tom Blenkinsop (Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland) (Lab): I find the Secretary of State’s emphasis the debt that was left behind amounted to more than on infrastructure appealing, because infrastructure is was being spent on transport and defence combined. needed. Unfortunately, the Office for Budget Responsibility That was a major task to be handled by the incoming has put the majority of growth for the foreseeable Labour Government, so everything was not rosy in the future down to personal consumption. Last Budget, it garden. said that 12.5% of growth would come from private consumption. It now says that the figure is 37.5%. That Justine Greening: The previous Conservative Government is the very growth that the Government have now handed over a golden economic legacy. It was the condemned. Labour party that handed over a Britain loaded up with Justine Greening: I am not sure that the hon. Gentleman’s debt, costing us £120 million a day in debt interest, and intervention made much sense. I agree that infrastructure that left unemployment higher than when it came to is critical. The key part of the OBR report, which he office, like every single Labour Government we have ought to focus on, states that we are on course to meet ever had. I will take no lectures from the party opposite our fiscal mandate and to get our public finances back on economic management, and neither will the British in order. I am sure that he welcomes the OBR’s assessment people. that we will see the net creation of 1 million jobs in this country over the coming year. Matthew Hancock (West Suffolk) (Con): On the question of investment from overseas, is my right hon. Friend Helen Goodman (Bishop Auckland) (Lab): To explain aware that some Labour shadow Cabinet Ministers further the point made by my hon. Friend the Member have said that they would reverse the corporation tax for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland (Tom cut, which was cited by GlaxoSmithKline yesterday Blenkinsop), if the Secretary of State turns to table D.1 when it announced 1,000 new jobs in this country? in the Red Book, which shows the detailed summary of the OBR’s central forecast, and looks along the line for “Fixed investment” by “General government”, she will Justine Greening: Ultimately, Labour Members seem see that it falls in 2011, falls in 2012 and falls in 2013. to know nothing about how business runs. It may be That is the point that my hon. Friend was making. The that none of them has ever worked in business. Keeping right hon. Lady clearly has not looked at the Red Book. our corporation tax rate low is critical in re-establishing our economic credibility and our tax competitiveness. Justine Greening: This Government are investing more Those are fundamental building blocks in getting the money in capital spend than was planned by the previous investment that we are seeing. I wholeheartedly welcome Government. If the hon. Lady is complaining about the steps that the Chancellor has taken. those numbers, she would be complaining even more if As my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister has said, we had the misfortune of having her party in office. the infrastructure deficit that we inherited is just as This Government are investing in infrastructure and serious as the budget deficit for our future productivity putting unprecedented levels of investment into the and the country’s ability to be successful. Infrastructure railways, as I am sure she is well aware, even though she matters because it makes possible our journeys to work, prefers to score a political point.