Tuesday Volume 604 19 January 2016 No. 99 HOUSE OF COMMONS OFFICIAL REPORT PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES (HANSARD) Tuesday 19 January 2016 £5·00 © Parliamentary Copyright House of Commons 2016 This publication may be reproduced under the terms of the Open Parliament licence, which is published at www.parliament.uk/site-information/copyright/. 1249 19 JANUARY 2016 1250 Chris Leslie (Nottingham East) (Lab/Co-op): If the House of Commons Chancellor keeps shrugging off the threat to the very existence of some of Britain’s core strategic industries, such as steel, is there not a danger that when our country Tuesday 19 January 2016 really needs those resources and that extra capacity for our national security no less, they might not be there The House met at half-past Eleven o’clock at all? Mr Osborne: Of course the redundancies that have PRAYERS been announced at Tata Steel and elsewhere in the steel industry are a real matter of regret. We are providing all the support we can to the families who are affected and [MR SPEAKER in the Chair] helping them to get into work. We are backing the steel industry by responding to its requests that we cut energy bill costs—that policy comes into effect today; that we change the rules around procurement so that companies Oral Answers to Questions and the Government buy British steel; and that we take action internationally against cheap imports from China. Not one of those things was done when there was a Labour Government, and during that period the number TREASURY of steel jobs in this country fell by 50%. We will not take lectures from the Labour party, but we will back our steel industry. The Chancellor of the Exchequer was asked— Long-term Economic Plan Mr Andrew Tyrie (Chichester) (Con): Does the Chancellor think that the stamp duty surcharge that was announced 1. Craig Williams (Cardiff North) (Con): What in the autumn statement for the buy-to-let market will progress he has made on his long-term economic plan. inhibit or advance labour mobility? [903099] Mr Osborne: I think that it will help to promote The First Secretary of State and Chancellor of the Exchequer home ownership, because it will mean that there is a (Mr George Osborne): Britain is in a much stronger more level playing field between an owner-occupier economic position than five years ago, with employment who wants to buy a house, a first-time buying family up and the deficit down. However, as I set out in my and a buy-to-let landlord. There is nothing wrong with speech to business leaders in Cardiff, we face a dangerous people investing in property, but there should be a level cocktail of economic risks from around the world this playing field so that we reverse the decline in home year. That situation is reflected in the International ownership in our country. Monetary Fund forecasts that were published one hour ago, in which world growth is revised down but the Rachel Reeves (Leeds West) (Lab): A long-term economic positive forecast for the UK is unchanged. That shows plan means supporting small businesses across the country. that the best thing that we can do is to continue to fix On 26 December, 250 businesses in my constituency our public finances, back business and deliver our long-term that employ 2,500 people were inundated by floodwater. economic plan. Will the Chancellor take this opportunity to commit to a full flood defence scheme in Leeds so that this sort of Craig Williams: The Chancellor was very welcome disaster cannot happen to businesses in my constituency when he visited Cardiff two weeks ago. He brought a again? sense of urgency to the Cardiff city deal process with the deadline of the Budget and a clear sense of direction Mr Osborne: I certainly commit to looking personally with the compound semiconductor catapult. If we are at what can be done to improve flood defences in Leeds. to maximise the potential of Cardiff and the Welsh The Environment Agency and the Government are economy that our long-term economic plan presents, conducting a review after what was the highest level of do we not need tangible partnership plans from the rainfall in Yorkshire in modern history. Of course, having Labour Assembly Government? Is it not time that they committed the additional £2 billion to flood investments, came up with them, given that they have had 16 years to we are able to afford these things. We would not be able do so? to afford any of this sort of thing if we had wrecked the economy like the last Government did. Mr Osborne: It was very good to meet my hon. Friend and business leaders in Cardiff; to back them 17. [903116] Christopher Pincher (Tamworth) (Con): and the brilliant work that is being done at the university Does my right hon. Friend agree that as part of his there with the investment in the new semiconductor long-term economic plan, the Help to Buy ISA will catapult; and to commit to additional capital investment. help people in my constituency, where housing is priced I hope that we can agree a Cardiff city deal with the at a premium, to own their own homes—a dream that Welsh Government and the authorities in Cardiff before the Labour party wishes to quash? the Budget. He poses the right question, which is if, after 16 years in power, the Labour party in Wales has Mr Osborne: My hon. Friend is right, and the Help not delivered a credible economic plan for Wales, is it to Buy ISA has been a spectacular success. In the few not time for a change? weeks since its launch, 170,000 families have taken it up, 1251 Oral Answers19 JANUARY 2016 Oral Answers 1252 and it is helping people to get on the property ladder John McDonnell (Hayes and Harlington) (Lab): Only and save for that deposit. We are doing everything that eight weeks ago the Chancellor promised we can to support the aspirations of the families of “an economic recovery for all, felt in all parts of our nation”—[Official Britain. Report, 25 November 2015; Vol. 602, c. 1358.] On the day that the International Monetary Fund warned Stewart Hosie (Dundee East) (SNP): The Government’s about the global economy and called on Government to plan requires the doubling of exports by 2020 to £1 trillion increase their investment spending—something that Labour —a promise repeated in “Fixing the Foundations”, Members have consistently called for—will he now which was published in this Parliament. Does the Chancellor reconsider his economic plan, and particularly his still hold to the intention and promise to see UK exports investment plans? rise by £100 billion a year every year for the next five years? Mr Osborne: The economic plan has seen employment Mr Osborne: We hold to that target, but frankly it rise and unemployment fall, and it has meant that for will be very challenging to meet. We have been improving the IMF forecasts that the hon. Gentleman mentions, exports, but many of our main export markets have the UK’s forecast has not been changed and remains been weak, and we would like further economic reform one of the strongest among all advanced economies in on the continent of Europe. Some of the big emerging the world. Perhaps I may gently suggest that the hon. markets are struggling at the moment, but a good Gentleman might want to change his own economic economic dialogue is taking place today with India, and policy, since in the last week he has called for the return British exports to India are increasing. Only recently of flying pickets, and said that he wants to ban companies has the United States economy started to grow. There from paying dividends and spend billions of pounds are many challenges, but I do not think we should duck on nuclear submarines without any nuclear missiles. those challenges or ditch the target. Increasing exports Today he said that he is going to tour the country with is a key priority for the UK. the former Greek Finance Minister, Mr Varoufakis, to educate us all about economics—the one thing Stewart Hosie: I agree that we should set ambitious they have in common is that they have both lost their targets, but they must be credible. Given that the British marbles. Chambers of Commerce states that the export target will be undershot, and the Office for Budget Responsibility John McDonnell: If the Chancellor will not reconsider states that it will fail to be met by some £350 billion, is it his investment plans, can he at least appreciate how better to set a realistic and achievable target, rather than angry the families of steelworkers in south Wales are risk losing credibility as the Chancellor did when he this morning? They know that when the bankers’ bonuses failed on debt, deficit and borrowing targets in the were threatened, he immediately shot across to Brussels previous Parliament? with an army of lawyers to defend them and that he will jump into a helicopter for a Tory fundraiser. It has Mr Osborne: It is right to set and to try to meet a taken him four months to lift a finger to save steelworkers’ stretching target, even if that will be challenging. The jobs. Does that not prove that he is actually the bankers’ hon. Gentleman talks about realistic and credible numbers. Chancellor? If Scotland had listened to the Scottish nationalists, it would be separating from the United Kingdom in two Mr Osborne: We want a successful financial services months’ time.