Contributions
3,765 recent contributions in Hansard
HANSARD Spending Review 2020 and OBR ForecastBusiness rates are, of course, a devolved competence, and I am sure the hon. Gentleman can talk to the Scottish Government about their plans. They will receive £2.4 billion of…25 Nov 2020HANSARD Spending Review 2020 and OBR ForecastI know from my conversations with the industry that one of the things it was very keen to see was an extension of our job support and furlough schemes, which is something we have…25 Nov 2020HANSARD Spending Review 2020 and OBR ForecastMy hon. Friend is absolutely right. Although not part of the spending review, just very recently announced is the extension to the annual investment allowance, which was due to…25 Nov 2020HANSARD Spending Review 2020 and OBR ForecastWhat I can say is that the local housing allowance uplift that we put in place this year will be maintained into next year—the £1 billion—and I know that is of benefit to about 1…25 Nov 2020HANSARD Spending Review 2020 and OBR ForecastI know about my hon. Friend’s passion for this subject and I am pleased to be able to tell him that £300 million has been allocated for new school places for children with special…25 Nov 2020HANSARD Spending Review 2020 and OBR ForecastAs a former local government Minister, which was my first job, I am happy to tell the hon. Lady that there is nothing smoke and mirrors about core spending power. It is the metric…25 Nov 2020HANSARD Spending Review 2020 and OBR ForecastI am thankful to my hon. Friend for his comments and, indeed, the constructive conversations I have had with him on our aid budget, our defence budget and, more generally, our…25 Nov 2020HANSARD Spending Review 2020 and OBR ForecastMy hon. Friend is absolutely right. This spending review is about focusing on the priorities of our constituents. I am sure that he and his constituents will be pleased to know…25 Nov 2020HANSARD Spending Review 2020 and OBR ForecastWe have made available £1.6 billion, which means that, at this moment, 80% of high-rise buildings with aluminium composite material cladding have work under way or complete. That…25 Nov 2020HANSARD Spending Review 2020 and OBR ForecastMy hon. Friend is right to say that this is about making difficult decisions so that we can prioritise the things that our constituents want us to prioritise. He will be pleased…25 Nov 2020HANSARD Spending Review 2020 and OBR ForecastNo, it has not been shelved, and I can tell the hon. Lady that there is extra funding in this spending review for youth services. There is an amount of money for extra capital…25 Nov 2020HANSARD Spending Review 2020 and OBR ForecastMy hon. Friend is absolutely right. It is because of that multi-year certainty, particularly on the capital side, that we can deliver projects more efficiently, faster and at…25 Nov 2020HANSARD Spending Review 2020 and OBR ForecastI know that this is a topic about which my hon. Friend feels passionately, and rightly so. As she will have heard me say, we do this with a heavy heart. It enables us to make…25 Nov 2020HANSARD Spending Review 2020 and OBR ForecastThe hon. Lady mentioned the relative pay premium. It is worth bearing in mind that there still is a pay premium. The latest numbers we have, from 2019, show a 7% pay premium…25 Nov 2020HANSARD Spending Review 2020 and OBR ForecastI am enormously grateful to my right hon. Friend for the approach that he has taken, and I appreciate our conversations on this topic. Of course he rightly feels passionately…25 Nov 2020HANSARD Spending Review 2020 and OBR ForecastThe OBR and others have said that our economic interventions have helped to keep down unemployment and protected jobs, and that is part of the reason why our unemployment rate is…25 Nov 2020HANSARD Spending Review 2020 and OBR ForecastAt the beginning of this crisis, we made changes to the way in which statutory sick pay operates, ensuring that it was payable from day one rather than day four, and payable to…25 Nov 2020HANSARD Spending Review 2020 and OBR ForecastI commend my hon. Friend, because he consistently comes to the House to champion his constituents and talk about increasing the opportunities available to them. He is right: that…25 Nov 2020HANSARD Spending Review 2020 and OBR ForecastWe have said that as the EU funding that we are currently financing runs off, we will step in and replace it up to the tune of about £1.5 billion, which is the UK amount.…25 Nov 2020HANSARD Spending Review 2020 and OBR ForecastMy hon. Friend of course knows about this particularly well from his own experience, and he is right. One of the implications of the lockdown and what we have done in the past is…25 Nov 2020