Finance Bill

I urge the Government to think again, and more promptly than their timetable suggests. I do so because many of our constituents are worried sick about the state of their family budgets. Food prices are rising rapidly, and the combination of tax increases and price increases is putting enormous pressure on family energy budgets, especially to meet the fuel bills for motor cars, which many people need to get to work or to the shops, especially in rural areas. At this juncture, the last thing that such people need is extra pressure on their respective budgets from the kind of tax increase that we are discussing. The Government would be well advised to think again about their timetable, and to consider whether they can go further to respond to this very serious and good debate—with perhaps one exception from the Liberal Democrat Benches—and to make people feel a bit easier about their future and their family budgets. My hon. Friend the Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr. Hammond) has asked the two crucial questions. The first question is: what will be done next year? Is the package for one year only? Surely when people are worried about whether their income will stretch, they need some earlier indication of what might happen in the following year. The second question is more urgent and important today: what will be offered to the 1.1 million people, who, as the Government admit, along with their critics, are losing out from the mishandled package of tax changes? Can there be some statement to reassure them? I was disappointed that the Minister did not choose to inform the debate more at the beginning. Paradoxically, that has required her to listen to rather more critical comments—and I suspect there may be further such comments if other Members catch your eye, Mr. Deputy Speaker—before beginning to allay some of the fears that have been expressed. When I offered her an opportunity to reaffirm the promise that I thought the Prime Minister had made to the right hon. Member for Birkenhead (Mr. Field) that all the losers would be compensated, it was with regret that I heard that she could not do so. There seemed to be some backsliding. As I listened to the very reasonable and sensible speech of the hon. Member for North-West Leicestershire (David Taylor), who came up with a relatively cheap package, I did not see the Minister leap to her feet and say that it would not do the job. Nor did I see her leap to her feet and say that, compared with the £2.7 billion that the Government have managed to find from borrowing to deal with the first part of the problem, this was a very cheap solution, and that she would either adopt it or view it very sympathetically. Many Members, understandably, will feel that the hon. Gentleman deserves better. I hope that in her response the Minister will consider his suggestion carefully, and will tell us either that there is a cheaper and better way of delivering what is needed, or that the Government will adopt it. I understand why my hon. Friend the Member for Runnymede and Weybridge, who has no access to the Treasury computer, the Treasury models, the Inland Revenue figures and so forth, cannot come up with a scheme that would fill the hole in the cheapest way possible. I also understand why, conscious of the massive over-borrowing that is currently taking place, he is reluctant to offer any proposal that would add to that, when it is the Government's duty to present the House with such a proposal. I hope that the Government will indeed present proposals to try and satisfy those of us who are worried about their over-borrowing by reducing some of their waste and unnecessary spending, along with the proposals that are so desperately wanted by Members throughout the House to help those on the lowest incomes in society who have been at the wrong end of the measures that we are discussing.