Finance (No. 3) Bill

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for raising that. One of the themes that I shall develop in our discussions today is the cut in the rate of corporation tax to stimulate private sector growth. That private sector growth is extremely important, particularly at a time when we face massive cuts in public spending across the board. There is a debate to be had, which I am happy to engage in, about why and how those public spending cuts are being made, but my hon. Friend the Member for North Durham (Mr Jones) will recognise that in the Budget proposals to date for the period to 2014-15 there are major areas of public spending cuts where the corporation tax cut proposal is being put in place to ensure that we generate private sector jobs to meet the loss of those public sector jobs across the board. For example, as hon. Members know, we face a 27% reduction in local government spending between now and 2015. We face a 25% cut in Business, Innovation and Skills departmental expenditure between now and 2014-15.