Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation

My hon. Friend makes a very reasonable point. My own Department in central Government has reduced...

Will the Secretary of State tell me how under-occupancy relates to the mortgage relief schemes th...

I think that only the Labour party would confuse taxation with entitlement to benefit. As the rig...

Will the Secretary of State give way?

No. The right hon. Gentleman has had his chance to intervene, and his intervention was not very g...

One innovation that has been introduced is a simplified planning system for business neighbourhoo...

I will certainly have a look at the particular circumstances to which the hon. Lady refers. I hav...

Will the Secretary of State give way?

Of course I will give way to my favourite Labour MP.

I am grateful. City deals offer real flexibility for local communities, and we would like to work...

This is the second time the hon. Gentleman has asked whether I am willing to see him. I am; indee...

We can give moderate support to the expansion of the Firstbuy scheme, which sounds good. Indeed, ...

The hon. Gentleman makes a reasonable point, and if that were a way in which Mrs Pickles and I co...

What does the Secretary of State think the mortgage guarantee scheme will do to house prices? Is ...

The hon. Gentleman makes a reasonable point. However, housing prices are at a more reasonable lev...

rose—

The hon. Gentleman is jumping up and down. I have not said that I will give way, but I will.

It is very kind of the right hon. Gentleman, who knows that I love intervening on him because I a...

Of course they do, and it is a matter of regret that the number of affordable houses fell by 420,...

Given that 60% of homes built in central London are being sold to overseas buyers, how does the S...

This scheme will not be available for foreign buyers; this is a scheme to help people from this c...

I am sure the right hon. Gentleman is very keen that the work force should be mobile and able to ...

As the hon. Lady knows, under this Government and the previous Government a number of schemes hav...

Will my right hon. Friend educate me, as I am probably mistaken, but will it be possible for a fi...

Two schemes will be available. The first is the homebuy scheme, which will start from 1 April and...

I draw the attention of the House to an indirect interest, declarable but not registerable, as my...

Will the right hon. Gentleman confirm that in 13 years of Labour government fewer council houses ...

I will happily confirm that we did not build enough council houses, although that began to change...

I urge my right hon. Friend to resist the temptation raised by the Secretary of State to be too p...

I welcome the efforts that my hon. Friend has described. I said a moment ago that this is a respo...

I am struggling with an inconsistency on the Labour Benches. The former Prime Minister, the right...

I simply say to the hon. Gentleman that if he cares to look at the record of the Labour Governmen...

In response to the previous intervention, I remind Members that this Government inherited the big...

My hon. Friend is correct. That is a consequence of the 60% cut.

The number of people on ho...

Many of my constituents are fed up with listening to Punch and Judy debates like this. They are g...

Well, I have already told the Secretary of State that when he has proposals that will work and su...

Will the right hon. Gentleman give way?

If the hon. Gentleman will bear with me, I wish to make a little more progress.

I will now ...

Will my right hon. Friend also seek clarity on whether, in the event of a family break-up and a p...

That is a very good question that has already been asked. I am very happy to give way to the Secr...

I am grateful to the right hon. Gentleman for giving way. May I confirm for him that the relaxati...

Order. Mr Graham, please keep interventions short. Sixty-one Members wish to get in and speak. If...

I am grateful to the hon. Member for Gloucester (Richard Graham) for agreeing that the Secretary ...

Is my right hon. Friend interested in research just released by the Centre for Local Economic Str...

My hon. Friend is absolutely right: the reforms will have a damaging economic impact and be bad f...

On the bedroom tax, does my right hon. Friend agree that Nos. 10 and 11 Downing street are social...

My hon. Friend is right on the first point, although I am not entirely sure that the occupants ar...

Will the right hon. Gentleman give way?

I will conclude now, because many other Members want to speak. I have been generous in giving way...

rose—

Order. I remind hon. Members that there is a limit of five minutes on speeches. If we could have ...

The Chancellor is a fiscal Conservative and monetary activist, and as such he eschewed shock and ...

Does my hon. Friend recognise that the key issue is the blockage in getting money to people and g...

My hon. Friend makes an interesting point.

There were no shock-and-awe measures in the Budg...

On the one hand the hon. Gentleman calls for deeper cuts, but on the other hand, he spoke a few m...

Perhaps the hon. Gentleman did not hear the second part of my statement, when I mentioned deeper ...

I shall follow up shortly the points made by the hon. Member for Bury St Edmunds (Mr Ruffley) on ...

One of the many reasons we do not have growth is that the Opposition made the country such a clie...

With due respect to the hon. Gentleman, I anticipated that predictable nonsense. I am grateful to...

Surely by boasting that he would cut harder and deeper than Thatcher, the right hon. Gentleman se...

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for his intervention, but not in the way he intended, because...

I am delighted to take part in this debate. It is a pleasure to follow the right hon. Member for ...

Listening to Government Members this evening, one would think that there was no economic situatio...

Under whose regulatory system did those failures take place?

It was the previous Conservative Government, and that has never been acknowledged, so the hon. Ge...

Will the hon. Gentleman take this opportunity to congratulate his old friend on these green Bench...

Obviously, I—

Order. I am not sure that we need to be dragged around the Scottish Parliament and Scottish leade...

I will accept your ruling, Mr Deputy Speaker.

Why was there nothing in the Budget about man...

In the limited time available to me, I intend to explain why I welcome the measures in the Budget...

Did not the last Labour Government create a structural budget deficit as long ago as 2001?

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. I shall say more about Labour’s inconsistency later.

Al...

On “help to buy”, does the hon. Gentleman think it morally correct that millionaires can get supp...

The hon. Gentleman recognises, I hope, that the economy needs to be kick-started. He always refer...

Order. I call Brian Donohoe.

5.53 pm

I became a Member of this House in 1992, and I have to say that this is the worst Budget I can re...

It is reputed to be the world’s most onerous tax on air travel, and I am sure the hon. Gentleman ...

I do agree with the hon. Gentleman on this occasion; it is not very often I can say that. The Gov...

I welcome this responsible Budget, which targets help to individuals and businesses intelligently...

My hon. Friend is giving good local examples of job creation. Does he agree that as the Budget co...

My hon. Friend is absolutely right about that proposal, which will help not only my local area, b...

The hon. Gentleman says that some companies are starting to invest, but is that not related to wh...

Thanks to the measures taken by this Government, the deficit is coming down, we have record emplo...

Order. I am not sure that this is totally relevant to the Budget, and I am sure that the hon. Gen...

Of course not, Mr Deputy Speaker. What I wanted to say was about jobs. We have really good news c...

Order. I am sure that Reading borough council knows exactly what it is talking about, but I am no...

Let me conclude, Mr Deputy Speaker, by commending this Budget and urging everyone to support it.<...

May I draw the House’s attention to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests?

I am grateful to follow the hon. Member for Coventry North West (Mr Robinson). I think it was the...

Is the hon. Gentleman advocating an equivalent to a sovereign wealth fund for Lancashire? That wa...

The hon. Gentleman anticipates me and for once—in fact, not for the first time—we agree. If Lanca...

Order.

6.18 pm

The Budget the Chancellor delivered was not the Budget that my constituents or the city of Glasgo...

rose—

I will give way to the hon. Gentleman. He has made many interventions, so let us hope that this o...

Is the hon. Gentleman not disappointed, and should he not be ashamed, that he supports a Westmins...

That shows us the myth of the Scottish National party. The hon. Gentleman says that the only way ...

Am I right in assuming that the hon. Gentleman favours a high-tax economy for Britain?

No, I am suggesting that while people across the country—especially the most vulnerable—see their...

Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

I have given way twice already, but if I have any spare time at the end of my speech I might let ...

I want to talk about three things: mortgages and how we support them, how local authorities can h...

Contrary to the Chancellor’s mantra, Britain’s return to recession was not made in Europe. It was...

If, as the right hon. Gentleman says, the cuts have not yet hit home, which is quite right, why d...

Cuts have fuelled the recession because they have driven demand out of the economy. Getting the e...

Brushing aside the unhappy attempt by the right hon. Member for Neath (Mr Hain) to rewrite recent...

Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

The right hon. Gentleman has had his chance.

I absolutely relate to my hon. Friend the Memb...

The hon. Gentleman said that we cannot have new homes unless there is a market for them, but the ...

That is precisely why the help to buy scheme, which guarantees 20% of deposits on new homes, will...

I am grateful for the opportunity to speak in the debate. I intend to focus on three central issu...

I refer to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests.

I welcome the Budget o...

One advantage of the child tax allowance announced in the Budget is that it makes it almost inevi...

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. I am not criticising the Government’s decision to support chi...

As time is short and lots of hon. Members still want to speak, I will concentrate my remarks on t...

The Budget reaffirmed the Government’s economic strategy of focusing on reducing the deficit, res...

All of us who sat in the Chamber throughout last week’s Budget statement will be acutely aware of...

The hon. Lady can be assured that virtually all the Northern Ireland Assembly parties support wha...

I agree entirely that they have that endorsement, and the Prime Minister’s Twitter feed today sug...

I hope that the hon. Member for Belfast East (Naomi Long) will forgive me if I do not follow on f...

Did my hon. Friend find it curious that the hon. Member for Coventry North West (Mr Robinson) see...

Absolutely. That shows the sort of difficulties in the Labour party’s arguments. If it is to form...

Does my hon. Friend agree that we are out of line with international best practice in not recogni...

We are out of line. I am quite prepared not to hold the Government to account on their solemn pro...

Last Wednesday was my first Budget since entering the House and I had high expectations. [Laughte...

Will the hon. Lady give way?

No, I am sorry.

Initially, I broadly welcomed the Government’s schemes to encourage people ...

I thank Sarah Champion for taking less time than she was allowed, which will mean that other Memb...

Overall, I think the Budget contains some helpful measures to help families with the cost of livi...

I welcome the opportunity to speak in this important debate, because the Budget last week reveale...

Does the hon. Gentleman not agree with the Mandelson-Blair approach that the way forward for the ...

The hon. Gentleman clearly indicates how his Government have got their priorities wrong.

It...

Few things are as natural as the aspiration to own a home, but for too many of our constituents, ...

That speech, much of this debate and this Budget demonstrate the parallel universe in which the g...

It is, of course, a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Bradford West (George Galloway). His s...

The hon. Gentleman’s area, like mine, has a number of second homes on coastal development routes....

I entirely agree. As the Government introduce their proposals, I hope that they will discount any...

I am glad I met a man from St Ives on this journey, because I agree with much of what the hon. Me...

Does the hon. Gentleman also agree that demographic changes and the rising numbers of young peopl...

The hon. Gentleman knows of my passion for skills training and apprenticeships. We should abolish...

The announcement to help first-time home buyers is great, but the wording needs to be tight to pr...

To fill a Budget with populist gimmicks while wholly ignoring the economic fundamentals that are ...

I very much welcome the opportunity to contribute to this Budget debate.

We have heard much...

I thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker, for giving me the opportunity to speak in this Budget debate.

Has the hon. Gentleman read the latest report from the Federation of Small Businesses bureau, whi...

I thank the hon. Lady for her remarks. I think that if we really went out into the community, we ...

Does my hon. Friend agree that if the Chancellor were in the business of freezing one duty and re...

I thank my hon. Friend for that suggestion. In fact, that suggestion would have been profitable f...

Before I go any further, I should like to declare that I retain an interest in a small communicat...

They say, “If you tell a big enough lie and repeat it constantly, people will believe it”—and tha...

Order. I am terribly sorry, but the hon. Lady’s time is up.

8.23 pm

It is not normally my habit to comment on earlier speeches, and I had intended to stick to the ma...

Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

I will gladly give way.

Eleven years later, it was the Labour party that reduced the GDP ratio to 35%.

No; not 11 years later. [Interruption.] If Labour Members disagree, perhaps they will recall the ...

It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Wolverhampton South West (Paul Uppal). He asked us...

I appreciate the hon. Gentleman’s response, but does he not accept that for the first half of tha...

In the rare years since the end of the second world war when there has been a surplus, not a defi...

Will my hon. Friend give way?

I will; I am getting a lot of extra time, here.

Does my hon. Friend recall that the Conservatives were wedded to our spending plans right up unti...

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. Just last week, when listening to the Chancellor deliver his ...

In the short time I have—five minutes is a very short time—I will just rattle through a few point...

The UK economy continues to bump along the bottom with little or no growth in GDP and the revised...

I welcome the Budget. It is a Budget for business and I am pleased that it is particularly good f...

I am very pleased to be able to participate in this debate, not least to demonstrate how little t...

I am pleased to have the opportunity to contribute to this debate.

Last week’s Budget was a...

If that is the case, why did the Conservative party support the Labour Government’s spending plan...

I happen to be a balanced budget Conservative. Even at the time, before I was elected to this Hou...

I draw the House’s attention to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests.

I...

Will the hon. Lady give way?

No, thank you.

When people look back on this Government, they will see five wasted years. T...

Will the hon. Lady give way?

No, thank you.

I want a more joined-up approach to government. Iberdrola is currently inves...

rose—

Order. I hope to be able to call Members who wish to speak, but to assist the House I should stat...

Last Wednesday’s Budget was more of the same. In spite of failing every economic test they have s...

Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker, for allowing me to speak in this crucial debate.

While this c...

It was good to see the Chancellor pop into the Chamber a few moments ago, although I wish he had ...

Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

No, I will not, simply because of time; I would love to otherwise.

That crisis created choi...

The coalition Government have spent their time in office since 2010 telling us over and over agai...

I thank Members for their co-operation. We now will get the last two Members in.

9.27 pm