John Redwood (Wokingham) (Con):
Given that we do not want too much pressure on mortgage holders, who will be struggling, will the Government launch a series of supply-side measures to increase the supply of things that are short, to promote more home-grown food and home-produced energy, and above all to work with public sector employees and managers to have a productivity revolution in the public services where there has been a collapse in output?
Jeremy Hunt, Chancellor of the Exchequer:
As so often, my right hon. Friend is absolutely right and it is in supply-side measures that we see the long-term solution to the inflation problem that we and many other countries face. That is why the Budget was focused on labour supply measures such as a massive reduction in the cost of childcare—a reduction of up to 60% for families with young children—and it is why my right hon. Friend the Chief Secretary to the Treasury is launching the very productivity review my right hon. Friend the Member for Wokingham (John Redwood) has called for many times, to make sure we are getting better value for public money spent.
June 30, 2023
Good morning.
How is giving more childcare going to help us with more food and energy, thereby reducing costs and inflation ? All it is is going to increase government spending and borrowing, increasing the cost of gilts and driving down the pound, increasing inflation forcing the government to raise interest rates.
Do these people live in the same world as the rest of us ?
Reply expanding the workforce can help to increase supply
June 30, 2023
In an overpopulated world, we need to stop encouraging large families, and bringing the excess populations to our country, especially when we rely on imported food and energy. Who will wean politicians from desiring high and higher populations? You are importing consumers, as well as workers.
June 30, 2023
Mr Hunt, in summary :
Leave it to us, we’re doing all we need and we’re thinking about a review.
June 30, 2023
PS.
In response to my own question yesterday on gas storage, this from Centrica, operator of the Rough gas storage facility that provides about half of uk gas storage.
Rough Questions & Answers
How many days of storage did you have when you opened in October 2022?
At average demand Rough was able to produce enough gas for 3 days of average demand and 2 days of peak winter demand.
How many days does the new capacity add to this – total days for Winter 23/24?
At average demand Rough will be able to produce enough gas for 6 days of average demand and 3.5 days of peak winter demand.
Get your wood burning stoves ready….
June 30, 2023
Have to say I will believe that response when I see it! Our dear Chancellor has not delivered on much at all! Other than higher taxation.
June 30, 2023
Who is paying for the Govt to reduce childcare by 60%?
June 30, 2023
Dear Sir John
‘Launching a productivity review’ – seems pretty obvious and begs the question why individual managers do not do this on an ongoing basis as part of being a credible and responsible manager? What does this say about the calibre of the people being recruited?
Yours sincerely
Graeme Dexter
June 30, 2023
So the Chancellor adopts standard Government response speak to say “As so often, my right hon. Friend is absolutely right…” but then goes on to admit, perhaps inadvertently, that it does not listen when you by saying “….the Chief Secretary to the Treasury is launching the very productivity review my right hon. Friend the Member for Wokingham (John Redwood) has called for many times…”. So why only now is the Chief Secretary apparently heeding a call made many times?
This government really is contemptible.
July 1, 2023
Yes! Hunt fails the comprehension test every time.
June 30, 2023
So Hunt thinks making taxpayers’ pick up even more of the tab for childcare counts as supply-side reforms.
Why doesn’t he just cross the floor and apply to join Starmer and the other Socialists?
June 30, 2023
In my view, interest rates have been kept artificially low for too long. Banks never lose, even when sinking beneath their own mismanagement.
Likewise with water companies, borrowing to pay dividends. Their investors come out laughing,. The taxpayers are turned into mugs by (it seems) every angle.
June 30, 2023
😂🤣Hunt agrees on improving state productivity and encouraging supply – and immediately announced mor intervention in ‘childcare!
No sequential thinking.
No hope.
June 30, 2023
Why the concentration on childcare being the important issue? It is an issue but there are other points on why there are so many people (men and young people) not in work when they could be getting into the countryside and picking fruit/vegetables (one of areas letting us down) which would help their mental health issues (the in thing these days). The answer was just a fudge and typical of Hunt which is why no one in the population values him and wonders how he got into the position of Chancellor after not performing well on other duties he has had over the years. You can con the people once but we are not daft you know.
June 30, 2023
‘As so often, my right hon. Friend is absolutely right,’ says Hunt. What hypocrisy, but what a condemnation of this government when they so often fail to do what his hon. Friend recommends.
June 30, 2023
If the government wanted to give solar panel support instead of paying people not to grow stuff, do we have the means to put rented solar panels on all these empty greenhouses we are told we have to provide the heat they need? Are there farmhands’ accommodations on these farms going spare because just cleared migrants could work there to earn their own keep once they have passed clearance?
June 30, 2023
The Hunt reply is typical of his inept management of the economy . He is a lap dog to Sunak and is doing nothing to encourage investment and growth . He will cow tow to any sort of intervention .
June 30, 2023
This evasive response is Atypical of this Government. As has already been mentioned, ‘what has child care savings got to do with increasing the agricultural output of our country’? What, indeed? Unless the Chancellor is going to funnel the ALL of child care savings over to those who work in farms and market gardens across the land (if he can find the mums who actually spend time in the fields) it is not going to help our “home-grown” output one bit. Ditto for our own energy sources being ignored at enormous expense to us tax payers.
Why do Government Ministers treat the Back Benches as though they are children? And then expect us, from the back streets and those who represent us in the HoC to accept their devious reply to IMPORTANT questions. We’ve heard of the “Dodgy dossier” now we have their “dodgy” responses, on a daily basis. They all add up to a dodgy government, do they not? If they can do better, they’d better get to it, PDQ or they will become a very smaller political party in 2024.