I am getting too many long posts. I will simply delete some when the site is overburdened.

Since 2018 public expenditure has surged. This year we see  government spending nearly £1.1 trillion, up by more than  a quarter compared to the 2028-19 level. We need to ask what do we get for all this money? Where does it all go?

Each household this year will pay on average £35,000 in tax to receive on average £38,000 in government activity. The system is very redistributive so the higher earners contribute many times the value of the benefits they receive, and some pay more in total taxes than they get to spend on themselves and their families on everything else.

These huge sums are leading more and more people to question why the level and quality of services is in many cases so disappointing. As an MP running part of the extensive complaints system for government which is an important part of the job I am in receipt of  too many justified complaints.

There is the Home Office, unable to process migration claims quickly and fairly to ensure illegals go back whilst  those we welcome can soon adjust to their new lives and get a job. There is the failure to stop the people trafficking across the Channel, the failure to prevent protesters blocking main motorways for hours on end and delays in reporting on people’s suitability to undertake jobs with children and vulnerable people.

There is the Probate Office, unable to process the long and complex information they require in a timely way. This leads to difficult delays in sorting out a deceased person’s estate and can be very upsetting for the families involved.

There are the delays in getting a doctors appointment or treatment at a local hospital. During covid managers of the NHS failed to use all the capacity taxpayers  were paying for in private hospitals when these extra beds were meant to be there for non covid cases. They  closed down wards in state hospitals for fear of cross  infection and did not use the  Nightingale covid hospitals provided. .

There are delays at the Passport Office, impeding people from travelling owing to unreasonable delays in renewing passports.

There are delays in the granting a wide range of licences that individuals and businesses need. North Sea oil and gas production has been held up by a shortage of licences and delays in granting them.

The Transport Department grants cash to schemes that reduce the capacity of main roads, making like more difficult to get to work, cutting access for emergency services, and making it more difficult for supply trucks to the shops.

In most of these cases Ministers are keen to see improvements in service levels and have agreed large increases in cash to achieve this under the general 27% increase in 3 years in total spending. It is time for public sector managers to raise quality and efficiency across the board.

 

          It was a pity  Boris did not use the advice he was offered to cut out the money creation and bond buying  and tighten money policy last year to keep inflation down. We have more inflation now than we needed. Japan and China remind us with their low inflation rates it was not all  caused by oil and gas prices.  It was a tragedy  Liz did not present a rounded and costed Growth Plan within an economic  framework that would have worked as some proposed.  These mistakes must not lead the new team to conclude they must impose more austerity. The prime task today is fighting recession. Inflation will come down rapidly next year thanks to the  monetary stringency now  being applied. The Bank itself sees inflation down to 2%  in a couple of years time. 

          If government  accepts all the OBR and Bank advice to tighten too much into a downturn it will be bad economics and worse politics. We will end up with a deeper and longer downturn than we need, and with a bigger deficit than if we had been more willing to offset some of the recessionary forces.  You cannot tax your way into growth and recovery. A fractious and unhappy party is in  no mood for tax rises nor for spending cuts that harm individual incomes and front line services in health, law and order  and education. 

          Of course there is a need to rein in wasteful and less essential public spending. In recent years the purse strings have been loosened across a  very wide field. The Chancellor should stop the Bank of England taking losses on bonds. There is no need to do this. This will produce an immediate saving of £11bn this year. This has always been a joint control policy where the Bank needs the Chancellor’s approval.  

          The Department of Work and pensions should promote more employment for the many on benefits that could do some work. Remove the 16 hours rule for working whilst on benefit, and improve mentoring and assistance into employment  as we need to fill many more job vacancies from people already settled here. There is an unfinished part to Iain Duncan Smith’s excellent benefit reforms.  

This answer fails to deal with the question’s main point. If you are serious about levelling up you do need to use the planning system to funnel more of the new homes investment to places that want to level up.

 

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities has provided the following answer to your written parliamentary question (75745):

Question:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps he taking to avoid concentrating new housing investment in areas already facing shortages of services and infrastructure from rapid development. (75745)

Tabled on: 01 November 2022

Answer:
Lucy Frazer:

We are committed to enabling more homes to be built in the right places, and that is why we are taking steps in our Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill to get more local plans in place to deliver infrastructure in co-ordination with new homes. To make sure these homes are supported by appropriate infrastructure and services, we are introducing a new Infrastructure Levy to replace Section 106 obligations and the Community Infrastructure Levy.

We will also require local authorities to prepare infrastructure delivery strategies to ensure the right balance between delivering homes and infrastructure. This will build on policies we have already enacted in the National Planning Policy Framework, which set an expectation that local plan policies should make sufficient provision for housing, commercial development, infrastructure and community facilities.

The answer was submitted on 09 Nov 2022 at 17:57.

The answer referred to is far from helpful. I will be joining with other MPs to promote an amendment to the Levelling Up Bill to abolish these targets

 

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities has provided the following answer to your written parliamentary question (75747):

Question:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of top down national housing targets. (75747)

Tabled on: 01 November 2022

Answer:
Lucy Frazer:

I refer my Rt. Hon. Friend to the answer to Question UIN 74588, answered on the 8th November 2022.

The answer was submitted on 09 Nov 2022 at 17:32.

Remembrance brings together so many families in a common grief. The two great wars of the last century touched most families with wounds and death. Eventually victorious against the enemies of freedom and self determination, the UK with her allies can be proud of all those who withstood the struggle.

Both my grandfathers fought in the trenches in France and Belgium as very young men. One was badly injured at Mons. They spoke little of the horrors that we have all seen through film and reconstruction. I used to think I was lucky that both my grandfathers survived. Then I realised most of our grandfathers and great grandfathers survived. Many of those who died were too young to have married and had children. My son was taken on a trip when at Reading School to be shown the short walk between the opposing trenches. He was  very moved when told of the massacre  in the great offensives across  No Mans land by teenagers little older than he was at time  of his visit.

My father left school at 16 and enrolled in the Royal Navy as soon as  he could during the second world war. He  sailed  in the cruiser Royalist in Northern waters and in support of the Italian campaign. He described to me the fear of the U boats stalking the ship. He did meet my mother who served in the Wrens in Portsmouth when his ship put in for supplies. She told me of her time fire watching on the roof of Huntley and Palmers in Reading where she lived before joining the navy. One night of a raid she had to walk home knowing a bomb had hit her own  street, only to discover it had missed her parents and her bedroom. I could understand that feeling more when I stepped out from the rubble of the Grand Hotel at Brighton after the IRA  bombing. You are profoundly shocked by the impact of the senseless violence on those neighbours and friends who did die.

Today is  time to remember the suffering and bravery of family members called upon to do extraordinary things owing to the times they lived in. They put with many dangers and restrictions on their lives.  The vast scale of world war is difficult to grasp because it is so horrific. Recalling what we know of those close to us and to our grandparents and great grandparents  is easier to understand. It is fitting that we do remember them.

 

This answer fails to spell out what targeted help is offered to our struggling energy intensive businesses like steel, ceramics, glass, petrochemicals.  The UK is far from competitive in these areas and becoming ever more reliant on imports.

 

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has provided the following answer to your written parliamentary question (75743):

Question:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he is taking to help support energy-intensive industries with rising energy costs. (75743)

Tabled on: 01 November 2022

Answer:
Graham Stuart:

The Government is determined to secure a competitive future for its energy intensive industries (EIIs), providing them with extensive support, including over £2 billion to help with the costs of energy and to protect jobs.

The Energy Bill Relief Scheme was announced on 21 September 2022 to provide a discount on energy bills for all eligible non-domestic customers, including businesses, whose current gas and electricity prices have been significantly inflated in light of global energy prices. The scheme will initially run for 6 months covering energy use from 1 October 2022 to 31 March 2023.

The answer was submitted on 09 Nov 2022 at 17:02.

Our high energy using industries are suffering badly. Carbon taxation by whatever name is especially high in the UK and the government has so far refused to lower it. I will continue to urge them to complete their review and respond more urgently to the cost crisis hitting these important businesses.

 

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has provided the following answer to your written parliamentary question (75744):

Question:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will review the impact of the carbon tax on high energy usage industries in the UK. (75744)

Tabled on: 01 November 2022

Answer:
Graham Stuart:

There is not an explicit carbon tax on high energy use industry. The UK Government and Devolved Administrations operate a carbon pricing scheme, the UK Emissions Trading Scheme. A consultation on developing this Scheme, including a review of the free allocation of carbon allowances within the scheme to support energy intensive industries (EIIs) was launched earlier this year. The Government and Devolved Administrations will respond to that consultation in due course. The Government is committed to securing a competitive future for its EIIs, providing them with extensive support, including over £2 billion to help with the costs of energy and to protect jobs.

The answer was submitted on 09 Nov 2022 at 17:02.

This is a disgraceful non answer. I asked about production licences so they respond about exploration licences. The quango they refer to reports to them and is meant to implement their policy. Ministers have made clear they do wish to see rapid progress on replacing imported LNG with more domestic gas, but clearly the Departmental drafters  are not entering into the spirit of this. 

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has provided the following answer to your written parliamentary question (75742):

Question:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, which new oil and gas fields will be issued with production licences in 2022. (75742)

Tabled on: 01 November 2022

Answer:
Graham Stuart:

Licensing is a matter for the North Sea Transition Authority which publishes all figures and statistics regarding licence awards for oil and gas exploration and development on its website.

While the 33^rd UK Offshore Licensing Round officially opened in October, awards for licences under this round will not be made until next year.

The answer was submitted on 09 Nov 2022 at 17:02.

Time was when a Chancellor prepared an Autumn Statement or budget in secret. He would of course listen to many representations and show interest in the many ideas that come into the Treasury without giving any hint as to which if any he favoured. MPs would be offered chances to voice their favourite requests to an inscrutable Minister.  Indeed, Chancellors took seriously the need for confidentiality, knowing that were they to let slip a Budget secret they would be expected to resign.

In the run up to the Autumn Statement on 17th November we have been bombarded by a series of stories in papers and on the media claiming the Chancellor is considering a wide range of specific tax rises and spending reductions. We have heard of moves  against benefit recipients to increase benefits by less than inflation, tinkering with the triple lock to lower the pensions uprating, eliminating the Enterprise zones, raising CGT rates, reducing pension saving allowances, freezing income tax thresholds for longer, bringing more people into higher tax bands, taxing electric car use, taxing dividends more, worsening the terms for Non Doms, increasing windfall taxes on energy, cutting grant to Councils  and others I may have missed.

I assume none of these stories came from the Chancellor and I have  no idea if any of them are true. I have not seen or heard the Chancellor give any indication of what he might do beyond the very general public statements we have seen..  I do not however think they were made up, so it does look  as if someone inside government who claims to know what the Chancellor is working on is talking too much. They may simply be reporting an unappetising list of options drawn up by officials. Most of these ideas seem to me to be most unlikely to make it to the announcement, given the obvious political difficulties many of them pose. It would be helpful if whoever is putting all this out was told not to do so, as it does not make for good government and it is worrying to the successive groups of people who feel threatened by these proposals.

There is never any briefing that they might cut out needless or wasteful public spending. So far this government far from cutting spending has announced a very undesirable £11 bn extra for the Bank of England to allow it to take losses on bonds it owns which it need  not sell. Surely that should be a first target for the axe. It has announced extra support for emerging economies with the costs of net zero programmes. It is apparently negotiating to offer more cash to the French to assist with border control across the Channel. We would want more proof of value for money before committing any extra cash to help them police their border. Where are the plans to help more people into work and off benefits, so both the individual and the state will be better off? Why not drive for more revenue from oil and gas by switching more of our demand from imports to domestic production? Where are the plans to build more of our own ships, to make a series of small nuclear reactors using UK factories and technology, to grow more of our own food diverting subsidies from wilding schemes to investment in larger scale market gardening?  There have been many more such ideas to grow our revenues and control our costs on this blog.