House of Commons Hansard Debates for 28 Nov 1996 (pt 23)

Sir Terence Higgins: The hon. Lady says that the proposed windfall tax is a one-off. Could she direct me to a specific assurance on that from a senior Opposition spokesman? On the point that she made in her intervention on my speech, is she not hoping that there will be excess profits so that the Labour party can tax them? That would lead to higher prices, which consumers would have to pay. She said in particular that shareholders would be taxed. If she wants to tax them, she should say clearly that it will be a shareholders' tax, and not try to achieve it by a windfall tax.

Ms Eagle: The precedent for a windfall tax was set by the Conservative party, which imposed it on the banks. It is absolutely certain that what the Chancellor is proposing for capital allowances will be cumulative and on-going.

Mr. Bernard Jenkin: Will the hon. Lady give way?

Ms Eagle: No, because I have a limited amount of time. The hon. Gentleman's speech took nearly 20 minutes.

I want to talk about the Budget's effect on women. In 1995, the Government signed up to the Platform for Action at the fourth world conference on women in Beijing. Much of what they signed up to was directly

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contradicted by their actions in the Budget. Sadly, they have done it again this year. One of the things hoped at the conference was that there would be gender assessment of Budgets and other Government policies to enable us to look more closely at the differential effects of them on men and women. It is impossible to assess the direct impact on women because the Government have failed to publish such a gender impact study and--

Mr. Geoffrey Clifton-Brown (Cirencester and Tewkesbury): Will the hon. Lady give way?

Ms Eagle: No, I do not have much time left and want to carry on.

Australia, Canada and South Africa all publish such studies. Why does not the United Kingdom? Such studies are an essential initial tool in the struggle to analyse the differential impact of fiscal policy and the structure of the benefits system on men and women. At the moment, there is a myth in the Treasury that there is an equal effect on people regardless of gender. Of course, that is not true; it is complete nonsense, as the Fawcett Society and the Women's Budget group continue to point out.

Although it was nice that the Chancellor mentioned women in his 75-minute Budget speech, there was only one such mention, and that was to announce a petty and vindictive measure that will drive close to 1 million women of working age further into poverty.

Mr. Clifton-Brown: Will the hon. Lady give way?

Ms Eagle: No, I am not giving way.

The freezing and the subsequent abolition of allowances for lone parents picks them out as this Budget's scapegoat, as they were last year. The plan to phase out the lone-parent premium, which is worth £5.20 a week, and lone-parent child benefit, which would be worth £6.30 a week by 1998, hits hardest the poorest members of society who are of working age.

Lady Olga Maitland: Will the hon. Lady give way?

Ms Eagle: No, I will not give way.

The abolition of the allowances saves a mere £290 million a year, yet, as the Women's Budget group pointed out, the percentage of lone parents living in poverty has risen from 19 per cent. in 1979 to 59 per cent. today.

It is a myth that there are no extra costs to bringing up children alone. We all know that there are. As the hon. Member for Rochdale (Ms Lynne) said, the Government's Green Paper on reform of social security in 1985 stated that one-parent benefit would continue

"as a contribution to the additional costs faced by lone parents in bringing up children alone."

Those additional costs have not disappeared, and there are many more women bringing up children alone today than there were when that Green Paper was published. The Government simply have not done nearly enough to help lone parents. Instead, they have punished them in two Budgets on the trot and given no justification for driving them into serious hardship.

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The average weekly income of a one-parent family is £134, which is 38 per cent. of that of a two-parent family, which stands at £340 per week. Why on earth did the Government in the Budget take away the small amount of help that has allowed many women to stay above the bread line? It is particularly insulting that the Chancellor chose to present the punitive measure as an equalisation measure. In fact, it was a quite unprecedented attack on many women who are doing their best to raise children in very difficult circumstances.

We should remember when we consider such punitive measures that driving single parents into ever more extreme poverty merely impoverishes the next generation. Many of our children are living in poor conditions and are having to try to grow up in them. The Government argue that current benefit arrangements encourage family breakdown. That is absurd and insulting. Why should we punish today's children? We must do our best to support them and ensure that they turn into decent, productive members of our society, which I am glad to say the vast majority of them do.

Very few of the 1.6 million lone-parent families match the caricature of the teenage, unmarried mother that the Conservative party insists on touting. The vast majority of lone women did not start out that way and never intended to end up that way. They are divorced, abandoned or widowed, and it is our duty in this House when we consider Budget measures to think very carefully about the message that we are sending to those women. We should think about the fact that we are willing, as a House of Commons, where so far only 9 per cent. of Members are women, to drive lone women into ever more serious poverty.

We must help lone parents by allowing them to work. That means providing affordable, high-quality child care, a policy which will quickly pay for itself. It means training and education to equip them for the labour market. Many women have been away a long time from the labour market and need to be reintroduced to it in a sensible and practical way. Helping them means welfare-to-work measures to encourage them to go out to work. Yet, what is in the Budget--a £56 million cut in the nursery education budget, a £34 million cut in the training and enterprise councils' training budget and a £20 million cut in capital spending on higher education?

The Budget is not a Budget for women; it is not a Budget for children or the poor; it is not a Budget for fairness; it is not a Budget to prepare this country for the future; it is a last-gasp Budget of a bankrupt Government.

7.37 pm

Mr. David Evennett (Erith and Crayford): I am very pleased to be able to participate in this part of the Budget debate. I do not want to follow the negativism of the hon. Member for Wallasey (Ms Eagle), whose speech was very like that of her hon. Friend the Member for Peckham (Ms Harman)--a lot of waffle but not a lot of distinct, definite and different policies. Nor do I want to follow the hon. Member for Rochdale (Ms Lynne), who is about to leave the Chamber, although to her credit she did want to spend, spend, spend and she put forward some policies. Unfortunately, we on the Conservative Benches could not support them because they would involve increasing taxation.

Mr. James Cran (Beverley): She was honest.

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Mr. Evennett: At least, as my hon. Friend says, she was honest, unlike the Opposition, who have not been honest in the course of debate this week about what they would do. There has been much rhetoric and waffle but not many costed policies, ideas or definite proposals. I know that the electorate will take that into account when they make their judgment.

The Budget is one that I strongly support and endorse and it will be warmly welcomed in my borough of Bexley. It is a Budget for prosperity and, in particular, the long-term prosperity of people in London and across the rest of the country. It is a moderate and balanced Budget, in both fiscal and monetary terms, and I welcome that. The fact that the Government are back to a tax-cutting agenda will be received as good news across the country. The majority of people in my constituency, and in the constituencies of my hon. Friends, want lower taxes. They know that Labour--should a Labour Government be elected, which we do not believe will happen--will be a high-taxing party. It always puts up taxes when in government. It believes in higher public expenditure and higher taxation.

People in my constituency work hard, pay their taxes and save for the future and they would not trust Labour in power. They share the Conservative agenda that was reaffirmed by my right hon. and learned Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer on Tuesday afternoon. They know only too well that the Government have no money of their own, only what they take from taxing those who work or who have savings invested. Of course, the people want good public services. We are all in politics to provide good public services for all our citizens. We want a good education system, a good national health service and an effective and well-equipped police force.

My constituents will be delighted, therefore, by the increased expenditure that the Chancellor announced, especially the real increase in resources for the NHS. They want more money to pay for medical treatment for those in need. They want good health provision, free at the point of delivery. The Government have delivered on the health service. The Government have pledged more money every year above the rate of inflation and they have delivered that. They propose, over the next five years, to continue to increase resources for the NHS.

What do the Opposition say? They say nothing. They do not match our commitment, nor do they come up with any other figures for what they would spend on the NHS. My hon. Friends and, I believe, the majority of people welcome the Government's spending priorities. They will also approve the reduction of 1p in the basic rate of income tax to 23p and will strongly support the increase in personal allowances that my right hon. and learned Friend unveiled on Tuesday afternoon.

I wish to record my thanks to the Chancellor for listening to the many representations from my hon. Friends about increasing the married couple's allowance by the level of inflation. At long last, our party, which has always been the party of the family, has made a start in redressing the way in which the tax and benefit system has discriminated against married people with children. The increase is a small step, but it is in the right direction and will be welcomed. We look forward to the next Conservative Budget in a year's time when perhaps more will be done on that front.

Before my comments on the benefit system, I wish to endorse what my hon. Friend the Member for Colchester, North (Mr. Jenkin) said about inflation. Inflation is a great

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evil. It destroys people's savings and it destroys jobs. We must be tough on inflation and my right hon. and learned Friend endorsed that in his Budget. We know that there are inflationary pressures in the system , as my hon. Friend mentioned, and I welcome my right hon. and learned Friend the Chancellor saying that he will take whatever measures are necessary and prudent to ensure that we do not return, ever again under a Conservative Government, to high inflation.

I welcome what my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Social Security said this afternoon about the benefit system and its place in public expenditure. In the country, and certainly in my constituency, there is much unhappiness and disquiet about the benefit system. The perception is that it is unfair. Does the money go to those really in need? Is the huge benefits bill of £93 billion too much? Can we afford it? Should we be spending that much money on benefits? How is it that hard-working people in my constituency and elsewhere are often no better off by being in work than many who do not work?

We have falling unemployment levels nationally and locally in London. In particular, unemployment has fallen by more than 20 per cent. in Erith and Crayford since the last general election and by 34 per cent. in the neighbouring constituency of Bexleyheath. That is a real achievement. It is very welcome to see people getting back into jobs, because that is what we passionately and desperately want. We want well-trained workers who are able to take new jobs when they unfortunately lose their old jobs. Why then does the social security budget continue to rise? That is the question that my constituents ask when they raise their serious concerns about the social security budget with me.

I wish to put on record my praise and strong support for my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Social Security for the reforms of the past few years. In particular, I support his crackdown on waste and fraud in the benefit system. My constituents welcome that approach and they also welcome the measures that are proposed for further improvements in the system. Those improvements will not only crack down on fraud and abuse, but will make the system more efficient and effective, so that it provides, for those who need the benefit system, a first-rate service.

We welcome too the reduction in the overall growth of social security expenditure. It will be 1½ per cent. instead of around the 4 per cent. it would have been if my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State had not imposed his reforms. Therefore, we have a social security budget that is targeted on those in real need and that is doing the job that it was set up to do. The Opposition seem only to want to spend more and more money and to distribute benefits universally, rather than targeting them. We Conservatives passionately believe in targeting.