| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
Mr. Martin Salter (Reading, West): Will my right hon. Friend confirm that the extra 1.1 million homes recommended for the south-east of England is not Government policy, but merely advice from a panel of inspectors? Will she also confirm that hon. Members will have ample opportunity in the House to raise the concerns of their constituents before the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions reaches his decision, and that they will not need to engage in the cheap, hypocritical point scoring that we heard from Conservative Members yesterday evening?
Mrs. Beckett: My hon. Friend is entirely correct. Most people who have carefully followed these issues are well aware that the report was not produced by the Government; it was a report to the Government, which the Government will consider and upon which they will pronounce. He is also right to point out that there will be many opportunities for the House to consider the issues raised in the report. It is most important that we do so sensibly--not based on the scare stories put about by the Conservatives.
Mr. Gerald Howarth (Aldershot): Given the damning indictment by the OECD report, drawing attention to the fact that, in the first full year of the Labour Government, we saw the biggest tax increase for 16 years, will the Leader of the House please arrange for the First Lord of
the Treasury to explain to the House why, according to The Times, he told my right hon. Friend, the Leader of the Opposition, on 10 March, that
- "We have not raised taxes, we have cut them."?
Mrs. Beckett: We have dealt with that issue several times. My right hon. Friend comes to the House every week, so the hon. Gentleman will no doubt endeavour to raise the matter on one of those occasions--unless, in the meantime, he reads the OECD report, in which case, he probably will not.
Mr. Harry Barnes (North-East Derbyshire): May I press the point that my hon. Friend the Member for Bury, North (Mr. Chaytor) raised about the World Trade Organisation? In yesterday's Question Time, the WTO was discussed with the Secretary of State for International Development. We have had many oral and written questions and three early-day motions, but we have not had a debate on that important subject. Given that the WTO is due to meet in Seattle on 30 November and that there are massive problems with international trade and the third world, could we have a debate before 30 November?
Mrs. Beckett: My hon. Friend makes an interesting point. He might find an opportunity to raise those issues in and around the debates that take place in the new Session. I cannot undertake to provide time for a special debate, although I recognise the importance of his point, and will draw it to the attention of my Cabinet colleagues.
Mr. Bercow: May we have a full day's debate in Government time next week on the Prime Minister's astonishing determination to drag Britain into joining the euro, with a cost that he will not calculate, for a benefit that he cannot quantify, and at a risk to the self-government of the British people that he dare not admit? Does the right hon. Lady accept that the merit of having such a debate now is all the greater because a recent ICM poll, wisely commissioned by my hon. Friend the Member for New Forest, East (Dr. Lewis), showed that 64 per cent. of British people oppose entry to the euro? Should not the Prime Minister open a full day's debate in the House and explain his minority extremism, as opposed to the majority common sense of the British people?
Mrs. Beckett: I am tempted to say "no" and sit down, but that would be unfair on the hon. Gentleman, who regularly attends these enjoyable occasions. I shall therefore simply say that I see no call for a full day's debate, let alone in Government time, on the euro in the near future. The Government's approach is quite clear and has been for a long time: we shall act in the national interest. When we judge that it is in the national interest to enter the euro, we shall put the case to the British people and they will make the decision.
Mr. Gareth R. Thomas (Harrow, West): Will my right hon. Friend make time for a debate on the way in which planning applications are considered? Those of my constituents who support the excellent work of the Shaftesbury campaign against McDonald's and who live close to the site where a new takeaway restaurant is planned for the west Harrow part of my constituency are
understandably extremely concerned that, because the restaurant is being built on the site of a former public house, it does not require a high level of detailed planning consideration. Given the impact on my constituents and on the excellent Whitmore high school nearby, can I persuade my right hon. Friend to make time for such a debate?
Mrs. Beckett: I understand how great concern can be caused within a constituency when planning issues are being considered, particularly if people feel that the development will have a substantial impact on the quality of their lives. I fear that I cannot undertake to find time for a special debate in the House on the matter, but I am sure that my hon. Friend will use his ingenuity to raise it. May I recommend to him the opportunities for debate that will arise in Westminster Hall?
Mr. Forth: The Leader of the House could not possibly--could she--be seeking to avoid a debate on the OECD report? Does she recall the tax bombshell, which turned out to have a much longer fuse than many of us imagined? Now that the facts are in the public domain, however, and an authoritative, impartial source has clearly established that tax levied by this Government has increased and is continuing to increase, surely it is in the Government's interest to set the matter right and to give the House an opportunity to consider it properly? The Government could then set out their version of events and my colleagues and I could explore the OECD's authoritative and impartial account of the steep and continuing rise in taxation on the people and businesses of this country.
Mrs. Beckett: No, I am not worried in the slightest about having such a debate. Indeed, many of my right hon. and hon. Friends would look forward to such an event with considerable relish. We all enjoy contrasting the Conservative party's record of economic management with that of the Government and the Chancellor. However, I fear that we must be denied that treat, at least in the near future, although there will no doubt be an economic debate in the aftermath of the Queen's Speech.
Mr. Paul Flynn (Newport, West): Is it not a matter of regret that the House has never debated the scandal of the mis-selling of endowment mortgages? Requests for such a debate were made 10 months ago at business questions and have been made repeatedly since, and the matter was raised in early-day motion 881.
[That this House is alarmed at the evidence published in Financial Adviser and The Sunday Times that reveals that more than two million people may have been mis-sold endowment mortgages; notes that leading independent financial advisers stress that endowment mortgages have been unsuitable for virtually everyone for the past10 years; regrets that the Personal Investment Authority/Financial Services Authority have not already acted despite evidence of widespread mis-selling revealed by the recent mystery shopper exercises by the Consumers' Association and Suffolk Trading Standards; and calls on the Treasury and FSA to launch an immediate investigation into mis-selling and urges them to consider outlawing endowment mortgages, as the
United States has done, and to further consider whether compensation should be paid to those who have suffered financial losses.]
Is it not a matter of regret that the House has never debated the scandal of the mis-selling of endowment mortgages? This month, a half a million victims of endowment mis-selling will be told that their premiums must be substantially increased. It is clear that 4 million endowment mortgages have been sold in the interests of the sellers not the purchasers, because they attract up to seven times more commission than repayment mortgages. Is it not right that we should consider this matter? It is commendable that the Government are drawing attention to this scandal, but at the moment they are only barking, and they should now show us that they are determined to bite.
Mrs. Beckett:
My hon. Friend refers to an issue that has become more clear over the past year. He correctly said that this problem was flagged up much earlier, but the picture was not clear until more recently. There was a mortgage summit last Friday, and the Government are considering, in discussions with the industry, what action should be taken. I cannot undertake to find time for a special debate on the issue in the near future, but I shall draw his comments to the attention of my right hon. Friends.
Mr. Evans:
Is not one of the reasons why we have one of the fastest-growing tax burdens wasteful Government expenditure? Will the Leader of the House arrange for a statement to be made on the future of the Government's annual report? There have been only two editions, and 100,000 copies of the most recent edition were printed but only 8,000 were sold. The Government bought 41,000 copies, and are now prepared to buy the remaining 51,000. That is the clearest example of vanity publishing. It is usually the author who picks up the tab, but, in this case, it is the taxpayer. Will she arrange for a statement to be made, so that this publication can cease to be published?
| Next Section
| Index | Home Page |