Topical Questions

Question

While I am looking forward to the statement a little later from the Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury, I would like to push him, if I may. I recently visited one of my local pubs, the Masonic Arms on Lark Lane—which is a fantastic venue—and met Guy and Amelia. Currently, the overall sector picks up 2.8% of UK business rates nationally, but has only 0.5% of the turnover of UK businesses. This is clearly not a fair tax for pubs; it is the result of a uniquely skewed business rates system that actively penalises many pubs. What long-term steps can the Minister take to help pubs like the Masonic Arms and the wider hospitality sector?

Question

Mr Speaker, I begin by associating Conservative Members with the Chancellor’s comments about your leg—we wish it well. We are waiting with interest to hear the details of the latest U-turn on business rates this afternoon, but if the briefing is to be believed, it will be far too little, too late. The Chancellor simply does not understand the desperate situation so many of our pubs are in. Many pubs are asking why the Chancellor chose to spend billions more on the benefits bill instead of providing proper, permanent business rates support.

Question

My constituents are fed up with seeing more and more dodgy Bob Shops on Hagley Road, Harborne and neighbouring Bearwood High Street. Can the Chancellor say what the Government are doing to tackle money laundering and other financial crimes involving the dodgy shops blighting our high streets?

Question

Vast swathes of Bridport, Beaminster, Maiden Newton, Yetminster and Thornford—whole parts of West Dorset—are under water. Dorset and Wiltshire Fire Service is doing an amazing job of rescuing residents who are trapped either at home or in cars, but unfortunately it will suffer a £1.2 million shortfall in the long-term funding settlement because the Treasury’s underlying assumptions are incorrect. Will the Chancellor meet me, so that we can show her why this is a problem for the service?

Question

I thank my right hon. Friend the Chancellor for bringing us record investment, financial stability and repeated interest rate cuts, but does she share my astonishment that Reform is not only welcoming treacherous Tories who did so much to wreck our economy and public services, but actually entrusting them with economic policy?

Question

I heard the Minister’s words to the hon. Member for Shipley (Anna Dixon) about the energy company obligation 4 scheme, but the vague promise in the warm homes plan to put right poor-quality work under ECO4 seems like empty words to my constituents who are affected. Will the Treasury consider the only viable alternative to this disastrous scheme, which is redress?

Question

Ben Houchen’s Teesworks saga has seen more than half a billion pounds of taxpayers’ money funnelled into enriching a few business people, while the opportunity for a sovereign wealth fund investment programme has been squandered. What steps are being taken to ensure that there is meaningful investment for economic growth and development in Teesside?

Question

Ten years ago, this place introduced legislation preventing banks from applying tax deductions after paying compensation for wrongdoing. Now lenders are set to pay out billions of pounds in connection with the motor finance scandal, but they will be able to reduce their tax bills because most of those companies have channelled their money via subsidiaries. Does the Minister agree that that is not in keeping with the spirit of the law, and will the Government do something about it?

Question

I wrote to the Chancellor on 8 January, with the support of 7,000 small businesses from across the spectrum—not just pubs. They are concerned about not only rate re-evaluations and the vicious tax rises that they have had to suffer, but also the cost of implementing the Employment Rights Act 2025. When can the 7,001 of us expect a reply?

Question

There are many small and medium-sized enterprises in advanced manufacturing supply chains in my bit of the Black Country. Does the Chancellor agree that successfully implementing our industrial strategy is vital to securing the growth, through small businesses, that we need to get British industry back on track?

Question

What does the Minister say to childminders in Melton and Syston who are concerned about potentially increased administrative burdens and cash-flow pressures as a result of changes under Making Tax Digital for businesses with a turnover of at least £50,000? It is scrapping the blanket 10% wear and tear allowance, and replacing it with a requirement for line-by-line item accounting, with childminders having to pay up front and claim back later.

Question

Thanks to the policies of the Labour Treasury team, Sandwell will receive £1.5 million to smarten up our towns. Does the Chancellor agree that local people should have a say in how that funding is spent, and will she encourage people in Rowley, West Bromwich and Oldbury to fill in my survey about how we spend this Government cash?

Question

Constituents have restored the Alyth hotel which is now an outstanding dining and drinking venue as well as a hotel but they are smothered by compound burden of VAT rates, wage costs, duty increases, employer national insurance contributions, energy costs and squeeze on spending. There were 8,000 fewer jobs in hospitality in December than in November, and 20,000 fewer than in September. Will the Chancellor consider reducing VAT on hospitality to the 7% it is in Germany, the 9% it is in Ireland, or the 10% it is in Spain and Italy?