Harriett Baldwin MP: speeches 2025

Speeches

• 21 Jan 2025 · Economic Growth · Hansard source

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  Former Chair, Mr Speaker, but thank you very much for calling me. It is clear that we all want to see economic growth in rural areas and across the UK, but I am concerned that some of the measures in the Chancellor’s Budget are having the opposite effect. Which statistic worries her most: the fact that we are at a 20-year high for business closures, or the 100% increase in millionaires leaving the UK?

• 20 Jan 2025 · Office for Value for Money · Hansard source

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  I congratulate the hon. Lady not only on her excellent chairing of our Committee and this report, but on securing a slot in the Chamber to tell people about some of the report’s recommendations. Her background as the former Chair of the Public Accounts Committee gives huge credibility to the points she is making about the possibility that this new and temporary body will not be able to make its mark in the way the Government hoped. One of the areas where my constituency has benefited most in value for money from public spending is flood defences. With her long experience, does she agree that protecting our communities from the impact of climate change is one of the best uses of public money?

• 15 Jan 2025 · Draft Reporting on Payment Practices and Performance (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 2024 · Hansard source

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  It is a very great pleasure to serve under your chairmanship this morning, Ms McVey. I just note that the Minister highlighted the fact that, in fact, this initiative had been started under the previous Government, and so you would not expect me to be objecting to its passage today. But I do have, in the interest of scrutiny, a few questions for the Minister. The explanatory memorandum accompanying the statutory instrument highlights the improvements that have occurred in the time that it takes to pay invoices since these measures were brought in in 2018. There was strong support in the consultation for extending the reporting requirements to these retention payments. Could the Minister summarise for the record what the objections were in the consultation and from whom they came—the people who did not support moving forward with these measures? The Department will generally, it says in the explanatory memorandum, seek to encourage businesses to comply with the regulation by encouraging them, getting in touch with them rather than prosecuting them for non-compliance. Could the Minister highlight if there have actually been any prosecutions at all under the previous payment regulations, and, if so, who the holdouts or the big contractors that have resisted these measures have been? Most companies say that this regulation will be an ongoing cost to their business. It is estimated to be a small amount of £10 million per year. Can the Minister outline for the committee any measures that he is planning that will reduce costs for businesses? Businesses are telling me that the extra cost of national insurance and the Employment Rights Bill are adding costs to their businesses that can be seen from space. The last Government introduced new requirements for firms bidding for large Government contracts to make sure that they pay small businesses on time, and those bidding for Government contracts over £5 million will have to demonstrate that they pay their own invoices within an average of 55 days, tightening to 45 days and then to 30 days in the coming years. Can the Minister confirm that he is planning to continue with that approach? The last Government overhauled the voluntary prompt payment code, halving the time signatories have to pay small businesses to 30 days. Is the Minister planning to update us on the progress he has made on this matter in the last six months, and has the number of signatories gone up or down—it was 2,800 voluntary signatories. I look forward to the Minister’s answers and we support the measures today.

• 14 Jan 2025 · UK-China Economic and Financial Dialogue · Hansard source

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  It is good to see the Chancellor back from China and to hear her reiterate that growth is her No. 1 mission, because we have not had any growth since her Budget. Given that accepting responsibility is the first step in solving a problem, will she accept that last October’s Budget has caused business confidence and growth prospects in this country’s economy to plunge?

• 9 Jan 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  Does the Leader of the House plan to set aside some Government time for us to discuss the enormous changes to local government announced in a statement just before Christmas? That forced a lot of councils to come up with plans at very short notice. There has been limited opportunity for any kind of democratic engagement from our constituents. It seems to me that we ought to spend some time in this Chamber debating the implications of potentially cancelling a series of local elections? Will she spare that time?

• 9 Jan 2025 · Public Finances: Borrowing Costs · Hansard source

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  In yesterday’s extraordinary emergency statement from the Treasury to try to calm the markets, it paid tribute to the fact that the Government inherited the second-lowest debt in the G7. Is the reason the Government Front Bench is so empty today and the Chancellor has fled to China that she has realised that her Budget means she now is the arsonist?

• 6 Jan 2025 · Health and Adult Social Care Reform · Hansard source

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  My constituents will welcome the opportunity to get more services delivered through their GP surgeries, of which there are many excellent examples in West Worcestershire, and through community hospitals. However, I hear from those very same GP surgeries their concerns over the national insurance rises, and how that is leading them to think about reducing services. When will the Secretary of State be able to square that circle?