Jeevun Sandher MP: speeches 2024

Speeches

• 17 Dec 2024 · National Insurance Contributions (Secondary Class 1 Contributions) Bill · Hansard source

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  The young and the lowest paid work in the smallest businesses. Some analysis, including that from the Institute for Fiscal Studies, does not include these measures, and does not have matched employer-employee datasets. Indeed, Paul Johnson admitted as much when he came before the Treasury Committee.

• 17 Dec 2024 · National Insurance Contributions (Secondary Class 1 Contributions) Bill · Hansard source

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  This Labour Government will invest to rebuild our broken nation. Investment in our future will be paid for by tax revenue, and today we are debating the largest revenue-raising policy in our Budget. I am proud that revenue will be raised from the largest businesses to fund the homes, jobs and skills that we need to create a good, affordable life for us all. For those of us in our nation who cannot afford a decent life, the picture has become increasingly bleak: non-graduates and the young are locked out of the opportunities that previous generations had, and there are not enough homes, good jobs or skills. We are raising the money for investment in homes, jobs and skills from those who are most able to afford it. We are raising £23 billion—investment that every business, family and young person will benefit from—and 75% of the revenue is from the largest 2% of businesses. We are raising that money while protecting the smallest businesses by increasing the employment allowance; the Federation of Small Businesses has said that that is a huge help as we bring in this revenue raiser. Half of all businesses will pay the same or less, and a quarter of a million will see their tax bill fall.

• 17 Dec 2024 · National Insurance Contributions (Secondary Class 1 Contributions) Bill · Hansard source

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  I thank the right hon. Member for his incredibly kind words. For me, this is actually rather simple. I follow the Office for Budget Responsibility forecast, which goes through the Treasury policy costing and gets signed off. Those are the numbers I look at, and that is the money that will come in. We are raising the money, as set out in those forecasts, in a fair way to invest in our future prosperity. We are using that money to build the homes that we need. In the mid-1990s, it took a young person around three years to save for a deposit. Now it is over 14 years, and in London it is nearly 30. That is why nearly half of young people are living at home with their parents, and why we are investing the tax revenue from the measures that we are discussing in the affordable homes programme. That means more homes for young people. We are also using this money to create good jobs. The idea that someone could leave school and get a decent wage left our nation long ago. There are low-paid and insecure service jobs for some, but many are unable to get a job at all. Today, around 15% of young people are not in education, employment or training. Our warm homes plan, which will upgrade 300,000 homes, will also create tens of thousands of good jobs.

• 17 Dec 2024 · National Insurance Contributions (Secondary Class 1 Contributions) Bill · Hansard source

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  I direct the hon. Gentleman to today’s labour market statistics. Employment is still high; unemployment is about the same as it was; and I think inactivity is falling. In the official statistics, the picture looks good. More broadly, vacancies are not the measure that we want to look at. Instead, we want to look at the number of people in jobs. The revenue that we are raising today will be invested in actions that directly create those good jobs. The warm homes plan will upgrade 300,000 homes, which is tens of thousands of good jobs. The expansion of early years childcare is tens of thousands of good jobs. Businesses need to know that they have the healthy workforce that they need, and more people who are available to work. This is a Budget for growth and for jobs.

• 17 Dec 2024 · National Insurance Contributions (Secondary Class 1 Contributions) Bill · Hansard source

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  I absolutely understand the benefits of early years childcare, which is why we are so proud that it is a key part of this Government’s opportunity mission and is one of our milestones. We know that money invested today will pay dividends in the future. Labour Members we are absolutely committed to expanding and investing in early years childcare. More broadly, this measure is also about investing in our young people. One in three young people is experiencing mental health problems, and one in 20 is too sick to work. That number is only rising. There has been a threefold increase in health problems that make it too difficult to do day-to-day activities. This generation of mine is without hope and without health. For those who have been struck down by hopelessness, and who are now too sick to work, our “Get Britain Working” programme, combining health, skills and employment support, is rebuilding confidence. It is helping people into good jobs, and is restoring dignity, purpose and sense of community to every person and place in our nation. This Bill speaks to our governing philosophy, which is that those with the broadest shoulders should carry the heaviest load. As we have seen, we are changing our nation and rebuilding hope in our communities, our country, and indeed our democracy. We are building a country that gets better, rather than worse; where every person can get a good job; where every person can afford a decent home; and where every person can get the skills that they need, so that we can all live once again in a country where working hard means a decent life. That is what we are investing in, and that is why we are proud to raise revenue through the measure that we are debating today.

• 16 Dec 2024 · Budget 2024: Unemployment · Hansard source

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  That is incredibly kind of you, Mr Speaker. Young non-graduates are finding it far harder to get good, well-paid jobs. The number of young people not in education, employment or training has nearly doubled since 2013, and youth unemployment is at its highest rate in almost a decade because young people are not getting the skills they need. On top of that, they are becoming far sicker; one in three young people currently has a mental health problem, and that figure is rising. What are the Government and the Department doing to give young people the skills and the health support that they need to get good, well-paying jobs?

• 11 Dec 2024 · Finance Bill · Hansard source

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  In my constituency, private school fees are £15,000 per child per year. As a point of fact, almost no one in the bottom 80% sends their children to private school. Overall, it is 6%, while more than half of the top 1% send their children there. While I appreciate the hon. Lady’s point, it is not where the numbers are. The tax changes we are debating today go to the heart of our governing philosophy that those with the broadest shoulders who benefit the most can carry the heaviest load. We all benefit from roads to drive on, a healthy workforce and hospitals when we need them. Those who gain the most benefit the most, and they are the ones we will ask the most from.

• 11 Dec 2024 · Finance Bill · Hansard source

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  The point is that by ending the tax breaks for the wealthiest, we are able to raise the revenue that we need to invest in our nation’s prosperity. That is the point of the programmes that we are setting out—programmes such as “Get Britain Working”, the affordable homes programme, and the expansion of early years childcare. We need to raise that money from somewhere, which is why we are proud of the tax changes that we are making. We are creating a great nation where every single person and every single child can get a decent education and a great job and afford a decent home, and where we all know that working hard means that we can achieve a decent life. We are raising tax revenue from the wealthiest and ensuring that the broadest shoulders carry the heaviest load, so that we can build a nation where every single person thrives.

• 11 Dec 2024 · Finance Bill · Hansard source

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  Thank you very much, Madam Chair. I thank the entire House for its well wishes. I rise to speak of how our reforms will raise tax revenues from the wealthiest and use that money to build prosperity for all, because that is at the heart of our governing spirit. Building prosperity for all means creating prosperity for those who cannot afford a decent life, no matter how hard they work, including non-graduates who cannot earn enough to live and the young who cannot earn enough to afford the homes they need. Today, we are proudly raising money from those who can best afford it to create good jobs and build homes across our nation, to create an affordable life for everyone.

• 11 Dec 2024 · Finance Bill · Hansard source

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  I thank the right hon. Member for his kind words. As he will know, the Government are fixing things for those who need special education—there is a huge amount we have to fix in this country—and he should remember the VAT exemption for those with EHCPs. For those who cannot currently afford a decent life, the situation has become increasingly bleak. Non-graduates and young people are locked out of the opportunities their parents had. Before the 1980s, non-graduates could leave school and find good jobs with decent wages in their local factory. Then came deindustrialisation that destroyed mid-pay manufacturing jobs and led to a divided nation, where non-graduate men have seen their employment rates fall by 20 percentage points since then. Today, twice as many young men as young women are unemployed and we see the political shocks reverberate around us. Manufacturing jobs have been destroyed and replaced by low pay and insecure service jobs that do not pay enough to live on. A couple with two children, both on average wages, do not currently earn enough for a decent living. On top of that, young people cannot afford the homes they need. Around 40% of my generation are living with their mum and dad.

• 11 Dec 2024 · Finance Bill · Hansard source

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  I will make some progress. We are creating good jobs through our measures in the green transition and the caring economy and yes, building homes for the young to live in. Our warm homes plan will upgrade 300,000 homes and create tens of thousands of good construction jobs. Our expansion in early years childcare will see more women in work and tens of thousands more jobs. Our affordable homes programme means more homes for young people, and for those who are struck down by hopelessness—

• 11 Dec 2024 · Finance Bill · Hansard source

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  The difference in our approaches is that I do not believe in running down the state sector so people have to use the private sector to get a decent education. Half of schools do not have the specialist maths teachers they need and a third of students fail their maths GCSE. We do have a difference in our governing philosophies.

• 11 Dec 2024 · Finance Bill · Hansard source

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  By building the houses we need, we get the revenue from the tax changes we see today. Indeed, that is the entire point of our programme, in addition to the planning reforms that my hon. Friend the Member for Reading Central (Matt Rodda) referred to. From the tax revenue we raise from the measure we are debating and others, we will build a nation where every person has a stake in our society and a nation where working hard makes a difference.

• 4 Dec 2024 · Employer National Insurance Contributions · Hansard source

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  We on this side of the House will not take lectures on living standards from the party that left us with the worst squeeze on wages since Napoleon, the highest energy prices in the G7 and the highest inflation. The Conservatives left us with the worst-insulated homes and dependent on natural gas. That is why this party will invest in insulation to make us all better off in the long run.

• 3 Dec 2024 · National Insurance Contributions (Secondary Class 1 Contributions) Bill · Hansard source

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  The Government will set out exactly what the health and care budgets will be before next April, and the investment will go towards improving the health and care system that we and our loved ones rely on. All the money that is being invested in the health service, our teachers and elsewhere across the economy needs to be raised—and, yes, we are raising it from the largest employers. By increasing the employment allowance, we are protecting the smallest businesses. Half of businesses will pay the same national insurance or less. A quarter of a million of the smallest businesses will see their national insurance tax bill fall. From tax revenue, we will invest in our people and our places to ensure that they can thrive, building on public investment in our infrastructure and our services. Countries that grow the fastest are not simply those that tax the least. If all we needed to do to create prosperity was cut taxes to their lowest level, Somalia would be richer than Sweden. However, IKEA is not about to relocate to Mogadishu. The countries that grow the fastest are those that raise a return on investment. Returns are higher when businesses have the roads that they need to transport their goods, workers have the skills that they need to produce more, and all of us have cheaper electricity and well insulated homes. Those are the decisions that we have made, and were proud to make, in this Budget. Across the Atlantic, in the United States, we have seen a multi-trillion dollar investment package, which helped to deliver the fastest growth in the G7. There were new roads, new factories and new clean energy projects from Wisconsin to Wyoming. That public investment led to the fastest post-pandemic recovery in the G7, whereas we had one of the weakest. That is why, here at home, we are investing to raise returns; investing in our schools, our NHS and home insulation to make us better educated and healthier and to get energy bills down for all and for good

• 3 Dec 2024 · National Insurance Contributions (Secondary Class 1 Contributions) Bill · Hansard source

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  I entirely agree with my hon. Friend. If Opposition parties wish to criticise the tax rise on the largest businesses and the wealthiest individuals, they must set out what services they will cut and who will not get a GP appointment or the teachers that are needed. We are investing to raise returns. Investing in our schools, NHS and home insulation makes us better educated and healthier and gets energy bills down for all of us. That investment is paid for through tax revenue. The principle behind which we raise that is simple yet powerful: it is about collective contribution for collective benefit, sharing in the rebuilding of our nation and, of course, the rebuilding of hope.

• 3 Dec 2024 · National Insurance Contributions (Secondary Class 1 Contributions) Bill · Hansard source

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  Not only are we protecting the smallest businesses by raising the employment allowance, but there will be business rates relief for the hospitality businesses to which the hon. Gentleman refers.

• 3 Dec 2024 · National Insurance Contributions (Secondary Class 1 Contributions) Bill · Hansard source

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  It is the responsible decision to invest in this country’s foundation, so that we get the doctors, nurses and teachers that we all need, and to insulate our homes.

• 3 Dec 2024 · National Insurance Contributions (Secondary Class 1 Contributions) Bill · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to be called to speak in this incredibly important debate. On 30 October, the Chancellor delivered a Budget that will rebuild the foundations of our broken economy through public investment paid for by tax revenues. We are proud that those revenues will be raised from both the largest businesses and the wealthiest individuals. Public investment will be paid for by those who can best afford it, to benefit us all and make our nation more prosperous. We entered office with the worst economic inheritance since 1945, after years of under-investment—the lowest rate in the G7—years of failure, the worst fall in wages since Napoleon, and years of chaos. In 2022, we built fewer onshore wind farms in England than we had Conservative Prime Ministers. The Conservatives left our nation far weaker than they found it—a nation where 3 million people are too sick to work because one in 10 nursing jobs is unfilled; a nation where one in three young people fails maths GCSE because around half of our schools do not have the maths teachers that they need; the nation with the highest energy bills and inflation, because we have the worst-insulated homes in western Europe. That is what we were elected to change. As well as having a mandate to rebuild this nation, we were also elected to rebuild hope by creating a country that, once again, gets better rather than worse.

• 3 Dec 2024 · National Insurance Contributions (Secondary Class 1 Contributions) Bill · Hansard source

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  I politely suggest that the right hon. Gentleman should not set up a polling company, as that is not an effective sampling strategy. Deary me. Where do I start? Anyway, we are insulating our homes and hiring more nurses and teachers—and yes, we will pay those nurses and teachers enough money to keep them, because that is what responsible Governments do. All that investment needs to be paid for. That is why we are raising national insurance contributions for the largest employers, with £3 out of every £4 raised coming from the largest 2% of businesses. That will raise some £23 billion of investment that every family and business will benefit from. Crucially, we are raising that money while protecting the smallest businesses.

• 21 Nov 2024 · Transport Decarbonisation · Hansard source

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  17. What steps she is taking to decarbonise the transport sector.

• 21 Nov 2024 · Transport Decarbonisation · Hansard source

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  Transport is decarbonising more slowly than other sectors because, while car emissions have fallen by 20% since 1990, haulage emissions have barely moved. Earlier this month, my constituency hosted the East Midlands Hydrogen summit, where we saw how heavy goods vehicles can be powered through green, clean hydrogen. What steps is the Department taking, and what steps will it take, to support green hydrogen in the use of heavy goods vehicles?

• 30 Oct 2024 · Budget Resolutions · Hansard source

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  Today’s Budget is when we start to turn this country around, rebuild prosperity and rekindle the belief that things can get better. With this Budget, we begin to rebuild hope. I became an economist and then a Member of Parliament to help set Budgets in this Chamber, because what we spend, tax and invest determines our future. In my teenage years, I had the privilege of growing up under a Labour Government, and I saw great Labour Chancellors, from this Dispatch Box, deliver Budgets that built a better Britain—a Britain where wages grew, where hospitals were built and where poverty fell. More than that, I saw a Budget and the creation of a country where hope and graft were rewarded, renewed and refreshed by a Labour Government who delivered on their promises. But then I became an adult, and I grew up under a Conservative Government: a Government who cut investment and created a no-growth economy with the worst fall in wages since Napoleonic times; who cut home insulation and blocked clean energy, leaving us dependent on fossil fuels supplied by dictators like Putin; who blocked house building so that young people in my generation saw house prices soar while their wages only fell; and who cut defence and weakened our armed forces. We on the Government Benches understand that amateurs talk tactics and professionals talk logistics. That is what this Conservative Government left us with and gave us for my entire adult life—until now. Winning the last election means that this Labour Government can rebuild our nation’s prosperity and rebuild a country where wages rise and things do get better, with investment in our schools so that kids can learn more today and earn more tomorrow, investment in our NHS so that temporary illnesses do not stop us from working permanently, investment in clean energy so that we get bills down for good, investment in our police so that we can go to the shops without fear—and investment in homes for my generation; mum and dad, we love you, but it’s time for the kids to move out. Rebuilding this nation brick by brick is hard and patient work. We will not notice how each brick changes this country, as we do not notice the inches that make up a mile, but slowly, surely, certainly, as we invest in this nation, we will create a more prosperous Britain, where each of us can and will thrive. Some of us, including me, will measure that progress in numbers and graphs, but what we create will be defined by so much more: a country defined by hope and pride, where tomorrow is better than today; and a country built by a Labour Government upon Budgets delivered by a Labour Chancellor.

• 29 Oct 2024 · Energy Bills: Support for Households · Hansard source

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  This nation experienced the highest rise in energy bills of all G7 countries after Putin invaded Ukraine, because the Conservatives left us dependent on natural gas and with the worst-insulated homes in western Europe. Can the Minister assure me that we will invest in the clean energy and home insulation that we need to lower energy bills for good?

• 28 Oct 2024 · Fiscal Rules · Hansard source

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  Fiscal rules are a tool for responsibility, and we should all welcome rules that help us to act responsibly and invest responsibly. The rules and the accounting definitions that underlie them are not matters of faith, preordained by the Almighty and passed to us on stone tablets; they are there to help us make responsible decisions. Does my right hon. Friend agree with me, and with the former chief economist of the Bank of England, the OECD, the International Monetary Fund and George Osborne’s former Treasury Minister, that we should welcome changes to the fiscal rules that promote investment?