Speeches by Dean.

“Over the last few weeks, there has been a national debate raging that, so far, this place has been pretty silent on. It is on the matter of student loans. I know what some on the Government Benches may be thinking, but I am not prepared to duck difficult subjects. Let us face it: the student loans system has changed be…”

“The next package of reliefs is due to run out around about the same time that the rateable values will change again. It also happens to be around election year. Are you not going to have exactly the same problem again in a few years’ time?”

“There will probably always be a point to coming up with specific reliefs to cover the kinds of circumstances that you raised, but it is not just those specific reliefs in place. For a long time, we had the covid reliefs, which had to be extended, partly because we were worried about the impact that not doing so would h…”

“You mentioned the confusion for pubs, and that they did not realise quite what the effect was going to be. I think part of your answer explains why: there are so many different layers to how you calculate your bills. The rhetoric from the Government before the Budget made it sound to businesses like their bills might g…”

“But it does mean that if you have two pubs in a similar postcode of a similar size and one is performing better than the other, the one that is performing better gets taxed more as a result. That could disincentivise pubs from investing in their businesses and coming up with clever ways of generating more revenue, and …”

“But it is incremental, so it is no longer the Government’s intention to replace the system. As you said, when you first got into office, there was a consultation period on a change, and a change has happened. You have now said that you are starting another consultation period on a change. We are just trying to get a se…”

“But that is iterative reform, and you stated in your manifesto that you were going to replace the system. What did the Labour party have in mind when it wrote that line in the manifesto? Was there an idea of a system that you wanted to move towards, and did you decide to abandon that after getting into office for any p…”

“Minister, can I just get clarity? The Labour manifesto stated very clearly that “Labour will replace the business rates system”. When I asked your predecessor, the Member for Ealing North, about this, when he was in front of the Committee around this time last year, he said that you were going to “keep reforming…over t…”

“Obviously, money comes out of the state via housing benefits to private landlords at the moment, at scale. If you take that into account plus the rental income you could receive from a social housing tenant, does that get taken into consideration when you think about how much capacity local authorities should have to b…”

“I just wanted to touch on the point you made about how we have never really built at scale without the support of local authorities building directly. I wonder if you could help me to step back a bit. If you look at it from a whole-of-state perspective, the maths is very clear. Let us say it costs—I am making these fig…”

“I will give up my now.”

“Can you give us timescales for when we will hear?”

“Minister Pennycook, can I press you on some of the principles, although I know that you have the details to work out. Will up-front information be an outcome of this? What about having legally binding agreements at offer stage?”

“Minister Pennycook, last summer I wrote to you about the buying and selling process. I promise it was not just because I was going through hell myself; constituents had also written to me about the issue. You launched a consultation last autumn, which is closed now. Have you analysed the results? What feedback can you …”

“Is that because of the fiscal point that you just mentioned? Obviously, the interest often comes out of the day-to-day revenue expenditure of a local authority. A lot of them are carrying deficits in their HRA, because of all the increases in maintenance and building safety, and so on. Are those existing debts what is …”

“Minister Pennycook, do you have anything to add?”

“My hon. Friend is talking about the importance of research and the low survival rates. This is, of course, a global problem and a global battle, but Britain has a unique opportunity to lead on this. Just last week, a £1 billion project was approved at the London Cancer Hub, centring around the Institute of Cancer Resea…”

“Are there any other jurisdictions or countries that are getting them to act? Have they done something differently that we could look to, that you are aware of?”

“I did not ask whether you knew. I asked whether you would like to see it in there. Those firms have been reactive to date, and it is quite hard to get them to act. Would a financial incentive, in your opinion, be something that would make them act?”

“I just want to come on to this point. I have a habit of asking about this. The fraud strategy is on its way. One of the things that was rumoured to be contained within it was a financial incentive for the big tech firms to act—for example, a penalty that can be applied if they do not clean up or act fast enough to deal…”