Speeches by Davies.

“Mobilising more investment from the UK pension fund market is critical to driving regional economic growth. The Chancellor says that she is a builder, not a blocker, but her proposed builders tax threatens to drastically increase the cost of building anything from homes and roads to nuclear power stations. This will ma…”

“I am afraid that is not good enough. The industry is facing deep uncertainty around the kite flying going on across the road at the Treasury. I realise that he is not responsible for that, but he needs a better answer for the construction industry. The Construction Products Association has just cut its growth forecast …”

“Labour’s industrial strategy recognises that housing and infrastructure are vital to driving regional investment. But as I hope the Minister will know, across the road, the Treasury has been quietly consulting on changes to the landfill tax, ending the decades-long exemption for quarries. That change would add millions…”

“It is always a pleasure to see you in the Chair, Ms Vaz. I welcome the Minister to his place; it is a great appointment, and it is good to know that he comes to the position with a good deal of experience, which I know will be valuable to both officials and the House more broadly. I also welcome this opportunity, on be…”

“The Chancellor once claimed that she had a plan for fixing the foundations with infrastructure at the very heart. Now, through a consultation that the Government hoped nobody would notice, she has found a way to tax the foundations. By looking to impose a new levy on quarries, Labour could add billions of pounds more t…”

“She was told that she could not tell anybody at the NAO about the detail that she had been briefed with.”

“The first I knew about this was when it became publicly known in July of this year. The only attempt to raise this with my staff was at the time of auditing the 2023-24 accounts. My audit director was briefed that there was a secret matter that could not be shared, but it meant that there was a data breach that had not…”

“I will, Mr Speaker. What is the budget for the official receiver? The Minister has not laid out any costs. She has said that it is related to market conditions but has not set out any estimates. She knows that the Treasury will have approved estimates, so please will she set those out? The Government have made the Nati…”

“I am, Mr Speaker. Although I have lots of questions, I will ask just two very quick ones, if that is okay.”

“I am grateful to the Minister for giving me advance sight of her statement today, but here we are again: another day, another Government takeover of a key British manufacturing plant, another 1,500 jobs—1,500 people—facing an incredibly uncertain future, and the prospect of significant job losses alongside the wider ec…”

“It is becoming clear that one year in, the public still do not know what Labour is all about, and the same could be said for its so-called National Wealth Fund. Not only has the National Wealth Fund invested less equity in clean energy than before its costly £7 billion rebrand, but it is also now rightly subject to a T…”

“I think the hon. Gentleman is accusing you, Mr Vickers, rather than me. I simply say to him that increasing the threshold made a big difference to the 28,000 businesses that were taken out of registration. I encourage him to speak to businesses in his constituency that benefited from what is essentially a tax cut, in a…”

“It is always a pleasure to see you in the Chair, Mr Vickers. First, I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Mid Leicestershire (Mr Bedford) on securing this excellent debate. We arguably do not spend enough time in this place discussing small and medium-sized businesses, which account for some three fifths of empl…”

“I am delighted that the Liberal Democrats are keen to meet us and are willing to pay for it. Perhaps we can speak afterwards, but his constituents can speak to me any time. We are always available, across the country. This has been an excellent debate, with many views. It has highlighted the great importance of busines…”

“I am grateful to close this debate on behalf of His Majesty’s Official Opposition. Let me start by thanking all those who contributed and from all sides of the House, but particularly my right hon. and hon. Friends, who have highlighted so clearly the devastating impact that job losses and business closures have on fam…”

“Sacha Lord, Labour’s former night-time economy adviser, says that it is tougher for the hospitality industry today than it was even during the pandemic, but the Chancellor is ignoring his advice and pushing ahead with a cocktail of costs that the Night Time Industries Association has called a death sentence for our pub…”

“It is a great pleasure to be here, Mrs Harris. This is a relatively straightforward instrument, and I am grateful to the Minister for setting out its detail. Tackling the tax gap is critical, and I am pleased that, between 2010 and 2024—just to pick two years at random —the tax gap reduced from 6.2% to 4.8%. It is vita…”

“It is clearly in regulations rather than in primary legislation. For many decades, that system worked perfectly fine, so I do not think it is the lack of a stronger date in legislation that is the issue; it is getting more robust arrangements in place in the way that is now intended. For many years, you could count the…”

“These things should not happen, and it is extremely unusual that we have had such a cluster of these across several authorities in a few years. But once they have happened, people are going to have to just recognise reality with this. There is a moral hazard here essentially of councillors spending money they do not ha…”

“Good morning. I am Gareth Davies, the Comptroller and Auditor General at the NAO.”