Speeches by Glen.

“Can I ask you one specific question about the APR changes that you have put in? We are talking about the £3 million relief, which the Prime Minister spoke about at PMQs. Would you not accept that even if you want to target that at wealthy people who buy vast tracts of land, you could have looked at business asset roll-…”

“But they make about 1% profit. On an £8 million farm, which is not that significant, with the £3 million relief, you are still talking about £1 million. That is £100,000 a year for 10 years. Now, £100,000 a year, in terms of income for a farm, is a massive amount of money. I recognise the bigger picture, but it is not …”

“But if the denominator is a hobby farm with 3 acres, you will increase that 73% number. That does not do justice to the reality of the distribution of land, the asset price and the liquidity that will be vested by selling.”

“I understand that, and that will allow some time for planning. I recognise the distribution—I am not disputing that—but I am just questioning whether there is a more effective mechanism to capture the small proportion of large landowners who you are focusing on and who are the focus of your narrative. Your proposal wil…”

“Before I ask my questions, I would like, on behalf of my party and personally, to congratulate you on securing the position of Chancellor. Having worked for four Chancellors quite closely, I know what an exacting role it is, and whatever questions I ask, I have respect for you in getting to this position. Can I ask you…”

“Can I come back on that? I totally respect that on day one, it is unrealistic to have a thorough view of that, but those are quite stark revisions to growth expectations of the UK economy by respected sources. It will be interesting, to say the least, to secure a view from the Treasury about what those tariffs will mea…”

“I might be sympathetic to that, but is it realistic to influence a President who seems so set on a course that is so well defined?”

“I have two quick questions, one macro and one micro. If you look at the retention of the corporation tax level, the combination with the employee NICs, the overall effect of the £5 billion of the Employment Rights Bill and the effect on the national living wage, the assertion is made by some that this makes the UK look…”

“I know what he thinks. He has said it—”

“Thank you, Chair. It is a great privilege to have you here. Obviously, the OBR is a significant arbiter of truth, or is deemed to be, when we get to fiscal events. I want to ask about GDP and how you calculate what the expectation is going forward. There is a lot of controversy around that. If we look at the last four …”

“Can I probe a little bit further on that? Your assessment over the forecast period is that growth will be 0.7% lower than you did at the March event. One of the criticisms, to be fair to the Government, is that they would say that some of the supply side reforms that they envisage happening would have a positive effect…”

“Can I turn to household spending and saving and the impact that has in the near term? Obviously, with what happened after covid, savings patterns changed. Could you say something about what you think is likely to happen with savings levels? There is an indication that they might still go up, as people feel insecure. Wh…”

“So a slightly lower interest rate will mean that people will save less and spend more, and that will be good for the economy. That is the essence of what you expect.”

“I would like to turn to the dynamics with the Treasury. I must declare an interest. Until a year ago I was Chief Secretary and before that I had some other involvement in the Treasury. Clearly, as I said at the start in my first set of questions, you are set up to give a dispassionate assessment of what is true, and yo…”

“When the date of the Budget is declared.”

“That is completely aligned to my understanding and experience. I want to move you on to talk about the situation between fiscal events, before that moment is triggered. My experience as Chief Secretary was that we were always carrying a set of notional pressures across a range of Departments and they informed the dialo…”

“Yes, so this assertion—”

“I am just trying to establish—I have a lot of respect for the dynamic between the Treasury and the OBR: what I am trying to get at is how we got into a situation where an assertion is made on 29 July about a black hole, which I acknowledge is an ongoing tension that would crystallise at a fiscal event, through the proc…”

“The point I am making is that as a Minister one receives figures from Treasury officials and is aware of those tensions. The interaction between you, your officials, and Treasury officials is outwith the relationship between Ministers. This is, essentially, as you have described, a dysfunction in the smoothness of the …”

“Yes, we will.”