Speeches by Glen.

“That was nearly 30 years ago. We have seen youth unemployment at record levels now, in these first 20 months of your Government.”

“Of course. Can I ask one last question on fuel duty? You have postponed the removal of the freeze until September. We have had 15 years of freezes. You will talk about, as you did yesterday, what you inherited and that deferred choice, but it was not in any Finance Bill. In the context—obviously, Governments respond to…”

“I want to home in on this. You have acknowledged that youth unemployment is disproportionate to other levels of unemployment.”

“I am just not clear what you think is going to get those people into employment in the first place, and what is going to persuade employers, given the context that now exists for them, to make the decision to employ people.”

“I do not really disagree with any of that, but my point is that there is rapid change. People are saying that in two years call centres will not exist. There could be significant segments, both geographically and across the age distribution, of jobs that do not exist. Can you give us any more information about what the…”

“Never trust them!”

“Given that the Chancellor has pencilled in 0.3% real-terms growth in public spending in 2029-30, and assuming that health spending is at its historical average, the special educational needs and disabilities spend is as per the proposals, and defence is at 3%, that will leave a 2.5% real-terms cut in unprotected Depart…”

“5. Whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of the Office for Budget Responsibility's growth projections for 2026 on future departmental spending levels.”

“Given that it was promised at the start of June last year, when will the Chancellor sign off on the defence investment plan?”

“Given the progress made by the Infected Blood Compensation Authority, will the Paymaster General update the House? Over £140 million has been spent by the inquiry. Has he had any conversations with Sir Brian Langstaff on when will be the right time to close down that inquiry, and whether he has wider lessons about the …”

“Recently I have been meeting firefighters in Wilton, and last night I met Andy Cole, the chief fire officer for Wiltshire and Dorset. Eight of our 50 fire stations in those two counties face closure, despite them making £15 million of annual savings since 2016. At the core of the issue, it seems, are the assumptions ab…”

“I think most people watching would understand that you have to price risk. In previous sessions, your representatives and peers talked about how AI and machine learning are being used in pricing and underwriting, with some controls, such as human, in the loop and pricing ethics oversight. However, there remains an anxi…”

“Before I ask my question, Chair, let me say that I neglected to declare that I am a member of the Financial Inclusion Commission and I co-chair the APPG on financial education for young people—sorry about that. Can I turn to the issue of support for savings and what is going on? If we look at the strategy, it focuses o…”

“Since 9 February, I have been a non-executive director of Open Banking Ltd.”

“On that point, when you think about your lending criteria, how do you accommodate the insight that you have just given us with the imperative of finding a savings buffer with what you lend? Those two things are quite important to put together.”

“In principle, going back to the auto-enrolment of contents insurance, it is the obvious solution. It does not cost very much, because the housing association covers the building. If the insurers are prepared to offer the product, there must be a disconnect. I recognise that you do not want to reveal what is going on in…”

“Can I address the Chair’s example? I seem to remember that in previous sessions, one of the issues was whether a housing association could put together collective insurance for multiple residents and almost auto-enrol people into it. One of the issues was the responsibility that would then apparently fall to that housi…”

“Yes, I am.”

“Isn’t there a contradiction here with the profit imperative? Maybe it is somewhat different at Nationwide. The members of your sector can sell credit. At the same time, the savings gap in this country—the lack of a savings buffer—has been bad for a long time. There will be some that look at this and think that, unless …”

“Mr Singh, how would you respond to that?”