Speeches by Murphy.

“I have a question about the significance threshold on policies. Do you only ever assess what the Government put in front of you, or do you have a basket of measures, as it were, or a range of different types of policy, that you publish, and that you could show make the biggest difference in terms of enhancing growth? H…”

“So that number on the EV forecast could change, in the negative, if Government were to freeze fuel duty?”

“Having spent the past 18 months arguing that this Government have mismanaged the public finances, the Conservatives have now come to the House to argue that the public finances are fine after all. Their position is patently absurd. Due to the OBR’s productivity downgrade, which was a direct result of the Conservative G…”

“Will the Minister give way?”

“Kate Willis, you talked earlier about the principles of stamp duty; one of them was around the acceptability of taxation. Is one of the issues with council tax the fact that we cannot make up our minds whether it is a consumption tax, a property tax or a services tax? How much do you think that feeds into its acceptabi…”

“Should any reform take any account of someone’s income, as the current system does in some ways? What deferral mechanisms would you put in place given the income challenge for someone paying an annual rate?”

“Can I ask about who should be levying the tax? I understand that in other countries it might be collected nationally but levied locally. Should we accept a lot of variation in council tax if we are allowing it to be set locally? I appreciate that you have a particular proposal, but I am interested in who should be levy…”

“And the cause of the defeat of a great Prime Minister. What measures would you put in place to smooth the introduction of a new system, given the difficulties, and given the international experience that shows reform is not uniquely difficult to the UK?”

“I should have declared earlier that I am an unpaid member of the independent Housing Policy and Delivery Oversight Committee, which does work on taxation. Professor Leunig, you are right in that I think William Waldegrave said that he made one of the most tedious subjects so interesting that it became the cause of wide…”

“Professor Leunig, I want to pick up on a proposal that John Muellbauer has made on this exact issue: that if you have just moved and paid stamp duty, the Government could offer a tax credit against future annual property tax liabilities. Is that something you have considered as a mechanism?”

“I thank the Minister for her answer. I have heard, from several constituents who are victims of domestic abuse, how the delays in the family court that were inherited from the previous Government, particularly for financial settlement orders, have compounded the traumatic experience and included ongoing financial harm …”

“22. What steps he is taking to help tackle court backlogs.”

“Do you, like Alex, have a suggested increase for Scotland?”

“Alex, you already referred to the transmission impact assessment threshold and how that needs to be increased. Maybe the panel could say a bit more about how that threshold impacts the financial viability of projects. What difference has the recent increase made and what further difference would an additional increase …”

“On that point, because I was going to ask anyway—I will bring Calum in in a second—if I am sat in Government, either in Scotland or in Westminster, what do you think the resistance is to maybe increasing it from five to 10 or 12? What is the barrier you are coming up against in terms of increasing it further? What do y…”

“Alex, you already referred to the transmission impact assessment threshold and how that needs to be increased. Maybe the panel could say a bit more about how that threshold impacts the financial viability of projects. What difference has the recent increase made and what further difference would an additional increase …”

“Do you, like Alex, have a suggested increase for Scotland?”

“On that point, because I was going to ask anyway—I will bring Calum in in a second—if I am sat in Government, either in Scotland or in Westminster, what do you think the resistance is to maybe increasing it from five to 10 or 12? What is the barrier you are coming up against in terms of increasing it further? What do y…”

“And on the standing charge?”

“Are you suggesting that it is making excessive profits under that price control?”