Speeches by Yang.

“3. What steps he is taking to improve relations with the EU.”

“The inflation figures out yesterday show that despite the Government’s good progress on energy prices, food inflation remains stubbornly high. Even the price of a Tesco meal deal is stuck at £4.25. The Government need to make food and life more affordable, so will the Minister update us on his negotiations over agrifoo…”

“Earlier this week, my team and I secured a £12,000 refund from Thames Water for one of my constituents whose pipes had been left to leak for almost half a year. Half a year ago, when I first met Thames Water bosses, I asked them to explain how they would be using higher bills to pay for better pipes and infrastructure …”

“So there was no FPC view on this overall?”

“In your report, you write that there are still pockets of vulnerability when it comes to UK corporate debt among SMEs and highly leveraged corporates, including private equity-backed businesses. I was wondering whether one of the external members might want to describe what particular concerns they may have concerning …”

“That assessment is one that applies generally to the issues facing those highly leveraged companies at any point in time. I was wondering whether there are particular vulnerabilities that you see facing SMEs and private equity backed businesses right now in 2026.”

“Is your assessment that you do not think supply is an issue right now?”

“Was your concern at the time about the active sales and the rate of absorption? Is that what you are saying?”

“At the micro level, you think that banks could react to your reduction in the capital requirement by increasing lending to productive parts of the economy and therefore boosting growth?”

“I was wondering whether any other members of the panel had any concerns about this lowering of the capital requirements.”

“Sir Dave, just to go back to your letter; you mentioned that the decision to cut its benchmark should make banks feel more comfortable to deploy the capital they have and support growth in the future. I was wondering whether this measure came about primarily as a result of a search for measures to increase growth or, a…”

“Thank you. Mr Hall, do you have any other thoughts on this?”

“So the FPC was consulted but did not give a recommendation?”

“Mr Bailey, we have just looked at the decision that the FPC made to lower the capital requirements of its risk-weighted assets from 14% to 13%, and I thank Sir Dave for writing to the Committee describing the possible monetary policy impacts of that decision. I was wondering how you respond to the concerns voiced by yo…”

“To finish on my favourite topic, quantitative tightening; as you know, since we last met, the MPC has cut the annual pace of quantitative tightening overall from £100 billion to £70 billion a year while at the same time increasing active sales of gilts. Ms Oakes, do you think this overall package will improve gilt mark…”

“What falls into the latter category of being less modern? What examples of that are there?”

“Does that mean that you will be revaluing or updating the valuation of a large number of houses outside of that £2 million range in order to find the range? If so, is there a kind of threshold or a number of houses that you are planning to update the valuations of?”

“So KAI already links that tax data to Companies House data within that.”

“Mr Athow, I wanted to ask about the knowledge analysis and intelligence division, which is the research division within your directorate, which has recently commissioned Ipsos to better understand people who both own and manage their company, so company owner‑managers. It seems to me that, through doing this wor…”

“Are there any reliefs that you have evaluated and feel have little or low value for money?”