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Finance (No. 2) Bill

I recognise the Government’s intent in establishing the tax credit system. However, I am afraid that the Chancellor cannot resist the inclination to add layer upon layer of complexity to everything that he does. That is why the Government’s very worthwhile intent—I entirely accept the hon. Lady’s point on that—is being consistently undermined by what they are actually engaged in doing. I shall give the hon. Lady an example. I have a constituent who has contacted me a number of times. She is being repeatedly overpaid by the tax credit system, and she has repeatedly contacted the tax credit offices to tell them that that is happening. Their response is to say, ““We know you’re being overpaid repeatedly, but we can’t fix the system so that you will stop being overpaid repeatedly.”” That ridiculous state of affairs, of which the Government should be thoroughly ashamed, has been brought about by an over-complex system. My constituents would have been delighted to see a simplification of the tax regime in the Finance Bill. Instead, however, it is once again being made more complicated. But the situation is even worse than that. Despite the Bill’s 475 pages, 181 clauses and 25 schedules, certain measures are still missing from it, including any genuine attempt to assist first-time buyers. I am sorry to have to tell the Government that an increase in the stamp duty threshold from £120,000 to £125,000 will do precisely nothing to bring the dream of home ownership any nearer for those I represent in Rugby and Kenilworth. There is no mention in the Bill of what the Government are going to do about NHS deficits, or about restoring incentives to save for one’s retirement, which is a huge problem entirely of the Government’s own making, as my hon. Friend the Member for Gosport (Peter Viggers) has already made clear. Nor is there any mention of an extra £200 to assist pensioners, as I pointed out earlier in an intervention on the Chief Secretary. Pensioners’ need for Government support has not changed; in fact, it has grown in relation to assistance with paying their council tax. All that has happened is that the Government’s need for pensioners’ support has changed this year, compared with last year, and the Government have quite cynically removed that assistance from them. There has been no credible explanation for that decision. I agree wholeheartedly with the hon. Member for Falmouth and Camborne that the Budget presented an opportunity to assist first-time buyers, pensioners and even the NHS. It was certainly an opportunity to make the tax system and the tax benefits system simpler, and thereby more effective. In every respect, however, it was an opportunity missed.