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Finance (No. 2) Bill

That is a helpful intervention, which speaks for itself. The scheme was universally approved by the outside world, including all the stakeholders—to use the Government’s word. Although consensus is normally a cause for some concern, it is occasionally right. Those who provided the equipment, those who used it, the trade unions, the CBI—indeed, everyone—believed that the scheme was good and an excellent example of an effective Government-private partnership. Alas, the evil that the Chancellor has done by abolishing the excellent scheme will live on. Jobs will be lost. There is an HCI industry and companies had invested large sums of money in developing marketing initiatives, in the expectation that it would run for at least an extra two years. One of the questions that I tabled to the Chancellor, to which I have received no reply after more than a month, asked why it has been abolished sooner than anticipated. Large amounts of investment were made on the back of an assurance that the scheme was important and that the Government were committed to it.