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AMENDMENT OF THE LAW

Let me get through the rest of my list, as that may save a number of interventions. Is it true that the UK’s structural budget deficit is, at 2.6 per cent., the largest of all the major EU countries? Is it higher than Italy’s structural deficit? Is real take-home pay falling? If we take the increase in the retail price index to be 4.4 or 4.6 per cent. and say that average earnings, excluding bonuses, rose by 3.7 per cent., is that a fall in real pay? The Government claim that the 3 per cent. rise in the prescription charge is less than the rate of inflation, but pay for nurses is going up by 1.9 per cent.—less than the rise in the prescription charge. Is that correct? How will that affect nurses’ take-home pay in the forthcoming year? What is the forecast for that? When a Treasury Minister next stands at the Dispatch Box, will he say how business investment as a proportion of GDP last year compared with the figure for 10 years ago? Is the present level the lowest on record? Was last year’s 5 per cent. savings ratio half of what it was in 1997? I am willing to praise the Chancellor for some of the good things that he may have done, and it is clear that the hon. Member for Newcastle-under-Lyme (Paul Farrelly) would like to join me in asking for the whole picture. There are some things for which the Chancellor does not take credit, or even mention. That sort of selection is normal and natural, but it reveals the right hon. Gentleman to be an ordinary Chancellor, and not an extraordinary one. If I were to try to come up with something for his economic gravestone, I might say that his RIP was the RPI. Is it right that the trade deficit is set to rise to £60 billion, the highest on record? Is it right that there are a million more people in this country who are not in education, employment or training than there were in 1997? The Chancellor talks about the increase in employment, but how many of the people involved were not in this country 10 years ago? They may have come here to take advantage of economic opportunities. If so, they contribute to our economy, but they do not offset the number of people out of work and not in training. The Chancellor deserves praise for what he said about child benefit. I have long argued that the best way to help people when they have children is to make sure that they have money, resources or cash. It is important that those resources goes to families and households with children, regardless of whether there are two people earning, and of whether there are two adults present. Child endowment is one of the most important functions of Government. We spend a lot of time arguing about appropriate levels of pension or state benefit income for people in retirement, and it is right that we do—but most retired people have at least had an opportunity during their lives to earn money or to put some by, through growing pension entitlements. Children cannot do that; the law does not allow them to, and their age prevents them. We must make sure that people who have children can give them a decent standard of living. That matters a great deal, but we will never be able to ensure that every working person can earn enough at work to support children. Conventionally, child benefit comes in when a family goes from having two incomes and two mouths to feed, to one income and three mouths to feed. Arguments will continue about the appropriate levels of working families tax credits, or other benefits, but I have always believed that child benefit should be the centrepiece of the system. I learned that from the writing and campaigning of Eleanor Rathbone, and from the work of Sir Brandon Rhys-Williams, a former colleague in this House. The Chancellor did not mention local government finance. When we consider the burden of taxation on people we have to include the amount of council tax they pay. Whether the Lyons review has not produced the result the Government wanted, or whether there are awkward decisions to be taken and difficult approaches to identify, is not for me to say. However, until we can look at the overall taxation burden we cannot look at equity and fair distribution over the life cycle between different income groups and owners of different asset classes. I hope that my party will find a way to make sure that local government has a buoyant source of income—perhaps even a set of buoyant sources. Central Government benefit from rises in revenue from value added tax, excise duties, income tax and national insurance, including fiscal drag as the economy and incomes grow. Local government does not. Until local government can expect a share of economic growth, with more money and more spending decisions, and a variety of income sources, there will continue to be tensions between central Government and local government, and between local government and taxpayers. We need to move forward from that situation.