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AMENDMENT OF THE LAW

May I comment first on the corporation tax change? It should have been greatly welcomed, as a cut in corporation tax is something that we have called for, although I am not sure whether the 2p cut will be sufficient to give Scottish business the competitive advantage it needs in order to close the 25-year 30 per cent. growth gap with the rest of the UK. When I see that in 6two years’ time the change to capital allowances on plant and machinery will generate £2.27 billion-worth of yield, yet the corporation tax change will only generate £2.23 billion, I am not sure whether, rather, it is a case of robbing Peter to pay Paul. I welcome the additional investment of £8 billion in the pension financial assistance scheme. I will look into the detail, of course, but I very much hope that there will be enough money for it to work to assist many of my constituents who have suffered from the failure or collapse of their occupational pension schemes. We all recognise that the biggest threat that we face globally is from terrorism, so I very much welcome the increase in the security budget to £2.25 billion. I also welcome the announcement of extra money for shared equity. Again, we will have to look into it in more detail, but I hope that it will provide new affordable homes. I have been through the Red Book and cannot see any forecast future revenue from planning gain supplement. I mention that in the context of the shared equity scheme and the Budget. Many hon. Members are very worried that, if the PGS were to proceed and increase the price of land by, say, 30 per cent., even the shared equity scheme announced today might not be able to deliver the number of affordable houses that the Government may expect. I should also like to comment on the announcement to sell off the student loan debt. That will certainly generate quick revenue for the Treasury, but it is my understanding that to keep the interest rates charged to ex-students low, there will still be a cost of about £1 billion to the taxpayer. Although, as I say, it will generate some quick revenue for the Exchequer this year, there will be a long-term liability to the UK, while it does nothing, of course, to help those paying off the loans for the time being. The Budget is supposed to lay out to the House and the country the economic position in which we find ourselves, to measure the success or otherwise of economic policy and to map out the Government’s future plans, expected revenue, spending, inflation, debt and so forth. It underpins the social and economic policy that the Government intend to deliver in the year ahead. The Chancellor has set out today what he expects in terms of future investment in—and, indeed, reform of—the public sector. He talked about discipline in public sector pay, but he ignored any real assessment of the many economic reforms and savings that he has made. We now know from the National Audit Office that only £3.5 billion of the claimed £13.3 billion of savings can definitely be said to represent efficiencies. Some of the rest may, but the NAO says that more than £3 billion of those savings do not demonstrate efficiency or may be substantially incorrect. In previous Budgets, the Chancellor has spoken more about his reform of the public sector, particularly the loss of jobs. That was not mentioned at all today and I wonder whether the balance has been struck correctly in terms of losing jobs. For example, at the moment HMRC currently has a million pieces of unopened mail and has spent £160 million on agency staff to cover some of the manpower gaps that appear to exist.