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Finance Bill

I welcome my right hon. Friend's support for the overall Budget and the fact that he is not asking the Government to reopen the Budget. I hope that he will understand quite how impractical that would be when people already have their tax codes for this year and are already paying tax and benefiting from tax credits as part of this year's proposals. He will also recognise that tax changes are part of a major package and that it is not always possible to help everybody in any one package; even those who may end up paying more as a result of this package will still be significantly better off on average than under the Conservatives' package of 1997. I would also say to my right hon. Friend that the Chancellor has said that it is his intention to return to this issue in future Budgets and the pre-Budget report and that he wants to look further into what we can do for those on the lowest incomes, just as we have in previous Budgets. That is why we have already made proposals for additional money to help those over 60 this year with winter fuel payments and also why we have provided further help with child tax credit and child benefit. Those will be part of a major programme of work that we shall be taking forward... Will hon. Members allow me to complete one more paragraph of my speech, after which I will be happy to take as many interventions as they wish? In the Budget report, we announced that we would begin a new programme of work on the next phase of tackling child poverty. We said that we would work with stakeholders, launching seminars and debates over the next few months, and begin pilot programmes on new approaches to help more children out of poverty. I can tell the House that we will now extend that work to include consideration of households on low incomes without children. Many without children have already benefited from things such as minimum wage increases and the working tax credit, but we want, as always, to do more for those on the lowest incomes, given the resources in the economy at the time. We will therefore consult stakeholders, MPs and different groups on the next phase of tackling poverty and unfair inequality in Britain. That work will initially feed into the pre-Budget report and then future Budgets as well.