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Finance Bill

It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Altrincham and Sale, West (Mr. Brady). The top priority of the Budget was to ensure the country's economic stability not only for today but for tomorrow and into the future. The Budget sets out a number of measures to support the economy and families while preparing the nation to meet all the challenges of the future. Those challenges and the steps taken to deal with them include tackling child poverty by increasing housing benefit disregard, child benefit and child tax credit; promoting enterprise by improving access to finance; improving access to housing though more shared equity for key workers and first-time buyers; and tackling climate change by increasing incentives to go green. After the Budget debates, the official Opposition voted specifically against measures on alcohol duty and vehicle excise duty. By voting against those measures, they voted against the funding that enables the increases in child tax credit and child benefit, as well as the extra winter fuel payment for this year.