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Finance (No. 3) Bill

There are a range of reasons for those proposals. As part of the Government's proposals to cut public spending across the board, there are major cuts which are unfairly hitting the north-east and other regions. I mention these issues because in the Minister's justification for the reduction in corporation tax in the Budget proposals, he said that the Government were doing that in order to raise the level of private sector investment to attract businesses to the United Kingdom and keep them here through the corporation tax regime. Clause 4 provides the framework for generating growth in the private sector at a time when we face the loss of a possible 500,000 jobs in the public sector and great pressure on private sector industry.