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Opposition day on Monday, 2 February 2009, in the House of Commons, led by Vincent Cable. The answering member was Stephen Timms.

Government Capital Expenditure

Government capital expenditure. Third Opposition day (part 1). Motion negatived on division (229 to 44). Amendment agreed on question.

Secondary information

Type
Parliamentary proceeding
Reference
487 c593-631 
Session
2008-09
Department
Treasury
Chamber / Committee
House of Commons chamber
Proceeding contributions
David Gauke | 487 c618 (Link to this contribution) I ought to press on as this is a curtailed debate, but the hon. Gentleman has asked so nicely.
Tom Harris | 487 c618 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful. The hon. Gentleman has explained in careful detail what his party is against. The onl...
Show all contributions (131)
David Gauke | 487 c618 (Link to this contribution) I should be grateful if my hon. Friend let me proceed. Very well, I give way.
Graham Stuart | 487 c618-9 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to my hon. Friend. It is an extraordinary position, is it not, that the Labour Governm...
David Gauke | 487 c618 (Link to this contribution) We have set out a series of policies to help small businesses, such as a VAT deferral, which the Gov...
David Gauke | 487 c619-20 (Link to this contribution) I am sorry I missed that one, so I am grateful to my hon. Friend for highlighting it. Let me match t...
Ian McCartney | 487 c620-2 (Link to this contribution) I support my right hon. and hon. Friends on the Front Bench. Irrespective of the crisis that we face...
David Gauke | 487 c619 (Link to this contribution) I agree with that intervention. It appears that this is a Labour Government in reverse. Normally the...
Philip Dunne | 487 c619 (Link to this contribution) On public spending, does my hon. Friend recognise this critique of the relevance of public spending,...
David Gauke | 487 c617 (Link to this contribution) I do not agree with the hon. Gentleman, but I will not get into a lengthy debate with him. I appreci...
Mark Hendrick | 487 c617 (Link to this contribution) If the hon. Gentleman agrees with the International Monetary Fund that the recession will hit this c...
David Gauke | 487 c617 (Link to this contribution) Essentially, we have a credit crunch and a monetary problem, and we believe that we should focus on ...
Angela Eagle | 487 c617 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman claims that the Opposition believe that the problem is monetary, and strongly imp...
David Gauke | 487 c617 (Link to this contribution) We have been asking for a national loan guarantee scheme, which will get lending going again and hel...
Vincent Cable | 487 c617 (Link to this contribution) Let me follow up the Exchequer Secretary's question. I agree that monetary expansion is an important...
David Gauke | 487 c617 (Link to this contribution) Our position on quantitative easing is that it is the last resort. We have consistently said that it...
Baroness Kramer | 487 c617-8 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman is generous in giving way. Does not he agree that, at least in my constituency, b...
David Gauke | 487 c618 (Link to this contribution) There is an issue about greater transparency in the banking system—I agree with the hon. Lady to tha...
Tom Harris | 487 c618 (Link to this contribution) Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
Paul Burstow | 487 c629 (Link to this contribution) claimed to move the closure (Standing Order No. 36). Question put forthwith, That the question be n...
Bob Russell | 487 c622 (Link to this contribution) The debate has been global and national, with interventions of a constituency nature. I shall make s...
Lord Tyrie | 487 c623 (Link to this contribution) I shall be brief. I do not know how long the winding-up speeches are going to be, but I am sure that...
Angela Eagle | 487 c627 (Link to this contribution) We have had a short but interesting debate this evening, and I would like to deal with some of the i...
Bob Russell | 487 c627 (Link to this contribution) To mention just one of the many examples that have been given on the Floor of the House in this deba...
Angela Eagle | 487 c627-8 (Link to this contribution) There is no freeze to the capital programme for further education expenditure, and there is no quest...
Lord Tyrie | 487 c623 (Link to this contribution) If that was not the case, I would be grateful if she clarified exactly what she did say.
Angela Eagle | 487 c623 (Link to this contribution) I was asking the hon. Member for South-West Hertfordshire (Mr. Gauke) a question about monetary poli...
Lord Tyrie | 487 c623-4 (Link to this contribution) I think that the hon. Lady is labouring under a massive misapprehension about monetary policy and th...
Baroness Teather | 487 c624-7 (Link to this contribution) This has been an interesting, albeit short debate. I am aware that I have very little time to wind u...
Vincent Cable | 487 c598-9 (Link to this contribution) I do not think that that is the right way to approach the problem. There is a great difference betwe...
Vincent Cable | 487 c598 (Link to this contribution) Although £12 billion is a lot of money, the Government's fiscal stimulus is not large in terms of th...
Lord Tyrie | 487 c598 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman is very thoughtful on these subjects. Can he now say what is Liberal Democrat par...
Vincent Cable | 487 c597-8 (Link to this contribution) Unlike Treasury Ministers, the Scottish nationalists are not here to answer for themselves, but we s...
Lord Tyrie | 487 c598 (Link to this contribution) I wonder whether the hon. Gentleman could give us a clear indication of the size of the fiscal stimu...
Danny Alexander | 487 c597 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend is right about everything he says, but is he aware that in Scotland the situation has...
Vincent Cable | 487 c596-7 (Link to this contribution) The idea of getting the councils in to talk to the Government about what can be done is right. It sh...
Julia Goldsworthy | 487 c597 (Link to this contribution) Does my hon. Friend agree that a key barrier preventing many councils from investing in more social ...
Simon Hughes | 487 c596 (Link to this contribution) Over the past couple of weeks, Ministers, including the Prime Minister, have accepted the case that ...
John Hayes | 487 c595 (Link to this contribution) The only explanation for the circumstances that the hon. Gentleman describes is either that the Lear...
Vincent Cable | 487 c595-6 (Link to this contribution) I do not know the answer. The Financial Secretary is here and I am happy to take an intervention fro...
Nicholas Winterton | 487 c596 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman is advancing a sound case. Does he believe that because of the seriousness of the...
Vincent Cable | 487 c596 (Link to this contribution) I am certainly up for constructive discussions. I was last invited into the Treasury in October. I a...
Paul Burstow | 487 c594 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend is talking about the absolute importance of fiscal stimulus through capital investmen...
Vincent Cable | 487 c594-5 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend makes a good point that I shall develop later. He is absolutely right that in the cur...
Annette Brooke | 487 c595 (Link to this contribution) I visited Bournemouth and Poole college on Friday to learn that a project of £150 million had to be ...
Vincent Cable | 487 c595 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend makes her point well. Indeed, hon. Members of all parties made similar points last Th...
Speaker | 487 c593 (Link to this contribution) I inform the House that I have selected the amendments in the name of the Prime Minister for both de...
Vincent Cable | 487 c593-4 (Link to this contribution) I beg to move,"That this House notes that the International Monetary Fund believes that the UK will ...
Stephen Timms | 487 c606 (Link to this contribution) I am not sure what data the hon. Gentleman is referring to, but I can tell him that sustained invest...
Chris Huhne | 487 c605 (Link to this contribution) Given the case the Minister is making, is he as concerned as I am that the net worth of the UK publi...
Stephen Timms | 487 c606 (Link to this contribution) I will come to that point. There certainly is a challenging market environment for private finance i...
Paul Burstow | 487 c606 (Link to this contribution) Will the right hon. Gentleman respond to a question I earlier asked my hon. Friend the Member for Tw...
Stephen Timms | 487 c605 (Link to this contribution) I will gladly give way to the hon. Gentleman in a few moments, after I have made a little progress. ...
Stephen Timms | 487 c605 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend is absolutely right, of course, and I can tell him that every G7 country apart from C...
Rob Marris | 487 c605 (Link to this contribution) Does my right hon. Friend also recall that under the last Conservative Government of 1992-97, with t...
Stephen Timms | 487 c606-7 (Link to this contribution) No. I agree with the Prime Minister's assessment and there are two reasons: first, as we have alread...
Graham Stuart | 487 c606 (Link to this contribution) Does the Minister share my view that the Prime Minister was wrong to suggest that the UK was uniquel...
Richard Younger-Ross | 487 c607 (Link to this contribution) The Minister is exactly right in his point that the circumstance is unique and that the recession is...
Mark Hendrick | 487 c604 (Link to this contribution) My right hon. Friend will be aware that Joseph Stiglitz chairs a UN commission looking into the fina...
Stephen Timms | 487 c604 (Link to this contribution) Indeed, I have just named Joseph Stiglitz, who made the point that Britain did the right thing when ...
Lord Tyrie | 487 c604 (Link to this contribution) The right hon. Gentleman began by saying that Labour brought in fiscal rules to introduce fiscal dis...
Stephen Timms | 487 c603-4 (Link to this contribution) I beg to move an amendment, to leave out from ““House”” to end and add:"““notes the substantial inve...
Vincent Cable | 487 c603 (Link to this contribution) I do not think that the hon. Gentleman will find any of those siren voices on the Liberal Democrat B...
Stephen Timms | 487 c605 (Link to this contribution) I hope that the hon. Gentleman also noticed what the IFS said about the effectiveness of the VAT cut...
David Gauke | 487 c604 (Link to this contribution) The Minister has boasted about the Government's record on public finances since 1997. Is he aware of...
Stephen Timms | 487 c604 (Link to this contribution) We must certainly reflect on the interests of developing countries and the developments within them,...
John Bercow | 487 c600 (Link to this contribution) The motion before the House, and the hon. Gentleman's speech, are properly focused on capital expend...
Chris Huhne | 487 c601 (Link to this contribution) Is my hon. Friend as astonished as I am at the surprise that Conservative and Labour Members are sho...
Vincent Cable | 487 c600-1 (Link to this contribution) There are many ways of stimulating spending, and to be frank, the one that the hon. Gentleman sugges...
Richard Younger-Ross | 487 c601 (Link to this contribution) Does my hon. Friend agree that if some long-overdue infrastructure projects, such as the dualling of...
Vincent Cable | 487 c601 (Link to this contribution) That is certainly right, and of course although the Germans were prayed in aid a few weeks ago in ar...
Andrew Love | 487 c601 (Link to this contribution) I have some sympathy for the argument that if shifting forward investment creates a problem a year o...
Vincent Cable | 487 c601 (Link to this contribution) My colleague will have heard me say a few moments ago that the south-west councils have already expr...
Kelvin Hopkins | 487 c602 (Link to this contribution) Deficits have two factors: spending and income. Our problem has been a failure to collect the taxes ...
Vincent Cable | 487 c601-2 (Link to this contribution) Of course, any responsible person has to worry about that risk, which, although probably not large, ...
Vincent Cable | 487 c602-3 (Link to this contribution) If the hon. Gentleman reads my article tomorrow morning in his favourite newspaper, he will discover...
Vincent Cable | 487 c599 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman knows perfectly well that when the Treasury evaluates a project, it takes account...
Rob Marris | 487 c599 (Link to this contribution) I am intrigued by what the hon. Gentleman is saying. I think that there is a need to build hundreds ...
Vincent Cable | 487 c599 (Link to this contribution) Why have an artificial cap on sensible public investment that produces a return to society? It shoul...
Vincent Cable | 487 c600 (Link to this contribution) There may be a subsidy, which of course has to be weighed against other elements of current spending...
Vincent Cable | 487 c599-600 (Link to this contribution) I thought that I had just answered that. If we can sustain that level of public investment, it will ...
Graham Stuart | 487 c599 (Link to this contribution) For those of us who are less economically capable than the hon. Gentleman, can he give us a rough gu...
Vincent Cable | 487 c600 (Link to this contribution) I am baffled that the Minister—or, indeed, the IFS, if that is what it said—thinks that the VAT cut ...
Stephen Timms | 487 c600 (Link to this contribution) I am listening with interest to what the hon. Gentleman is saying. He talked about the International...
Chris Huhne | 487 c616 (Link to this contribution) Will the hon. Gentleman give way on that point?
David Gauke | 487 c616 (Link to this contribution) I shall. I know that the hon. Gentleman is very keen to be shadow economic spokesman, and I shall gi...
Chris Huhne | 487 c616-7;487 c617 (Link to this contribution) I am certainly not keen to be shadow economic spokesman; I cannot imagine anybody doing the job bett...
David Gauke | 487 c615-6 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman always cautions gently. I say to him that there are different circumstances in di...
David Gauke | 487 c616 (Link to this contribution) I will give way, but I shall just make this point. The hon. Member for Twickenham mentioned the stru...
Chris Huhne | 487 c616 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for giving way again. His case on the detail of the UK public fi...
David Gauke | 487 c616 (Link to this contribution) The US has a reserve currency; it does not have the same risk of a run on its currency as the UK doe...
Chris Huhne | 487 c615 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman is describing the evolution of our policy over a period that has seen a dramatic ...
David Gauke | 487 c615 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for noting our consistency. I have to say that there has been a ...
Baroness Featherstone | 487 c614 (Link to this contribution) Does the hon. Gentleman not agree that binge spending on identity cards would be a waste of Governme...
David Gauke | 487 c614-5 (Link to this contribution) Yes, I do agree with the hon. Lady, and if the Liberal Democrats' policy is simply to identify waste...
Bob Russell | 487 c614 (Link to this contribution) Irrespective of the merits of capital expenditure, does the hon. Gentleman agree that if there is to...
David Gauke | 487 c614 (Link to this contribution) There is always an argument for considering existing infrastructure and not demolishing it if it wou...
Stephen Timms | 487 c612-3 (Link to this contribution) As my hon. Friend knows, we will set out new forecasts at the time of the Budget, and of course we w...
David Gauke | 487 c613-4 (Link to this contribution) It is a pleasure to speak in this debate. The Liberal Democrats have proposed an interesting motion,...
Rob Marris | 487 c615 (Link to this contribution) May I gently caution the hon. Gentleman? In late November, there existed a Government who were again...
David Gauke | 487 c615 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman is making the Keynesian, expansionary argument, and I will address that. I merely...
Vincent Cable | 487 c615 (Link to this contribution) Has the hon. Gentleman not yet understood the central point that lies behind the interventions by al...
Joan Walley | 487 c610 (Link to this contribution) Will my right hon. Friend tell the House a little bit about how the Treasury is working with other D...
Stephen Timms | 487 c610 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend is absolutely right about the importance of the Treasury and all the Departments affe...
Julia Goldsworthy | 487 c610 (Link to this contribution) In an earlier intervention, co-operation between the Treasury and other Departments was mentioned. W...
Stephen Timms | 487 c610 (Link to this contribution) I am not sure which programme the hon. Lady means. If she will drop me a line, I shall be happy to t...
Mark Hendrick | 487 c611 (Link to this contribution) I join my right hon. Friend in congratulating Eaga Partnership on the excellent performance of the W...
Stephen Timms | 487 c611 (Link to this contribution) As my hon. Friend knows, our right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities a...
Alistair Burt | 487 c611 (Link to this contribution) The Minister must be careful in his choice of words. He is giving the impression that the hold-ups e...
Stephen Timms | 487 c611 (Link to this contribution) I think we have all had some experience of what a freeze is like today! As I said, a great many pro...
Andrew Love | 487 c612 (Link to this contribution) My right hon. Friend mentioned the upturn and when it will come. The recent evidence from the IMF an...
Stephen Timms | 487 c612 (Link to this contribution) As the hon. Lady knows, Andrew Foster has been brought in to look at those issues and he will report...
Stephen Timms | 487 c609 (Link to this contribution) Indeed, and I think that the total amount of transport investment being brought forward is about £70...
Bob Russell | 487 c609 (Link to this contribution) The debate is about capital expenditure during the recession. Does the right hon. Gentleman agree th...
Stephen Timms | 487 c607 (Link to this contribution) I am suggesting that the world economy is facing a situation that is certainly the worst in decades—...
Rob Marris | 487 c607 (Link to this contribution) Will my right hon. Friend take this opportunity, verbally, to give the bankers a kicking? Around the...
Stephen Timms | 487 c607 (Link to this contribution) I largely agree, which is why we have taken the measures that I shall be setting out in a moment, al...
Lord Tyrie | 487 c607 (Link to this contribution) The right hon. Gentleman is being very generous in giving way. If I heard him correctly, I think he ...
Stephen Timms | 487 c608-9 (Link to this contribution) Some resources—a substantial sum—have been allocated to the agency to enable it to take forward purc...
Derek Twigg | 487 c609 (Link to this contribution) On new projects, it is obviously important to get projects moving as quickly as possible for the nex...
Stephen Timms | 487 c607-8 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend may have heard me refer to bad decisions at the heart of the international financial ...
Chris Huhne | 487 c608 (Link to this contribution) I am very supportive of the fiscal stimulus, but one issue greatly concerns me—the slimness of the e...
Stephen Timms | 487 c609 (Link to this contribution) It depends on the circumstances. Certainly, there is a big commitment in the programme for housing r...
Andrew Love | 487 c603 (Link to this contribution) Siren voices are coming from Europe suggesting that adopting the euro might be a fit and proper deci...
Vincent Cable | 487 c597 (Link to this contribution) I very much agree. Until recently, the assumption was that only housing associations should do socia...
Graham Stuart | 487 c600 (Link to this contribution) I am just checking, but the hon. Gentleman seems to be suggesting that those public investments will...
Annette Brooke | 487 c611 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful for the news that many projects are being brought forward, but why are further educati...
Subjects
Banks Construction Capital investment Housing Finance Fiscal policy Economic situation International Monetary Fund Public expenditure Schools Economic recession
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