Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation — amendment of the law

Part of Oral Answers to Questions — Prime Minister – in the House of Commons at 6:42 pm on 24 March 2010.

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Photo of Rob Marris Rob Marris Labour, Wolverhampton South West 6:42, 24 March 2010

It is a pleasure to follow Mr. Tyrie. I often disagree with most of what he says, as I do today, but he is always thoughtful and well worth listening to. That is in the nature of parliamentary debate.

I want to start my remarks on the Budget, somewhat prosaically, on the question of excise duty on beer, which is no less than the Economic Secretary to the Treasury, my hon. Friend Ian Pearson would expect, because he, like me, is a west midlands man. The three main pub chains in the United Kingdom are based in the west midlands-Enterprise Inns, Punch Taverns and, of course, Marston's, as it now is, but Banks's, as my hon. Friend and I have known it for 40 or more years. I am proud to say that Banks's brewery, as it was-Marston's now-is headquartered in my constituency. Not only is it in charge of the third largest pub chain in the UK; it is a major brewery in its own right.

I am dismayed that the Government, yet again, have put up excise duty on beer to the tune of 2p a pint-2 per cent. above inflation. We have a problem with alcohol in our society, but generally it does not emanate from pubs or people drinking Somerset cider, which was referred to earlier by Mr. Heath; it comes from cheap off-licence alcohol, and often from what one might refer to as chemical cider-if it has been near an apple, it is because it passed a vegetable or fruit wagon on the road going the other way.

Of course, putting up duty on cider to a swingeing level might have an effect on chemical cider, and on drinking in a way that contributes too often to antisocial behaviour, but it will also hurt pubs. That is true not only of cider but particularly beer, which is a major drink in our society. Cider, of course, is a great drink, but less widely drunk in the UK. This is a case of the Government looking at a problem but coming up with the wrong solution. So I make my annual plea to the Government-it has not been successful so far, but it is worth continuing to make it-to rethink the increase in excise on beer and to focus their efforts on the minimum price proposals. Indeed, those are being discussed in Scotland, although I do not know if they have been enacted there. That would do more to tackle the antisocial behaviour about which many people are concerned.

Turning from that somewhat local issue-the excellent Marston's is in my constituency-with national ramifications, I want to look at the bigger picture of the national debt. Public finances are under considerable pressure in the United Kingdom at the moment; that is no secret. We are all aware of that, and so are just about all our constituents. I was, however, somewhat heartened by the Chancellor's predictions today. Of course, they might prove over-optimistic, although that has not often been the case for Treasury forecasts in the past.

Table 2.3 on page 25 of the Red Book repeats some of the statistics the Chancellor mentioned in his Budget speech. It states that the accumulated public sector net debt will rise from 43.8 per cent. of GDP in the financial year 2008-09 to 74.9 per cent. in 2014-15, which is as far as the table goes. That is a considerable rise. That would lead to the United Kingdom having an accumulated national debt lower than or broadly equivalent to that of major competitors such as France, Germany and the United States. Canada is the exception, in that its accumulated net debt is considerably lower, although it is increasing somewhat during the recession.