Clause 62 - First-year allowances for expenditure wholly for a ring fence trade
Finance Bill
12:00 pm
Mr Christopher Chope (Christchurch, Conservative)
As the hon. Gentleman says, that was very good, at the time. Unfortunately, however, it is entirely inconsistent with what is in the Bill, as a result of which some companies have already announced job cuts. BP has announced that it will be cutting 800 jobs from its North sea operations, following closely on the 500 job cuts made a few months ago. It is also in talks to dispose of its Thistle field and is considering whether to decommission its North West Hutton field early in order to save costs. The Government's approach is inconsistent with their energy review in discouraging new gas field investment.
The amendments are designed to mitigate the extremely adverse impact of the regime that the Government are introducing under clause 90 in increasing corporation tax by 10 per cent. I hope that
they will realise that they have made a mistake. One way of pulling back from that position would be to accept the amendments, which, without going into more detail at this stage, I hope the Committee will do.