Clause 9
Finance Bill
5:15 pm
Justine Greening (Shadow Minister, Treasury; Putney, Conservative)
I hear what the hon. Gentleman is saying, but he seems to fundamentally miss the concept of price elasticity of demand. I am afraid that the world is not black and white. It is pretty clear-cut that, if there is a price increase, according to the figures used by the Government and the trade, it will almost certainly have a negative effect on demand at some level. Anyhow, let us move on from amendment No. 7. It was obviously not worded as the hon. Gentleman intended, let alone in a way that would be workable.
I have a lot of sympathy for the hon. Gentleman’s argument on amendment No. 6. We will come on to why the pub trade and trades associated to alcohol are so important to the economy in a debate on a future amendment that I tabled. Again, I was slightly concerned that he was talking about bringing forward a report within three years. I think that the problem is more urgent than that. If over the next three years we lose pubs at the same rate as last year, when we lost 1,400, an awful lot of pubs will go to the wall with businesses and jobs lost, before we see the Government getting to grips with the matter. I have some sympathy with the amendments, but I do not believe that they would achieve quite what the hon. Gentleman intended.