Shadow Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government
Conservative MP for Braintree
I start by putting on record my gratitude, which I suspect echoes the views of many right hon. and hon. Members, to my hon. Friend the Member for Reigate (Rebecca Paul) for securing the debate and setting out so clearly in her opening remarks the significance of this issue and the corrosive impact it has on so many people. The number of speeches, the tone of those speeches and, sadly, the...
Have a word with your officials; that was very bad.
She missed out the word “fewer”. It is “fewer houses”.
I thank my right hon. Friend the shadow Chancellor for setting out the opening case for the Opposition’s position on stamp duty. I feel particularly passionate about this policy, which is one I put forward when I was running for the leadership of the Conservative party. Like all good ideas, it has been embraced by my right hon. Friend the Leader of the Opposition. I am particularly...
My hon. Friend is spot-on. That point was very well highlighted by my good friend, my hon. Friend the Member for Bridgwater (Sir Ashley Fox), who said that official Opposition felt that this damaging and counterproductive tax should be removed. As I have said, my right hon. Friend the shadow Chancellor has set out that that would be paid for by a reduction in the welfare bill—something...
Yes, pretzel-like. One after another, the speakers on the Lib Dem Benches stood up and said, “We agree that this is a bad tax. We agree that this is a counterproductive tax. We agree that it is a tax that needs to go.” I, and I suspect others on the Conservative Benches, thought, “Here we go. Here is the crescendo, the pièce de resistance,” and that those speeches would end by...
In a minute—I have a punchline to get to. That is not what we heard. What we heard was, “We think this is a bad tax that should be got rid of, but we are not going to vote to say it is a bad tax that should be got rid of, because blah”—which is always the Lib Dems’ punchline. I was waiting for an explosion of political integrity, only to be presented with a political damp squib.
You’ve gotta love ’em, haven’t you? Never seen a fence they would not sit on, never seen a position they would not contort around. “These are our principles”, they say, “but so are these, and so are these other ones as well.” It is that clarity that we value from the Liberal Democrats.
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether local councillors will be included in Making Tax Digital scheme.
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether her Department plans to allow councillors to submit their expenses in the Making Tax Digital scheme.
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will publish a list of the training videos produced by the Valuation Office Agency.
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will publish the Valuation Office Agency’s training manual for the Automated Valuation Model.
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the Valuation Office Agency: July 2025 transparency data, published on 31 August, what the contracted out services to Eunoia Consulting Ltd costing £83,705.52 are.
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the answer of 15 October 2025 to Question 78960 on Hospitals and Schools: Solar Power, how many (a) schools and (b) hospitals have had their Rateable Values amended by the Valuation Office Agency due to the installation of solar panels since July 2024.
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether the Valuation Office Agency has had recent discussions with the (a) Scottish Government and (b) Scottish Assessors Association on (i) council tax (A) revaluation and (B) re-banding and (ii) the automated valuation model.
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the HMRC guidance, Local authorities and similar bodies (VAT Notice 749), whether local authorities will be able to recover VAT on private hire for school transport.
