Politically Speaking with Mark Eastwood MP: £150 rebate is a better option than a VAT cut

Mark Eastwood MP writes: It was great to get out and about across the constituency at the weekend. On Saturday, I attended a very enjoyable Treasure Island pantomime at St Mary’s Community Centre in Mirfield.

Meanwhile, on Sunday, it was an honour to attend the annual memorial ceremony at Hartshead Moor Services to commemorate the British service members and civilians who lost their lives in the 1974 M62 coach bombing.

On a parliamentary front, in my role as the Prime Minister’s Trade Envoy to Pakistan, I recently raised trade hindrance issues surrounding imports and exports to Pakistan and the rest of the world.

Also, in the House of Commons last week, I paid tribute to the success of our vaccine rollout. Where the Prime Minister joined me in sending his heartfelt thanks to our amazing local NHS workers, pharmacies and volunteers.

It was also great to attend Google’s digital parenting and online safety event in Parliament on Monday. Congratulations to local school children Muhammad, Maleehah and Zahra for their award-winning artworks, which shows how their families balance online and offline life.

On Friday, the Government announced the Online Safety Bill would be strengthened to help ensure that the UK is the safest place in the world to be online.

I am committed to supporting this legislation which will protect the most vulnerable and ensure there is no safe space for criminals to operate.

In the news this week, you may have seen that the Government is introducing new rules to eliminate unfair fines by cracking down on cowboy private parking firms. Many constituents have contacted me about such practices, so it’s great that such penalties are to be capped at £50, with firms now having to give a 10 minutes grace period along with a five-minute cool-off period if you change your mind about parking. Those issued with penalties will now get 50 per cent off if they pay within 14 days.

Finally, I understand anxiety over rising prices and inflation. Global pressures have led to households in Dewsbury feeling a squeeze on their household costs, so it’s right the Government has introduced a three-part plan to help families with their energy bills. This will provide all households with a £200 ‘smoothing’ rebate on energy bills along with a non-repayable £150 cash rebate for homes in council tax bands A-D – and £144million of discretionary funding for local authorities to support households not eligible for the council tax rebate.

The Government is also continuing with plans to increase the Warm Homes Discount and extend eligibility by one-third to three million vulnerable households, worth £150.

I welcome that the Government’s main priority is to protect consumers, particularly vulnerable consumers or those on low incomes, compared to cutting VAT, which would disproportionately benefit wealthy households and offer no guarantee that suppliers would pass on discounts.

Thank you for reading, and as always, the team and I are here to help should you need us. Please feel free to contact me via email: [email protected] or telephone 01924 939 007.