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Mr. Brown: I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman, but I have to tell him that I am making a public spending announcement for Britain, not the rest of the world. As for Japan, we have always said that there had to be reform of the financial system as well as reform of taxation. That remains as true today as it was a few months ago.
On public spending, I have already said that we have taken the most cautious estimate of the state of the economy. We have also been able to announce surpluses over the next three years, which is, of course, very important. However, when the hon. Gentleman examines the figures, he will notice that the main reason that we can spend on and invest in health and education is that we are committed to the health and education services, and have been prepared to make the choices necessary to reallocate resources to them. It is about time that the Conservative party acknowledged that the previous Government failed in those respects, but that we are being successful.
Mr. Barry Jones (Alyn and Deeside):
With regard to the massive sums that he is pumping into housing, school and hospital services, will my right hon. Friend say what ruthless and determined action he is going to take to make sure that every pound of those billions goes to front-line services, and is not wasted by careless health, local education and housing authorities?
Mr. Brown:
Before the Conservatives came to power, the national health service used to be the most cheaply and efficiently administered system, with only 7 per cent. of health service expenditure being spent on administration. Under the Conservatives, that rose to 12 per cent. of expenditure because of the bureaucracy. That is why my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health will announce on Thursday that he is going to save £1 billion on bureaucracy, which will go to front-line patient care.
As for the record of the Conservative party on the health service, there were increases of 2.5 per cent. in the last Parliament, whereas we are proposing increases
of 4.7 per cent. for the next three years. On Thursday, my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health will announce the targets that will have to be met, the standards that will have to be achieved, and the inefficiencies in some hospitals that will have to be rectified.
It is because we are committed to the NHS, and because we believe that every pound of public money should be well spent, that we are capable, in a way that the previous Government were not, of securing value for money for every patient in the health service.
Mr. John Swinney (North Tayside):
Will the Chancellor confirm that the base that he is assuming for this afternoon's announcement is the dreadful base that he inherited from the Conservatives, which he has prolonged for two years, and that any increase in public expenditure would be welcome alongside that starting point? Will he also confirm that, even with the increase in resources announced today, the Scottish Parliament will still have fewer resources at its disposal in 2000 when it opens than it had when one of the many discredited Conservatives was Secretary of State for Scotland in 1994? Finally, does he think it prudent that, at a time of high interest rates in the United Kingdom economy, the Secretary of State for Scotland will announce this afternoon cutting support to enterprise by £50 million in real terms?
Mr. Brown:
The first to be worried about the policies of the hon. Gentleman's party are every business in Scotland for whom those policies would mean tax rises of about £1,500 a year. As for public spending in Scotland, the hon. Gentleman should welcome the fact that this afternoon my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Scotland will announce that, by 2002, all three-year-olds in Scotland will have the right to a nursery place. That achievement by a Labour Government could never be achieved by the Scottish National party.
The hon. Gentleman should congratulate us on the fact that, by 2002, there will be 5,000 new classroom assistants in Scottish primary schools. Once again we are improving the standard of education in our schools. We do not base our decisions on the economics of the SNP. We base them on the economics of the real world, and that is why we get money into health and education.
Mr. Jeremy Corbyn (Islington, North):
May I take my right hon. Friend back to the subject of public sector housing and his response to my hon. Friend the Member for Stockport (Ms Coffey)? In his statement, he outlines welcome money for the improvement of existing stock and dealing with the huge backlog of repairs that was bequeathed to us by the outgoing Tory Government. However, he must recognise that, in inner-urban Britain, unless young people and poor people can be provided with council or housing association properties, they have no choice but to live in very expensive private rented accommodation that is paid for by housing benefit.
Does my. right hon. Friend recognise that we now need to invest massively in a house building programme that will improve the lot of the poorest people in inner-urban Britain and save money on health and education? Children are under-achieving, and people are occupying hospital beds because they live in such filthy accommodation.
Mr. Brown:
First, my hon. Friend should welcome the new deal for young people, as it gives the people
Secondly, my hon. Friend should welcome the fact that we are investing in innovative housing reforms that will enable young people, particularly those living in the difficult conditions he mentioned, to match the jobs and the training that they are getting with the housing that is available. Thirdly, he should welcome the fact that1.5 million houses will be improved as a result of the £1 billion plus investment from council tax receipts in new housing.
It is a programme for employment opportunity, rebuilding communities that have been hard hit, and improving the housing stock. In particular, we are determined to help the young homeless who were left behind under the previous Government.
Mr. Edward Leigh (Gainsborough):
Page 87 of the White Paper on social security tells us that benefit expenditure is to increase from £95 billion in this financial year to £108 billion in the financial year of the next general election. In the light of those figures, will the Chancellor confirm that, when the Prime Minister said before the general election, "I vow that we will have reduced the proportion we spend on the welfare bills of social failure," he meant to say, "I vow that, with a little bit of luck, and with massaging the figures, we might stop welfare bills increasing quite as fast as they used to"?
Mr. Brown:
The hon. Gentleman should look in detail at what the Government are doing. First, we are cutting the bills of failure by getting young people into work--60,000 are participating in the new deal. The number of lone parents claiming income support has fallen below 1 million. In the past year, about 40,000 have come off benefit and into work, compared with 50,000 who were joining benefit under the previous Government. So the hon. Gentleman should applaud the fact that we are reducing the bills of unemployment and getting people back into work.
The hon. Gentleman should also be aware of the saving to the taxpayer of about £40 a week by people moving even from income support into family credit. The working families tax credit mean that the people concerned are about £40 a week better off. So we are making the transition, and he should applaud us for that. Despite everything that he and most of his party think, social security expenditure rose by 3.8 per cent. under the previous Conservative Administration in the last Parliament. Even taking account of the working families tax credit, it is rising by 2 per cent. in this Parliament.
The hon. Gentleman should applaud us for reducing the rate of growth of social security spending and putting in money that will enable people to get back to work and contribute to the community. We are meeting the election promise that he read out.
Mr. Tam Dalyell (Linlithgow):
On the question of debt relief for the poorest countries in chapter 16.8, what can
Mr. Brown:
I am grateful to my hon. Friend. In addition to what we are doing on overseas aid in respect of direct Government assistance to the poorest countries in the world rising as a proportion of national income and the development aid budget rising every year when it used to fall, which I know my hon. Friend will welcome, we are contributing to debt relief.
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