Responding
to the announcement of a call for evidence on improving the
home-buying process, John Healey MP, Labour’s Shadow Housing Secretary, said:

“Another
week and another call for evidence on failings in the housing market, but these
feeble proposals show that Ministers just don’t get the scale of the problems
facing homebuyers. 

"This
smacks of a political diversion from the hard facts of the Tories’ housing
record. Home-ownership is at a thirty year low and the number of
younger home-owners is in freefall, but Ministers can only come up with a
‘call for evidence’ on improving the home-buying process. 

 "Compare
the Tories’ feeble gesture to Labour’s plans – 100,000 discounted homes for
first-time buyers, a cut in stamp duty, first dibs on new homes for local
people and new protections for home-owners.

 “This
is a government out of touch and out of ideas. Conservatives know housing
was a big part of why they did so badly at the election but after seven years
of failure Ministers still have no plan to fix the housing crisis.”

Labour will slash energy, water and
post bills through public ownership

Labour will
cut household bills by £220 a year under public ownership of utilities.
Households are being ripped off with sky-high bills for energy, water and post
to pay out billions of pounds to shareholders. Labour will fix this broken
model which makes ordinary people pay for excessive wealth in the hands of the
few by instead bringing our utilities into public ownership for the benefit of
the many.

Labour will:

•      
Make households £220 a year better off under public ownership models for energy
and water.

•      
Cap energy bills, invest in renewable energy and under public ownership bills
will fall.

•      
Bring water companies into public ownership to drive down bills, reduce leaks
and end the shareholder racket.

•      
Compensate for bringing water, parts of the energy sector and Royal Mail into
public ownership by exchanging government bonds for shares in the relevant companies.

The rigged system:

•      
Water companies paid 1,000 times more in dividends than in tax in the last ten
years. Three of them – Anglian, Severn Trent and Yorkshire – paid more in
dividends than they made in profit in that period, meaning they were borrowing
on the back of household bills to pay shareholders.

•      
Electricity bills soared by 20% between 2007 and 2013. £120 was paid by every
household in the UK for dividends to energy company shareholders in 2013 alone.

•      
Since privatisation, Royal Mail has paid out £640 million in dividends in just
three years while closing 10% of delivery offices

Jeremy Corbyn, Leader of the Labour
Party, said:

“The Tories
have rigged our economy so that bill payers fund wealthy shareholders of companies
which in turn pay little in tax. It doesn’t have to be this way. 

“Labour
will rebalance our economy so that the many are no longer ripped off by the
wealthy and powerful few. Labour will transform our energy, water and mail
markets so that they work for consumers. Our plans for public ownership and
greater transparency will slash bills and drive investment in efficiency and
renewables.

“Under a
Labour government, our economy will work for the many, not the few.”

Jonathan
Ashworth MP, Labour’s Shadow Health Secretary, commenting on the
today’s childhood obesity statistics from the National Child Measurement
Programme, said:

“The
escalating childhood obesity crisis is a disgraceful example of how we are
depriving our children of the best possible start in life.

“The
UK has one of the worst childhood obesity rates in Western Europe, and the gap
between children from the most and least deprived backgrounds is also rising at
an alarming rate.

“The
Government’s watered-down obesity strategy, alongside severe cuts to public
health and education budgets, demonstrates a profound lack of action. Unlike
the Tories, Labour will prioritise child health and wellbeing with a
comprehensive child obesity strategy, including the banning of junk food
advertising on family television.”

Peter Dowd MP, Labour’s Shadow Chief
Secretary to the Treasury responding to the publishing of the EU Parliament’s
report on Money Laundering, Tax Avoidance and Tax Evasion and ahead of Labour’s
attempt to block the Government’s plans to protect offshore trusts from UK tax,
said:

“The report from the EU Parliament
reinforces once again the Conservative Government’s stonewalling of any
meaningful action to tackle tax avoidance and offshore trusts.

“The report’s publication comes on the
same day that the Conservative Government is trying to peddle a Finance Bill
which is a charter for tax dodgers exempting their offshore trusts from UK tax.

“Labour has consistently demanded that
the Government introduce a register for offshore trusts but we have found our
attempts to amend the Finance Bill frustrated by a Government using arcane
procedural tricks.

“Labour’s Tax Transparency and
Enforcement Programme will make Britain a leader in tackling global tax
avoidance and ensuring that wealthy individuals and companies pay their fair
share.”

John
McDonnell MP, Labour’s Shadow Chancellor, responding
to reports linking British Banks to money laundering activity in South Africa,
said:

“This is the third high-profile money laundering
scandal to involve major British banks this year, and London has become
notorious as a global centre for money laundering. There are many hardworking
people in our banking sector who will feel frustrated and dismayed by such
stories, but they are let down by poor leadership and weak oversight that undermines
the financial sector’s reputation. 

"It’s time the Chancellor considered a wide ranging independent inquiry
that leaves no stone unturned in rooting out unlawful and damaging activity.
The Government cannot continue to drag its feet on this matter as it will be
the British banking industry as a whole that risks long-term damage to the
reputation on which it depends.”