The National Insurance Contributions Bill completed its House of Commons stages and was read a first time in the House of Lords on 13 January. The second reading in the House of Lords is scheduled for Monday, 24 January.
The Bill provides for an increase in the rates of NICs paid by employees, employers and the self-employed by one percentage point with effect from 6 April 2011; and a regional employer NIC holiday, launched last Sepember, for new businesses. The Bill was not amended in Public Bill Committee.
At the Commons report stage on 13 January, Shadow Exchequer Secretary David Hanson moved an amendment to include the regions of London, the south-east and the east of England in the NIC holiday.
‘There are certainly high levels of employment and great prosperity in the east and south-east regions and there are certainly constituencies and even sub-regions with low levels of public-sector employment,’ Hanson said.
‘However, there are areas where there is an extremely high level of deprivation, a high level of unemployment and a high level of dependency on public sector employment which will now be excluded from the potential benefits of the secondary contributions holiday.’
But David Gauke, the Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury, said representatives of the Federation of Small Business and the British Chambers of Commerce had made it clear in evidence ‘that the south-east is more resilient than the rest of the UK and that new business formation would not be harmed significantly because the holiday would not be available there’.
The National Insurance Contributions Bill completed its House of Commons stages and was read a first time in the House of Lords on 13 January. The second reading in the House of Lords is scheduled for Monday, 24 January.
The Bill provides for an increase in the rates of NICs paid by employees, employers and the self-employed by one percentage point with effect from 6 April 2011; and a regional employer NIC holiday, launched last Sepember, for new businesses. The Bill was not amended in Public Bill Committee.
At the Commons report stage on 13 January, Shadow Exchequer Secretary David Hanson moved an amendment to include the regions of London, the south-east and the east of England in the NIC holiday.
‘There are certainly high levels of employment and great prosperity in the east and south-east regions and there are certainly constituencies and even sub-regions with low levels of public-sector employment,’ Hanson said.
‘However, there are areas where there is an extremely high level of deprivation, a high level of unemployment and a high level of dependency on public sector employment which will now be excluded from the potential benefits of the secondary contributions holiday.’
But David Gauke, the Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury, said representatives of the Federation of Small Business and the British Chambers of Commerce had made it clear in evidence ‘that the south-east is more resilient than the rest of the UK and that new business formation would not be harmed significantly because the holiday would not be available there’.
