Speeches by Yang.

“Mr Rathi, you mentioned that you were considering updating the FCA’s guidance to public bodies in light of the events of the last few weeks. Are there particular sections of that guidance that you think need reinforcement? Secondly, in your letter to the Committee, you mentioned providing training. Is this training man…”

“Just on that point, Mr Rathi, I wanted to pick up on the mortgage announcements that you made yesterday in terms of making mortgages more accessible to first-time buyers. You were very clear when you spoke to us in September about the trade-off between relaxing affordability, which might improve circumstances for young…”

“Mr Alder, when we spoke to you in March we asked about the aggregate impact of all these different measures. There are 50 pro-growth measures that the FCA set out, and you have been very busy coming forth on all those different areas. In aggregate, we wanted to get a sense of how much growth impact there could be. In M…”

“So, you are often waiting for the Treasury to act on these issues?”

“At Budget day, the OBR announced that it was going to use a new higher threshold for scoring the impacts of policy on economic capacity. This higher threshold would have ruled out the majority of policy changes scored under your Conservative predecessor. Did the Treasury discuss this change of policy with the OBR, and …”

“It is increasing its active sales.”

“It is reducing the overall pace.”

“I presume the Treasury collects its own scorings of those measures that do not meet the OBR’s new thresholds?”

“Are you saying that the £5.6 billion from the OBR is based on the current policy, and that that policy is going to change, so therefore the number itself may not be that number?”

“Yesterday we spoke to the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England. As you may have seen, there was disagreement on the committee—and there has been since its last meeting—on the impact of the quantitative tightening of the active sales of gilts on the interest rates that the Government face for borrowing. The …”

“I want to move on to special educational needs and disabilities funding. At the Budget, you announced that this would no longer be borne by local authorities, but from central departmental spending. The OBR says that that will cost around £5.6 billion. Do you and the Treasury accept that number? Will this be put on one…”

“Chancellor, from the MPC’s perspective, as it has stated very clearly, value for money for the taxpayer is not in its remit in monetary policy. Of course, as the Chancellor, value for money is certainly something that concerns the Treasury, as well as all of us constituency MPs. Do you have conversations with the gover…”

“The MPC states that it does not take that into account in its principles.”

“Chancellor, in your Budget speech you said that “a fair society is one where the wealthiest pay their fair share” and you discussed “narrowing the gap between the tax on income from assets and income from work”. Is there more of that gap left to be narrowed?”

“Is there space for more narrowing, or do you believe the gap has been fully closed now?”

“I note that the MPC has, for the first time, split a vote on quantitative tightening, which affects the pace at which the Bank sells Government bonds. Dr Mann, you stated in your decision that you are concerned about upward pressure on medium-term gilt yields. Could you explain what caused your concern?”

“Sure, but what if you were not looking at it in the wider context, but in that specific context?”

“How much more would you say—twice or three times?”

“Sir Dave, I understand that value for money from the taxpayer’s perspective is not part of your consideration in terms of the principles of running of the QT programme, but as one last yes/no question to finish off this round: when you sell long-term gilts at relatively high yields—in other words, low prices—do you agr…”

“I am very familiar with that.”