Windfall Levy (Hansard, 12 March 1998)

§ 1. Mr. Heppell
What estimate he has made of the number of women who will benefit as a result of the windfall levy. [32493]

§ The Chancellor of the Exchequer (Mr. Gordon Brown)
It is estimated that 500,000 women will benefit from the child care initiative that is partially financed from the windfall levy. In addition, every young woman unemployed for more than six months will, from April, be offered the chance of work and training. Soon, lone parents with school-age children will be offered advice, help and information about work. Others with school-age children will also benefit from the £1.3 million invested from the windfall tax in the new schools capital programme.

§ Mr. Heppell
I thank my right hon. Friend for his response. Does he agree that the level of child care available in the past 18 years has restricted employment opportunities for many women? Will he guarantee that, when he considers Treasury policy decisions, he will take the needs of women into account—as he has done with child care policy—so that they are part of the main stream and not an afterthought, as they have been for the past 18 years?

§ Mr. Brown
That is exactly the Government's position. We will take into account the needs of women in every area of economic policy. Our child care policy has three aims. We want to make child care accessible, which is why we have announced an initiative of £300 million for 1 million after-school places to help young children. We also want high-quality child care, which is why we have announced with the windfall levy an initiative to train child carers that will cost £100 million. To make child care more accessible, we increased and improved the child care disregard in our first Budget. For the first time, this country has a national child care strategy.

§ Mr. Gibb
If the Chancellor of the Exchequer claims that increasing the cost of employment through a 732 minimum wage will not reduce the number of jobs, how can he claim that reducing the cost of employment will increase the number of jobs?

§ Mr. Brown
I am grateful that the hon. Gentleman has raised the minimum wage, because the Conservative Government, by abolishing the wages councils, penalised hundreds of thousands of women. The hon. Gentleman should consider the experience of America, which not only has a minimum wage but has been able to raise it without any adverse effect on jobs. It is the Conservative party that wants us to return to the dark ages.

§ Mrs. Anne Campbell
Many women in my constituency and throughout the United Kingdom will welcome the moves that my right hon. Friend has made, especially to increase the amount of out-of-school child care. Will he also ensure good-quality and affordable child care for under-fives? Many women with young children would like to go back to work but are unable to do so, because of the high cost of good quality child care.

§ Mr. Brown
I agree entirely with my hon. Friend. From April, for the first time, new money will be available for the child care initiative that my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Education and Employment is launching. My hon. Friend rightly emphasises the importance that we attach to high quality child care. We want a new generation of young people and others to become properly trained child carers in registered facilities so that we can guarantee to every mother—indeed, every parent—that their children will be safe in the new provision of child care.