Debbie Abrahams response to Joseph Rowntree Foundation report showing Tory Government’s two child benefit limit could push 200,000 children into poverty

Debbie
Abrahams MP, Labour’s Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, commenting on the
Joseph Rowntree Foundation report, which shows the Tory Government’s two child benefit
limit could push 200,000 children into poverty, said:

“Labour
is calling on the Tories to scrap this inhumane policy, which will have a
devastating impact upon many families on the lowest incomes in our society.

“An
arbitrary cap on the number of children that the Government will help families
to bring up is not only cruel, but is bad policy. This evidence shows that it
will increase child poverty.

“As
90 per cent of lone parents are female it is a further example of how these six
years of wasted austerity have been borne on the backs of low income mothers.

“That’s
why Labour will stand up for low income families, including providing free
school meals to all primary school children.” 



Government must bring back sensible rules on term-time holidays

The Supreme Court has found in favour of a local authority that has fined a parent for taking his daughter on holiday during term-time.



A Labour Government would give leaseholders security from rip-off ground rents – Healey

John Healey MP, Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State
for Housing, commenting on new government statistics showing
that there are four million leasehold dwellings in England, said:

“These new figures confirm for the first time the
scale of leasehold ownership in England.

“Home-owners who own their home as leaseholders are
currently unprotected from rip-off rises in ‘ground rents’ from developers or
management companies.

“At its worst this is little better than legalised
extortion and too many leaseholders are having to pay hefty bills as a result.
Under a Labour Government this sharp practice would end.

“This is unfinished business for Labour – we gave
leaseholders more protection in government, but the continuing problem now
means we must do more.

“A Labour Government would give leaseholders
security from rip-off ground rents and end the routine use of leasehold
ownership in new housing developments.”



Working people deserve better than Tory failure – Andrew Gwynne

Andrew Gwynne MP, responding to Theresa May’s speech at
the launch of the Tory local elections campaign, said:

“The Tories cannot give Britain the change we need. Theresa
May talks of a country that works for everyone, but for the last seven years
the Tories have failed ordinary working people and plunged our public services
into crisis.

“When Theresa May says she has a plan for Britain, what she
means is a plan to run the NHS into the ground, squeeze people’s living
standards, reintroduce unfair selection in our schools and drive us towards a
risky Brexit which threatens jobs, growth and workers’ rights.

“Theresa May’s claims on Council Tax are misleading. The
truth is that where Labour controls the local council, households will pay on
average £336 less next year than those living in Tory areas. People are better
off with a Labour council.

“Working people deserve better than Tory failure – only
Labour will stand up for them and their families.”



ESMA promotes common approach to rules supporting the use of smaller CRAs

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has issued a Supervisory Briefing to national Sectoral Competent Authorities (SCAs), regarding the application of Articles 8(c) and (d) of the CRA Regulation (Regulation), to assist them with their supervision and enforcement of these provisions and promote supervisory convergence through adoption of a common supervisory approach.

The Supervisory Briefing, while addressed to SCAs, also streamlines compliance with Article 8(d)’s requirements for issuers and related third parties, by proposing a Standard Form for documenting the decision not to appoint a smaller CRA.

The Regulation aims to encourage competition in the credit ratings industry in the EU, with Articles 8 (c) and (d) requiring issuers or related third parties to consider appointing a smaller credit rating agency (CRA) when they intend to appoint two or more CRAs for the rating of an issuance or entity. However, implementation of these articles were hindered by a lack of clarity in a number of areas, including which issuers were captured by these requirements and how they should document the decision on use of CRAs.

In order to address these issues the Supervisory Briefing contains two parts, a Common Supervisory Approach and a Standard Form:

  • the common supervisory approach aims is to assist the SCAs responsible for the supervision and enforcement of the Articles. It clearly establishes who should be prioritised for supervision and enforcement under these provisions.
  • For issuers and related third parties, this common supervisory approach also provides clarity to their status under this articles;
  • the Standard Form’s purpose is to assist issuers and related third parties by providing clarity as to how they may meet their regulatory obligations under these provisions. It removes the need to develop in-house templates for documenting compliance under Article 8d of the CRA Regulation; and
  • For SCAs, the standard form will provide standardised, consistent and comparable data as to why issuers and related third parties in their jurisdictions are not appointing smaller CRAs.