Pensions Bill

It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Nottingham, South (Alan Simpson), who spoke very eloquently; and I support my hon. Friend the Member for Hemel Hempstead (Mike Penning), who spoke with great passion and huge knowledge. I represent a significant number of former employees of the Albert Fisher group, who have lost the bulk of their pensions. Like my hon. Friend the Member for Hemel Hempstead, I have had numerous meetings with that group, as a result of which I have also met many other people involved in different pension action groups. One thing that struck me is that those people trusted the advice that they were given and invested their money—their own wages—in what they believed were safe products, only to have the rug pulled from under them. I would like to pick up on one point that the Chancellor made yesterday. When he was justifying the changes to dividend tax credits in the 1998 Budget, he said that they were more than compensated for by cuts in corporation tax. However, dozens of companies did not benefit from those cuts because they were either breaking even or making a loss. In the case of the Albert Fisher group, part of the food processing sector, particularly the frozen food sector, was struggling and under very substantial pressure. That company was not making a profit, so the concessions on corporation tax were of absolutely no benefit whatever—and the same applies to dozens of other companies as well. What the Chancellor said yesterday was irrelevant to those companies, which got no benefit from corporation tax changes, so the hit to them in respect of pension funds was direct and immediate. There was immediate pain and the result was that many of the pension schemes went bust with people suffering as a consequence. I intervened earlier on the Minister, who was very critical of the Opposition amendments, but those amendments had been carefully thought through. They were not worked out on the back of a cigarette packet over the weekend. A number of experts gave us advice. As to Ros Altmann, she has a huge amount of experience and commands phenomenal respect. To be fair, until quite recently, Ros Altmann was saying that what we were doing with our draft amendments was not good enough. She said that the amendments did not go far enough, were not properly drafted and were technically incorrect, so Opposition Front Benchers put a great deal of effort and work into drawing up a package of measures—the amendments and new clauses—that would go as far as possible and, above all, give these people some immediate respite. On the point about a review, we have had endless reviews. Time and again, the Government have introduced changes and initiatives, and every time, they creep a little bit further towards the full measures that those people want and deserve. What we want now—what is on offer with these amendments and new clauses—is immediate relief. What those people want is immediate relief. As my hon. Friend the Member for Hemel Hempstead said a moment ago, a lot of those people are suffering as we speak. Many of them are ill. Lots of very proud people were looking forward to a long and happy retirement, but they have had that retirement totally undermined and destroyed. Those people deserve immediate action. They want immediate action. We have a huge opportunity this afternoon to give them that action, and there is a very strong moral case for doing so. I appeal to Labour Members to support these amendments, because a lot of people are watching them very carefully. If they support us, those people will have the relief that they deserve.