Investment in Businesses

We are delivering bold action to drive investment and growth nationwide. Our modern industrial strategy is cutting red tape, saving businesses nearly £6 billion a year, and unlocking quicker, simpler ways to do business. We are investing £6.6 billion through the British Business Bank to help innovative firms scale, and we are rebuilding our infrastructure with a 10-year strategy, backed by at least £725 billion-worth of Government capital, providing the certainty needed to boost productivity, secure growth and jobs, and deliver sustainable growth right around the United Kingdom.

A report by the Rural Coalition highlights that with the right policy framework, the rural economy could increase productivity, leading to an additional £19 billion a year. Will the Secretary of State outline what steps the Department is taking to help to support businesses in rural areas, such as my constituency, to unlock that growth potential?

I am grateful to my hon. Friend not just for his contribution, but for his advocacy for the rural economy. This Government are committed to supporting businesses, including those in rural areas such as South West Norfolk, to thrive and grow. We know that rural areas offer significant growth potential, contributing £259 billion to England’s gross value added in 2023. My Department provides support through the Help to Grow: Management business support service and the New Anglia Growth Hub. Our plan for small businesses will hardwire small business voices into Government to boost growth. On top of that and underpinning all of it is the modern industrial strategy, which provides stability into the long term—stability for which the business community right across the United Kingdom has been crying out for too long.

In Warrington, Platform is transforming the former Unilever site where Surf and Persil were once produced into a next-generation modular data centre that will provide the capacity, resilience and connectivity needed to power the UK’s AI revolution. From Persil to pixels, Platform is taking a brownfield industrial site with more than a century of manufacturing heritage and bringing it into the 21st-century economy. Will the Secretary of State set out what more the Department can do to support home-grown, local companies such as Platform to deliver projects of this kind, which combine cutting-edge AI infrastructure, data sovereignty, regional growth and high-value skills for the future workforce?

Warrington has been at the centre of previous industrial revolutions, and we are determined that it will be at the forefront of the industrial revolution that is unfolding, with a wave of digital technology and AI flowing across the world. We will use all the agency of this Government to ensure that all parts of the United Kingdom benefit equally from that. My hon. Friend will know that work such as that by Platform on the transformation of the Unilever site in Warrington is exactly the kind of bold, future-facing investment that we want to enable. That is why we delivered the AI opportunities action plan so swiftly. We will create AI growth zones across the United Kingdom to create the infrastructure in which new businesses and businesses that are transforming places and communities such as Warrington will be at the forefront and able to grasp the very best of the global economy in the regions and nations of every part of the United Kingdom.

One of the great things about Edinburgh South West is that it has a flourishing renewables sector, which I think is reaching critical mass. A few weeks ago, I attended a fantastic roundtable that demonstrated the industry’s desire to work with the UK Government to make their industrial strategy a complete success. Will the Secretary of State commit to meeting organisations in Edinburgh South West to discuss how we can ensure that our industrial strategy brings as many jobs as possible to Scotland’s capital?

Again, my hon. Friend is a great advocate for the community that he represents in Parliament. I am very excited to meet the businesses that he references. We hit a milestone in the second quarter of this year, because the UK started to produce more than 50% of its energy using renewables. His community as well as other communities around the UK will benefit from the transition to renewables. This is an exciting time to do business, and this is an exciting sector of our economy; it is one of the fastest growing sectors in the global economy, and right here in the UK we are benefiting the most from it.

A major lodge development at Irvine House near Canonbie, and the potential for a Center Parcs in the borders, show that there is still great potential for jobs in the tourism industry my constituency. Will the Secretary of State encourage the Chancellor to follow the advice of the Scottish Hospitality Group and give hospitality a fair deal in the Budget, rather than clobbering it as she did last time?

I assure the right hon. Gentleman that every sector of our economy is at the forefront of the Chancellor’s mind as she stabilises and recovers our economy from the 14 years of chaos and confusion wrought by the Conservative party. I also assure him that there will be no repeat of the mini-Budget that the Conservatives inflicted on our economy, the consequences of which we are still suffering today, which the right hon. Gentleman voted for and supported. We inherited a growth emergency because of the decisions taken by the Conservative party in government. We will recover from it; we will build back better; and we will make sure that every sector, including hospitality, benefits from the great economy we are moving towards.

One change that would encourage significant investment is UK participation in the EU’s internal electricity market. Energy trading with our closest neighbour is currently hugely inefficient, which only adds to the burden of energy costs that our businesses face. Will the Government put real pressure behind the negotiations that are ongoing with the EU to reinstate our internal energy trading with the EU?

As the hon. Lady knows, we have put a lot of effort into the reset with the EU. We have built new opportunities for British people and British business, and we will continue to do so.

Every Labour Government in history have ended their time in office with unemployment higher than when they started, and this Government have made a record-breaking start. Businesses large and small in West Suffolk are putting off investment decisions, freezing recruitment and laying off staff because of the burdens already imposed on them by this Government—business property relief, the family farms tax, national insurance contributions, and the employment rights legislation. After the last Budget, the Chancellor told the Confederation of British Industry that she was not going to “come back for more”, so will the Secretary of State take this opportunity to end the uncertainty and tell business very clearly that there are going to be no more tax rises on business in the Budget?

I reassure the hon. Gentleman that the industrial strategy gives clarity on policy for 10 years into the future, which has been welcomed by businesses large and small. I also reassure him and the businesses in his community that there will be no repeat of the mini-Budget that the Conservatives inflicted on our country, for which we are still paying the price. Finally, I reassure him that we have a Chancellor who puts first and foremost the primary mission of this Government, which is economic growth—the kind of growth that is delivering record investment in our economy, from which every business, large and small, is benefiting equally right around the United Kingdom.

I call the shadow Minister.

I welcome the all-new ministerial team to their positions. They have inherited a crisis, because business confidence has plunged to a record low since the Chancellor’s Halloween budget a year ago today. Will the Business Secretary assure this House that he will find and demonstrate his backbone, stand up to the Chancellor, and encourage business investment by following Conservative plans to reduce welfare spending so that we can scrap the family business tax and cut small business rates?

I am very grateful to the hon. Lady for welcoming me to the Dispatch Box. We are very aware that we inherited a crisis—a crisis created by the Conservative party, including the state in which they left our global relations, the lack of growth in the economy and the effects of the mini-Budget. The reputation of our country was in tatters as a result and our public services were on their knees, but all of those things are being turned around because of the decisions taken by this Chancellor. The Conservatives should be celebrating the fact that we had the fastest growing economy in the G7 for the first six months of this year, because these are the kinds of actions that show we are getting growth and stability back into our economy, and give businesses the predictability upon which to build future success and prosperity and the creation of jobs. The Conservatives should be celebrating that, not talking our country down.