Contributions
1,533 recent contributions in Hansard
HANSARDUK Infrastructure: 10-year StrategyI am grateful to the noble Baroness for the smile; it is always most welcome. On the route of the trans-Pennine route upgrade, she spoke about the importance of transparency. I…24 Jun 2025HANSARDUK Infrastructure: 10-year StrategyI am grateful to my noble friend for her support for NISTA and the spatial planning elements of that. I do think that the spatial side of that is really important, as she says, to…24 Jun 2025HANSARDUK Infrastructure: 10-year StrategyI am grateful to the noble Lord for the positive things that he said. I pay tribute to him and to Make UK for the work that they do. Clearly, the skills conversation that we just…24 Jun 2025HANSARDUK Infrastructure: 10-year StrategyI am grateful for what my noble friend said. I share his enthusiasm for what we are doing in the innovation landscape, such as putting a record high of £22.6 billion into R&D as…24 Jun 2025HANSARDUK Infrastructure: 10-year StrategyI can definitely say yes to one of the noble Lord’s questions, which I am pleased to be able to do. He talked about making sure that this investment is not cut back according to…24 Jun 2025HANSARDUK Infrastructure: 10-year StrategyI completely agree with what the noble Lord said about the importance of that sector. He mentioned the example of the energy sector and, as I said, we have, in the industrial…24 Jun 2025HANSARDUK Infrastructure: 10-year StrategyI am very grateful to the noble Baronesses, Lady Neville-Rolfe and Lady Kramer, for their comments and questions, and for their broad support and welcome for this strategy. The…24 Jun 2025HANSARDUK Infrastructure: 10-year StrategyI agree with the noble Earl on the importance of investment in net zero and measures to tackle climate change. From a growth perspective, it is not one or the other for those…24 Jun 2025HANSARDUK Infrastructure: 10-year StrategyI am grateful to the noble Lord for the question and for bringing that to my attention—I did not know about that decision. I will very happily go away and look at that. We have…24 Jun 2025HANSARDBusiness Rates ReformYes, absolutely, although I do not quite see why their future would be in doubt; as I said, we have set out our intention to strengthen them. We will bring forward proposals to do…23 Jun 2025HANSARDBusiness Rates ReformI am grateful to the noble Lord for his question. As he will know, the current business rates system, with temporary reliefs for retail, hospitality and leisure, creates a yearly…23 Jun 2025HANSARDBusiness Rates ReformI am very happy to take that away and discuss it with my colleagues in MHCLG.23 Jun 2025HANSARDBusiness Rates ReformWe have set out very clearly that we want to go further to modernise the system, over and above the tax cuts that I set out for small properties, exactly for the reasons my noble…23 Jun 2025HANSARDBusiness Rates ReformI thank my noble friend for his question and pay tribute to his work and his expertise in this area. As he knows, business improvement districts play an important role in…23 Jun 2025HANSARDBusiness Rates ReformI am very happy to follow the noble Lord’s suggestion and research that. I do not know the number off the top of my head, but in the spending review, we set out important new…23 Jun 2025HANSARDBusiness Rates ReformThat is a very interesting proposal from my noble friend. As I say, we will set out an interim report later this summer, setting out a clear direction of travel, and let us see…23 Jun 2025HANSARDBusiness Rates ReformI am grateful to the noble Lord for his question. On this Government’s proposals for improving BIDs, the English Devolution White Paper, which I mentioned, set out our intention…23 Jun 2025HANSARDBusiness Rates ReformMy Lords, the Government are creating a fairer business rates system that protects high streets and supports investment. We do not anticipate that these business rates reforms…23 Jun 2025HANSARDBusiness Rates ReformI am grateful to my friend for his question. I will say honestly that I had not thought of it in that way before, but I can absolutely see the point that he is making. My noble…23 Jun 2025HANSARDSpending Review 2025I am very grateful to the noble Baronesses, Lady Neville-Rolfe and Lady Kramer, for their comments and questions on yesterday’s spending review Statement. It would have been…12 Jun 2025