European Investment Bank

Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford Excerpts

Wednesday 24th July 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Livermore (Lab)]

I think that is a question for Parliament rather than the Government.

[Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford (Con)]

I declare my interest as chair of Oxford University Innovation. At the heart of this question is the need to have more scale-up capital invested in UK innovations. Australian pensions invest more than 10 times the amount of capital than we do in private markets. The previous Chancellor was trying to unlock UK pension capitals into our UK innovations. Are the Government going to continue that work and unlock pension capitals into these innovations? How do they intend to make sure that that happens at pace?

[Lord Livermore (Lab)]

I am grateful to the noble Baroness for her question, and I agree with the premise behind it. We as a country need to get better at start- up and scale-up capital, and we need to increase the levels of investment in our economy. Our goal is absolutely to unlock billions of pounds of private sector investment into the infrastructure that our economy desperately needs. The noble Baroness will be aware that the Chancellor and the new Pensions Minister have launched a review to boost investment, increase pension pots and tackle waste in the pensions system. In order to boost investment in Britain, we want to see more pension schemes investing in fast-growing British firms. As she will know, just a 1% increase in the £800 billion of assets that DC schemes are set to manage by the end of this decade could raise £8 billion of investment into the UK economy. The sectors that she identifies are definitely ones that we should prioritise.

Road Pricing

Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford Excerpts

Monday 29th April 2024 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Vere of Norbiton (Con)]

My Lords, it is not opacity. What is going on here is simply that a number of options can be taken forward as taxes shift and change over time. All taxes shift and change over time with regard to the amount of money they bring into the Exchequer. The Government have forecasts as to what will happen to fuel duty and are considering all sorts of ideas as to how that would be plugged. For example, noble Lords will have seen that electric vehicles will start to pay VED from April 2025. It will not be at the same level as for an ICE vehicle, but it is right that EVs start to pay their way.

[Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford (Con)]

My Lords, putting aside road pricing for a second, average car insurance costs in the UK have neared £1,000 after prices rose by 58% this year. Does the Treasury intend to look into whether these increases are justifiable?

[Baroness Vere of Norbiton (Con)]

It is concerning to see such large rises in insurance. Officials are monitoring it. The Treasury is unlikely to intervene in what is a private market. However, I will write to my noble friend, because there are various helplines and advisers who can sometimes help people to find cheaper car insurance.

Autumn Statement 2022

Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford Excerpts

Tuesday 29th November 2022 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford (Con)]

My Lords, I declare my interests as set out in the register and, of course, I welcome the Minister back to her place.

Others more expert than I have analysed the geopolitical drivers that underpin our current economic outlook. It is impossible not to hold very strong opinions about these and the domestic response that has played into the enormous economic upheaval we face, but my plea is for a focus on solutions that will restore faith in our economic future, not least because we are exhausted.

We are exhausted by having to keep rising up as a nation to respond yet again to crisis: first the financial crisis, then Brexit, the pandemic, Ukraine and now an energy and inflation-driven economic downturn. We will be judged not by assigning blame in this time of crisis—there will always be plenty of time for that—but rather by how we respond to put things right for the millions facing real hardship up and down the country. For this reason, I welcome the three key principles laid out by the Chancellor: support for public services, the need for fiscal responsibility, and the need for growth. In the time available, I will focus on the critical role that health and innovation have to play in our national recovery.

A healthy economy needs healthy people, but we have seen a spike of 500,000 British workers dropping out of work due to poor health since the pandemic. These figures shed light on why the labour market remains so tight. The Bank of England chief economist described this as a “real shock” that is fanning inflationary pressures. Here, I must disagree with my noble friend Lady Noakes: NHS Confederation analysis shows that investment in health is not a drain on GDP, as often represented, but rather boosts economic activity. The NHS is a net contributor to the UK economy; every £1 spent on health can generate up to £4 of economic growth and improving the health of just 1% of those not in work due to ill-health, a recognised proxy for general morbidity, could help 180,000 get back into work. It is therefore critical that our health system has the capacity to respond to this, so I welcome the further investment for both the NHS and social care that the Chancellor announced, as well as his commitment to an independently verified workforce plan.

On capital, I note that while it was protected in cash terms, the current 11% inflation means that the Government will have to review their plans for buildings, equipment and, critically, IT—94% of trusts admit they still use handwritten records in at least one department. From John Snow, who analysed dot maps to uncover the link between water pumps and cholera, to Florence Nightingale, who pioneered at-scale statistical analysis in patient care, and John Shaw Billings, who worked out how to mechanically analyse medical and demographic data collected during the US Civil War, we have known for some time now that improving health at an individual and population level requires good management of health data. It is no longer an advanced concept that you can predict the future performance of a company according to how effectively it uses its data, and the NHS is no exception.

At Genomics England, we are a living example of next-generation clinical care founded on the use of technology and data. We hold the largest whole-genome dataset in the world, the National Genomic Research Library, and through the NHS Genomic Medicine Service, whole-genome sequencing is now offered as a standard of care to rare disease and cancer patients. Recent research from Great Ormond Street demonstrates that these benefits for patients include providing additional information for diagnosis in 81% of cases; changed condition management in 24% of cases; and reclassified diagnosis in 14% of cases. Many a Minister has claimed that we are world-leading in all manner of fields, but in genomics, we can be proud that this really is the case.

If we get NHS data right, it will be the cornerstone of a sustainable, high-quality NHS which can respond to the exceptional challenges we face today. It will turbocharge growth and investment in life sciences and health research and it will empower the patient as never before. On that basis, will the Minister assure me that plans for investing in health technology and innovation adoption will be prioritised?

This matters for patient care, but also for life sciences and health research. The life sciences sector is one of, if not the, most productive and high-growth sectors in our economy, contributing almost £37 billion to UK GDP and supporting over 500,000 high-value jobs. It is critical to our national recovery. I am delighted that the Chancellor committed to increasing public R&D as planned, but getting the overall level of R&D investment up requires the right incentives for private investment too. That is why, like the BIA and the noble Lord, Lord Fox, I think that the reforms to R&D tax relief may turn out to be a false economy. They fall hardest on SMEs, as he said. I know the Treasury believes that there is abuse, but life science SMEs are our biotech engine, employing a quarter of the life sciences workforce. They are often loss-leading for years but they have enormous growth and life-saving potential.

As chair of Oxford University Innovation, I am privileged to see many of the UK’s most exciting life sciences spinouts mature to global standing. These include such companies as OMass, RQ Bio, Oxford Nanopore, Autolus, Nightstar and so many more. These are the innovators and innovations that will solve the great global challenges we face, just as they did during the pandemic. It is difficult to see the economic strategy in reducing support for one of our most knowledge-intensive and globally competitive sectors.

This matters now more than ever, because our traditional leadership role in life sciences is at risk. According to the ABPI, our overall share of global R&D spend is falling. If I were to identify one root cause, it would be a serious fall in clinical trials performance. Since 2017-18, the number of patients recruited into industry trials has fallen by 44% and the number of industry trials initiated in the UK has fallen by 41%. This is wholly unacceptable. Thankfully, it is also wholly fixable.

The excellent life sciences vision is critical for sectoral confidence. It also includes action on clinical research and a number of supply-side reforms, but it remains only partially funded. This does not send the right message of long-term certainty and commitment that we need to stimulate inward investment. Will the Minister commit to fully funding the delivery of the life sciences vision, including urgent action on restoring our clinical research capabilities?

In closing, I ask the Minister to remember that we have the power to unlock the full potential of health and innovation for the benefit of all. We know that we have a latent capacity for health and life sciences that is far greater than we ever imagined: we saw it happen in front of our eyes during the pandemic. This means that as we look to the challenges that we face today, we know we can solve them if we apply the same determination, prioritisation and leadership that we applied to develop and deploy vaccines for Covid in record time. We can lead on this, and we should lead on this.

Spending Review and Autumn Statement

Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford Excerpts

Wednesday 25th November 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Osborne]

One would not have guessed from the hon. Gentleman’s outburst that it was a Labour Government who introduced tuition fees and a Labour Government who introduced top-up fees. I think it is perfectly—[Interruption.] The truth is this: Labour Members got into opposition, they became completely irresponsible, and they have no economic plan and no economic credibility. Part of that was opposing the very student fees that they had themselves introduced when in government. The changes we are making to student fees enable us to expand student places. They not only remove the cap on nurse training places, whereby at the moment over the half the applicants are turned away, and as a result hospitals have to rely on agency staff and nurses from overseas, but expand student places across our universities in all disciplines. I would have thought that the hon. Gentleman, as a former head of the National Union of Students, would welcome that.

[Nicola Blackwood (Oxford West and Abingdon) (Con)]

I thank the Chancellor for listening to the Science and Technology Committee and protecting science and innovation spending, which will mean more high-value jobs, higher productivity, and more inward investment. However, does he agree with us that we will realise the full value of this settlement only with better co-ordination between capital and resource allocations so that our researchers and innovators achieve their full potential for the United Kingdom?

[Mr Osborne]

I thank my hon. Friend for her words of support and for the work that she has done as Chair of the Science and Technology Committee. She made exactly the same point to me in person—that as well as providing capital support for science, we had to provide resource support to make sure that the facilities were well funded and could operate throughout the year. That is why we have increased the science resource budget and made sure that it now goes up in real terms. I know that she will want to look at Paul Nurse’s report, which is about making sure that we better co-ordinate our scientific research activity across the country.

The Economy

Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford Excerpts

Thursday 4th June 2015 Commons Chamber

[Nicola Blackwood (Oxford West and Abingdon) (Con)]

Congratulations, Madam Deputy Speaker. As is already clear, you will find a warm welcome from all sides of the House because we know you as a champion of us Back Benchers, and we trust you.

It is a pleasure to follow so many outstanding maiden speeches. Constituents across the country will be proud to see their choices vindicated today. Those speeches take me back to my first days as an MP when I was elected in 2010. Hundreds of thousands of people had lost their jobs and for many more the prospect of home ownership was a distant dream. Others struggled to make ends meet. Our first duty in coalition was to restore fiscal responsibility to our public finances, offering this country the economic security that underpins all other policy decisions. There is nothing compassionate about paying more in debt interest than could be afforded on education. It is right to finish the job now. Once we have balanced the books, we can target investment and create the climate for all parts of the UK to realise their full potential.

Already, employment is at a record high and rising. In my constituency, youth unemployment has fallen by over 76%, but it is no good creating all these jobs if we do not offer the education and skills for local people to benefit. It is no good funding millions of apprenticeships and university places if we are not going to address skills shortages we face in engineering, nursing, construction and social care. I hope that the full employment and welfare benefits Bill reporting duties will not just be headline employment and apprenticeships figures, but that they will review progress broken down by sector and set against skills demand. That is the only way in which we will deliver the sophisticated skills strategy we need.

Oxfordshire, for example, is among the top five innovation ecosystems in the world. We have more than 1,500 high-tech firms, from start-ups to global company headquarters. We are world leaders in life sciences, big physics and space, and we employ more than 43,000 people. Not only has Oxford produced more than 50 Nobel laureates, but we are leaders in UK tech transfer. Between 2010 and 2012, Oxford university generated more spin-outs than any other UK university. State-of-the-art facilities such as the Diamond synchrotron and the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy, and access to our hyper-skilled labour pool, make us disproportionately attractive to tech industry.

Even in Oxford, however, businesses struggle with the skills shortage, housing costs, and digital and physical infrastructure, and those are the constraints that we must overcome. The Chancellor has rightly zeroed in on weak productivity, but the British scientific community is the most productive in the world. With just over 3% of the world’s research and development spending, we produce more than 6% of the world’s publications and 16% of its most cited papers. Our researchers translate funding into great science more effectively than anyone else. Yet despite recent increases, we still lag behind our international competitors in R and D investment, ranking only 12th in the EU.

Commercialisation is another issue. Despite Innovate UK’s excellent reputation, tech firms outside London speak of a chronic shortage of early-stage investment capital, and a mismatch between longer lead-in times—especially for biotech—and the impatience of capital investors. Incentives for individual investors de-risk investments, and we have a growing angel network in Oxford, but there are no breakthrough, throwing-down-the-gauntlet-to-Silicon-Valley solutions. I hope that the Treasury will explore incentives for pension funds and insurance companies—those with long-term perspectives —to invest directly in tech firms. Globalisation means that a single disruptive technology can create a worldwide paradigm shift in what seems like an instant: think Uber and taxis, Netflix and DVDs. Our STEM ecosystem needs to be the most agile and responsive in the world.

In five years of representing what I consider to be the vertex of our golden triangle, I have learnt a few things: for instance, that one should always go to a surgery prepared for an impromptu tutorial on wave particle duality and that we need to develop a policy for our STEM ecosystem as a coherent whole. We have come closest to that with our growth deals, which is why we in Oxford are particularly excited about the genuinely transformative possibilities of the cities and local government devolution Bill. We feel that if Cambridge has been granted devolved powers to retain business rates, we should have those powers too.

It would be deeply disappointing if, in his efforts to rebalance the economy, the Chancellor overlooked counties which already power the economy, but still have much more to give. The exam question should be not “Are you doing OK?”, but “How much better could you be doing?” Just as the education Bill will tackle both failing and coasting schools, this Government programme should aim to unlock the full potential of every local economy and community in Great Britain.

Charter for Budget Responsibility

Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford Excerpts

Tuesday 13th January 2015 Commons Chamber

[Ed Balls]

Maybe we could form a consensus on the way forward on devolution for the regions—I am in favour of that and so is the hon. Gentleman—and that is not the only thing we could form a consensus on, because this is what he told ConservativeHome just recently:

“A bit of extra tax on properties over £2 million seems perfectly fair to me.”

I am with him all the way. Maybe we should get together on that one as well—you shouldn’t have let that one through, George!

Let me come back to the vote and what the Chancellor said at the time of the Budget. He said:

“Britain needs to run an absolute surplus in good years…To lock in our country’s commitment to this path of deficit reduction, we will seek the support of Parliament in a vote, and I will bring forward a new charter for budget responsibility this autumn.”—[Official Report, 19 March 2014; Vol. 577, c. 784.]

The vote was supposed to be on an absolute surplus. That is what the Chancellor was talking about. The Prime Minister on 15 December—the day the new charter was published—attacked Labour for our proposal for two or three years to get the current Budget into surplus. What was surprising about that speech was that the Prime Minister made it, did the Q and A, and got off the stage before the Treasury published the new charter. That was an odd thing to do when he was talking up the charter. Why would they not put it out in advance? It turned out to be because the Prime Minister had just finished a speech attacking Labour and our plan to get the current Budget into surplus, and then the Treasury published a new fiscal charter committing the Government to get the current Budget into surplus. No wonder he got off the stage so quickly.

The Chancellor promised in the last Budget a vote to balance the overall budget. Now the Government have done a U-turn and are proposing a vote on the current Budget excluding capital investment, which is the same measure we have been committed to for three years. Can he confirm that in the last Budget he promised a vote on an absolute Budget surplus and this charter before us is a vote on the current Budget? Is that right?

Also, when we study the fine print of this fiscal mandate, we find that it turns out to be even more different from the old one than I expected. The old fiscal mandate talked about having a target to balance the current Budget in 2015-16 and a target to have the national debt falling. We can see why this Chancellor has got a little worried about setting targets because they have not gone very well. It turns out that in this new document it has been downgraded from a target to an aim. Why have the words changed? Would the Chancellor like to explain?

[Nicola Blackwood (Oxford West and Abingdon) (Con)]

Will the shadow Chancellor give way?

[Ed Balls]

In a second.

As we established a moment ago, even though according to the Chancellor and the Prime Minister the vote is on balancing the current Budget in 2017-18, in fact when we read this charter, we find that there is no mention anywhere of the dates 2017-18. It is baffling that they are not there. Let me read it out. It talks about

“a forward-looking aim to achieve cyclically-adjusted current balance by the end of the third year of the rolling, 5-year forecast period.”

What on earth does that mean?

--- Later in debate ---

[Nicola Blackwood (Oxford West and Abingdon) (Con)]

When I was elected, one of my first actions was to visit local schools because I felt that I should do my bit to pass on our proud British democratic tradition. Far from finding those schools filled with apathy and ignorance, I found classrooms filled with young people who were alive with anger and who believed, as the hon. Member for Redcar (Ian Swales) said, that their futures had been sold down the river by fiscally irresponsible government. At that point it was hard to reassure them. Fiscal tightening and public sector reforms are difficult to sell to young people who are making decisions about GCSEs, apprenticeships and UCAS applications. They felt that they were bearing the brunt of economically incompetent decisions in which they had no say. Today when I visit the very same schools, I can tell pupils of a falling deficit and record employment. Where they live, youth unemployment has fallen by 76%, more than 3,000 new businesses have started up, and 2,240 new apprentices have started since 2010.

[Mr John Redwood (Wokingham) (Con)]

Does my hon. Friend remember Labour’s gloomy predictions that our economic policies would deliver mass and rising unemployment? Instead, they have delivered record levels of new jobs for young people in her constituency.

[Nicola Blackwood]

I do indeed. I can also tell those young people that we are investing in their future through the Oxfordshire city deal and growth deal—not through centrally mandated planning committees, but through universities, local further education colleges, and future employers—and that local authorities of all stripes are working together to develop our own long-term local economic plan. We are targeting that funding exactly where it will stimulate growth and jobs—infrastructure, skills training, local business support, and urgently needed housing and flood defences. That twin message of more jobs and growth alongside targeted local investment is possible only because of the essential precondition mentioned by my right hon. and learned Friend the Member for Rushcliffe (Mr Clarke). Incredibly difficult decisions on spending cuts across Government have been made with one end in sight: reducing our deficit while reforming our public services and protecting front-line services. That is why I support the motion.

If we do not commit to continuing along that path and maintaining fiscal consolidation and the public sector reforms necessary to bring our public finances back to health, and to boosting growth and wages in a sustainable way, rather than the chaotic manner outlined by the shadow Chancellor, our economic recovery will falter and we will lose the hard-won gains we have already made. Already, thanks to Labour’s billions of pounds of undisclosed tax rises and unfunded spending commitments, the single biggest risk factor facing markets is political instability, as economists consider the chaotic consequences of a Labour Government with the shadow Chancellor at the helm once again, free to borrow and tax us back into recession and rising unemployment. I for one am not prepared to go back to those schools and explain how we got halfway through the work of restoring our national finances, only to fail to complete the job.

The Economy

Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford Excerpts

Wednesday 26th November 2014 Commons Chamber

[Priti Patel]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right, and that is, of course, the objective of this Government: we want to support and give a helping hand to the young in particular, as they start out in their careers and professional lives.

[Nicola Blackwood (Oxford West and Abingdon) (Con)]

Unemployment has fallen by 66% in my constituency since 2010, but the businesses who are creating these jobs tell me that cutting red tape is a priority for them if this growth is to continue. Can my hon. Friend explain why the Opposition will not commit to our one in, two out deregulation target?

[Priti Patel]

The Labour party created even more red tape, regulatory burden and excessive regulation on business, and I commend my hon. Friend and the businesses in her constituency on everything they are doing on job creation.

Britain tumbled down the international league tables under the Labour Government: from 11th to 23rd in the world in terms of our corporate tax regime; out of the top 10 in the global competitiveness league; and out of the top 10 in terms of the ease of starting a business and doing business—we were level pegging with Mongolia on that. Levels of Government spending under Labour were catastrophically higher than we could afford. We had the most over-indebted banks and households, and we were on course for having the biggest budget deficit of any major economy in the world.

The British public are still experiencing the impacts of the Labour Government’s economic policies but, rather than coming to the House to apologise for the economic carnage that they created, Labour Members have the audacity to come here today and ask us why we are not clearing up their mess quickly enough. I think we all know that the past four years have been hard, and we cannot magic up a better standard of living from the economic carnage that we inherited. The only way to deliver for people up and down the country is to put in place a lasting, sustainable and healthy recovery.

Oral Answers to Questions

Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford Excerpts

Tuesday 2nd September 2014 Commons Chamber

[The Chief Secretary to the Treasury (Danny Alexander)]

The hon. Lady is right to highlight the seriousness of these issues. However, as has been said in this question session, the statistics show that child poverty in this country has come down and is coming down under the coalition Government. It is precisely because of these issues that we are introducing the policy of universal free school meals. The evidence shows that it increases take-up among low-income families, who do not always take up free school meals, and ensures that children get a square meal at school each day. I hope that she will join me in welcoming that.

[Nicola Blackwood (Oxford West and Abingdon) (Con)]

T3. The appalling congestion in Abingdon makes life miserable for families and commuters and inhibits local economic growth. With 600 new and needed houses planned on Dunmore road, will the Chancellor meet met to discuss why investing in a diamond junction on Lodge hill on the A34 is the answer not only to making that development sustainable, but to unlocking growth in the wider region?

[Mr Osborne]

Of course, I would be happy to meet my hon. Friend to discuss improvements on the A34. We are making an enormous number of improvements to the UK road system and spending more on transport and road improvement than the previous Government. We are also investing in science, and I remember making a useful visit with my hon. Friend to her constituency to see the results of the money that we have contributed to Begbroke science park. I will certainly have a meeting with her about the A34.

Oral Answers to Questions

Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford Excerpts

Tuesday 10th December 2013 Commons Chamber

[Danny Alexander]

It is noteworthy that no one from the Labour Benches wanted to comment on cutting fuel duty in remote and rural areas. I wholeheartedly agree with my right hon. Friend, and by the end of this Parliament, motorists will be paying 20p a litre less every time they fill up their tank than they would have paid had Labour’s fuel duty escalator been allowed to go forward.

[Nicola Blackwood (Oxford West and Abingdon) (Con)]

4. What steps he has taken to increase infrastructure investment.

[Andrew Selous (South West Bedfordshire) (Con)]

6. What steps he has taken to increase infrastructure investment.

[The Chief Secretary to the Treasury (Danny Alexander)]

Average annual investment in infrastructure has risen to £45 billion per year under this Government, compared with just £41 billion during the last five years of the previous Government. Last week we published an updated national infrastructure plan that set out our long-term plan for meeting those ambitions for the next decade and beyond. That included a pipeline of £375 billion-worth of projects, building on the announcements we made in June.

[Nicola Blackwood]

I thank the Chief Secretary for his answer. Does he agree that investing in strategic roads such as the A34 in my constituency can be key to unlocking vital growth and inward investment in priority sectors? Will he investigate the economic case for urgent investment in the A34?

[Danny Alexander]

I agree about the importance of the A34, which is why, through the national pinch-point programme announced in the 2011 autumn statement, we committed to a scheme to improve links between the A34 and the M40. Work on that scheme will start in March, and I am sure the hon. Lady will agree that it will make a significant difference to the economy in her part of the country.

Autumn Statement

Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford Excerpts

Thursday 5th December 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Osborne]

As we have now discovered, the recession was even deeper than we knew at the time, with a 7% fall in national income. The financial crisis had an even bigger effect on our economy and its recovery and, at the same time and as is obvious to everyone, our nearest neighbours in the eurozone almost had their currency fall apart and remain in recession. During this period, we were also told repeatedly that if we stuck with our plan and went on trying to reduce the deficit, there would be no economic recovery. We have still had no explanation from a Labour Member as to why we now have a recovery.

[Nicola Blackwood (Oxford West and Abingdon) (Con)]

As an Oxford MP, I welcome the Chancellor’s personal commitment to science and his ongoing investment in Oxfordshire science. We already lead the world in key sectors, but does he agree that, as well as funding certainty, future STEM competitiveness will rely on our redoubling our efforts to raise school standards and increase our pool of highly skilled researchers and technicians—women as well as men?

[Mr Osborne]

I agree with my hon. Friend. She represents one of the greatest universities in the world. I met yesterday a professor of physics from Oxford university, Professor Walmsley, and he was very welcoming of the additional investment we are putting into quantum technology—£270 million in the coming years. It is cutting-edge technology and Oxford is a leader in it. I agree that we need to make sure that kids come out of our schools with the science and maths to take the undergraduate places that turn into the graduate research fellowships and the like. The school reforms being pursued by the Government are the best guarantee of that happening.