Covid-19: Public Wealth Investment Fund

Debate between Lord Agnew of Oulton and Lord Haskel

Tuesday 9th June 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Haskel]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to establish a public wealth investment fund to support those businesses affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

[The Minister of State, Cabinet Office and the Treasury (Lord Agnew of Oulton) (Con) [V]]

My Lords, the Government have announced unprecedented support for public services, workers and businesses to protect them against the current economic emergency. Our interventions have been targeted to protect UK jobs while also protecting the taxpayer. Our aim is to protect the productive capacity of our economy and to enable a strong and sustainable recovery from this crisis. As we move through this crisis, the Government will continue to keep our economic response under review.

[Lord Haskel (Lab) [V]]

To rebuild our economy, the Government should listen to the many calling for our recovery through investment instead of paying down debt, which is where they seem to be concentrating. These are debts which some may never repay. Since I tabled my Question, investment ideas such as Project Birch have been floated, but will the Government make it clear that, in return for equity, firms should work towards our social objectives of responsible company behaviour, local levelling up and ensuring that all benefit?

[Lord Agnew of Oulton [V]]

I agree with the noble Lord that social benefit is an extremely important part of the recovery. To that end, we are consulting on our rules for public procurement at the moment to include social values as part of the scoring system.

Education and Training

Debate between Lord Agnew of Oulton and Lord Haskel

Monday 15th October 2018 Lords Chamber

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Education (Lord Agnew of Oulton) (Con)]

My Lords, we are working with employers to make the skills system more responsive to employers’ needs. This includes supporting industry to create high-quality apprenticeships and developing a national retraining scheme. This will give adults the skills they need to thrive as the economy changes. We are also introducing T-levels, a high-quality technical alternative to academic education, and establishing institutes of technology to meet higher-level technical skills needs.

[Lord Haskel (Lab)]

I hear what the Minister says, but with the Open University and FE colleges cutting back and several training companies in difficulty, the usual routes for skills and social progress via Earn and Learn, lifelong learning and adult reskilling, are in decline, as are apprenticeships. As a result, the number of skilled job vacancies is soaring, and high employment is based on low-skill, low-paid and low-security jobs. To me, this is not a route to a modern economy but a race to the bottom. How will the Government reverse that?

[Lord Agnew of Oulton]

My Lords, there are a lot of questions in that question but I can pick out some of the strands. I mentioned the national retraining scheme, which we have announced, which is investing £100 million in retraining. It will include a phased series of impactful interventions, and initial interventions will be in digital and construction. I mentioned national colleges, which are specialist colleges for technical areas. We have started with two for the nuclear industry and high-speed rail. We are also tendering for the institutes of technology at the moment. I assure the noble Lord that we are very focused on this important area.