Oral Answers to Questions

Lord Bellingham Excerpts

Wednesday 24th February 2016 Commons Chamber

[Rehman Chishti (Gillingham and Rainham) (Con)]

2. What recent assessment he has made of trends in the level of employment in Wales.

[Sir Henry Bellingham (North West Norfolk) (Con)]

7. What assessment he has made of trends in the level of employment in Wales; and if he will make a statement.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Wales (Alun Cairns)]

Employment in Wales is now at a record high, with more people than ever before having the security of a pay packet to provide for themselves and their family. Aston Martin has been mentioned. That is testimony to the significant investment that Wales is attracting.

[Alun Cairns]

My hon. Friend is right and he is a true champion of Aberystwyth and of mid-Wales. He will be pleased to hear that there are 3,500 additional small businesses in that area, with an extra 5,500 people going out to work every day since 2010 as a result of the economic stability we have brought about.

[Sir Henry Bellingham]

Does the Minister agree that the key to further enhancing employment in Wales is diversification and innovation in the rural economy, just as is happening in East Anglia? What specific measures does he have in mind to increase enterprise in Wales’s more remote areas?

[Alun Cairns]

My hon. Friend is a great expert on rural issues in relation to the success in his constituency in North West Norfolk, and I pay tribute to that. Employment growth in rural Wales has outperformed employment increases across the whole of Wales, which demonstrates the dynamism and the broad base on which those policies are being implemented. There is a range of initiatives such as the British Business Bank, the start-up loan scheme and the new enterprise allowance scheme on a UK Government basis, and we are keen to work with the Welsh Government to try to diversify further.