Covid-19: Businesses and the Private Sector

Lord Campbell of Pittenweem Excerpts

Thursday 21st May 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Campbell of Pittenweem (LD)]

My Lords, we shall not succeed unless we have the most effective partnership that we can between public and private, any more than we will not succeed if we do not accept the advice of the noble Lord, Lord Heseltine, expressed last night in an interview on Channel 4, that it is essential to utilise local initiative, knowledge and experience.

What I want to know is what forward thinking is taking place in the Government. There was a lot of wartime language at one stage, in the early days of our understanding of this virus. It is worth remembering that the Butler education reforms were conceived in the course of the Second World War, as indeed were the Beveridge proposals for social security. We certainly need equivalent foresight now.

There are two particular responsibilities which seem to me necessary for the Government. The first is education —to some extent I am echoing some of the sentiments just offered by the noble Baroness, Lady Falkner of Margravine. Once and for all we should put vocational education upon a par with higher education.

It is also necessary for the Government to embark on a serious programme of retraining. Those Rolls-Royce employees who are going to lose their jobs have a skills base that would easily allow them to be retrained for other similarly skilled opportunities. How shall we pay for this? I do not believe that the wholesale raising of taxes makes sense, as it will depress both demand and initiative; nor is cutting public expenditure possible. There can be no return to austerity; indeed, we may need to increase public expenditure.

The solution is obvious. Interest rates have never been more favourable. The Government should—

[The Deputy Speaker (Baroness Garden of Frognal) (LD)]

We seem to have lost Lord Campbell. I will move on to Lady McIntosh of Pickering.

Covid-19: Business

Lord Campbell of Pittenweem Excerpts

Wednesday 13th May 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Callanan]

My Lords, as always, I am very happy to join my noble friend in paying tribute to the many small community businesses up and down the country that play such an important part in our community life, and our message to them is a simple one. We will stand by them. We have announced an unprecedented range of measures to help them get through this extremely difficult and challenging period. The bounce-back loans scheme, which I am sure my noble friend is aware of, is a 100% government-backed loan scheme for small businesses. Any business will be able to borrow between £2,000 and £25,000 and have access to that cash, literally, within days. Those loans will be interest-free for the first 12 months. Businesses can apply online in a short and simple form. I totally agree with my noble friend that we need to stand by these businesses.

[Lord Campbell of Pittenweem (LD)]

My Lords, in the present circumstances it is clear that many businesses —particularly small ones, as has been mentioned—are desperate to avoid liquidation or bankruptcy, with employees in turn equally desperate to keep their jobs. In those circumstances, how can we be confident that both will not be tempted to cut corners?

[Lord Callanan]

That is why we have put in place such a strong enforcement regime. We have given extra resources to the Health and Safety Executive and local authorities to help them enforce these demands. Ultimately, it is a matter of trusting in the many sensible, established companies up and down the country to do the right thing for their employees. Most companies are endeavouring to do that; it is in their interests, and that is why they are successful. We will not hesitate to take enforcement action against the small minority that do not.

Space Policy

Lord Campbell of Pittenweem Excerpts

Wednesday 18th July 2018 Lords Chamber

[Lord Henley]

My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord for his intervention; I am sure the Government as a whole are grateful for the intervention he made earlier at Question Time. I was in the Chamber to hear it; if I remember correctly, I now know, as I did not at the time—and the noble Lord, Lord Campbell-Savours, is with me on this—that nitrogen is the commonest gas. But the noble Lord, Lord Winston, makes a more important point. We have a very strong university sector. We have enormous strengths in science in the university sector and we want to make sure we maintain them. It would not be right for me, in responding to this Statement, to go through all the Government wish to do to improve the teaching of science in our schools. However, I shall certainly make the comments of the noble Lord available to my colleagues in the Department for Education.

[Lord Campbell of Pittenweem (LD)]

My Lords, I hope I will not surprise the Minister too much if I say that I share his disappointment at the attitude being taken by the Commission towards the Galileo project. It is, to put it mildly, short-sighted, but it does lead me to a rather broader question: what military intelligence and security implications arise out of the Statement he has just repeated?

[Lord Henley]

My Lords, I think that I would prefer to write to the noble Lord on that issue.

Nissan: Sunderland

Lord Campbell of Pittenweem Excerpts

Monday 31st October 2016 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Neville-Rolfe]

I have made it quite clear that there is no special sweetheart deal. I outlined in the Statement the broad ingredients of what we have agreed with Nissan, and it has endorsed this with a clear statement to that effect. Of course, we need to look ahead over 10 years. We need to tool our industry and ensure that it is skilled and that we have the right sort of investment and innovation. That can include things Nissan is expert in such as electric cars and, no doubt in due course, the move to autonomous vehicles. We can do all that together. Nissan is a very competitive company that likes Britain. There is plenty of opportunity. We do not need to be so pessimistic about the future.

[Lord Campbell of Pittenweem (LD)]

My Lords, are we to accept that Nissan was persuaded by the answers to the first three proposals, which are about continuing and maintaining, and the fourth, which is about doing the best deal we can for the United Kingdom? If I was making an objective judgment of Nissan’s capacity for negotiation, I do not think I would give it many marks out of 10 if this is all it amounts to. Why cannot we have sight of the correspondence exchanged between the Secretary of State with the relevant responsibility and Nissan? Surely this is not the normal run-of-the mill argument about confidentiality; this issue goes right to the very heart of the Government’s case and their chances of success in negotiation. Is not that exactly the kind of accountability which this House and, indeed, the other place are more than entitled to ask for?

[Baroness Neville-Rolfe]

I feel sorry for Nissan. Over 30 years, it has invested more than £3.7 billion here. We have had important exchanges and correspondence with it of a confidential nature. We have summarised the key ingredients of that in good faith. I do not think there is anything I need to add to give a truer picture. I look forward to Nissan continuing to invest in the UK over many years.