Industrial Strategy: Local Growth

Debate between Lord Goddard of Stockport and Lord Callanan

Monday 26th April 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord Callanan (Con)]

I know that the noble Lord has been a long-term champion of the creative industries, and I agree with him. We recognise the importance of the creative sectors. In Build Back Better: Our Plan for Growth, creative industries are highlighted as one of the sectors that we expect to shape the UK’s economic future. Upgrading and creating new cultural and creative spaces represents a core element of the £4.8 billion levelling-up fund.

[Lord Goddard of Stockport (LD)]

The Industrial Strategy Council’s annual report points out that the Government’s plans

“are not yet a practical roadmap for delivering Net Zero, with several areas at present lacking the required scale to make progress at the required speed”.

Housing retrofit is one such area. Will the Government accept the recommendation of the House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee’s recent report on energy efficiency to open up the proposed £3.8 billion social housing upgrades? It is estimated that green home upgrades could support 77,000 jobs across the north alone. That is levelling up.

[Lord Callanan (Con)]

The noble Lord makes a good point. The £62 million social housing decarbonisation fund demonstrator is currently delivering 19 projects across England and Scotland. In the autumn 2020 spending review we committed a further £60 million towards funding the main elements of the social housing decarbonisation fund to ensure some early progress and, of course, we are still committed to the manifesto commitment of £3.8 billion for the funding total.

Covid-19: Night-time Economy

Debate between Lord Goddard of Stockport and Lord Callanan

Tuesday 26th January 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord Callanan (Con)]

My noble friend is correct. The Culture Recovery Fund is delivered through Arts Council England, the National Lottery Heritage Fund, Historic England and the British Film Institute. It covers charitable and private organisations of all sizes, in the arts, museums and heritage sectors, as well as music venues, festivals and independent cinemas. The Government continue to work closely with each of these sectors to understand what further support we can provide.

[Lord Goddard of Stockport (LD)]

My Lords, I declare my interest as vice-chair of the APPG for the Night-Time Economy. In 2019, the annual revenue budget for the night-time economy nationally was £66 billion. Comparatively, the fishing industry, in 2018, was worth £784 million to the economy. That is about £60 billion less a year. Could the Minister explain, in pure economic terms, why people are asking me why the night-time economy has been abandoned by this Government in favour of protecting the fishing industry? Minister, I like fish, but not at the expense of Ronnie Scott’s or the Band on the Wall in Manchester or thousands of other venues now on their knees. Many thousands of jobs are predicted to go permanently in our sector, if more financial support is not immediately forthcoming.

[Lord Callanan (Con)]

I am not sure of the point that the noble Lord is making. It is not a choice of one or the other. Of course the fishing industry is important, but the night-time economy is vital also. I outlined earlier the many steps that we are taking to help them.

Oil and Gas Industry

Debate between Lord Goddard of Stockport and Lord Callanan

Tuesday 22nd September 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Callanan (Con) [V]]

As we have said, oil and gas have a key role to play in the transition and that is reflected by the independent Committee on Climate Change. Many of these things are, of course, a matter for the market. We have historically low oil prices at the moment, and the Government are well aware of it. We need to transition away from fossil fuel. BP, which the noble Lord mentioned, is doing a tremendous job in supporting, for example, the Net Zero Teesside scheme.

[Lord Goddard of Stockport (LD) [V]]

Will Her Majesty’s Government support carbon capture and storage technology on a regional basis across the UK, including the north-west, to meet our net-zero commitment while securing the future energy needs of our manufacturing plants, without which we will come to rely even more on imports from other countries? Without such a commitment, we will undermine our contribution to tackling climate change while putting in doubt thousands of jobs in this sector at the worst possible time.

[Lord Callanan (Con) [V]]

The noble Lord is right. Carbon capture and storage will be a key part of our future energy requirements. The Chancellor announced the new carbon capture and storage infrastructure fund of at least £800 million. We are committed to deploying carbon capture and storage in at least two industrial clusters over the next decade.