Oral Answers to Questions Debate

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Department: HM Treasury

Oral Answers to Questions

Aaron Bell Excerpts
Tuesday 7th July 2020

(4 years, 4 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Aaron Bell Portrait Aaron Bell (Newcastle-under-Lyme) (Con)
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What fiscal steps he is taking to protect jobs during the covid19 outbreak.

Angela Eagle Portrait Ms Angela Eagle (Wallasey) (Lab)
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What fiscal steps he is taking to tackle unemployment as a result of the covid-19 outbreak.

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Rishi Sunak Portrait Rishi Sunak
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Those in the creative arts, like others, can benefit from the self-employment scheme and other interventions that we have put in place, but it is important to know what happened yesterday: a £1.5 billion support package for our cultural institutions up and down the country, from our crown jewels—our globally recognised assets—to our local community theatres. They will all be able to benefit from the support we have put in place and preserve what is so special about our cultural heritage.

Aaron Bell Portrait Aaron Bell
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I thank the Chancellor for all he has done so far, and I look forward to his statement tomorrow. He mentioned unemployment, and we are aware that it is rising, so one of the most important things we can do is to get people back into work as quickly as possible. In Newcastle-under-Lyme we are benefiting from the Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire local enterprise partnership redundancy and recruitment triage service. Will he welcome that? There are areas where employment is growing, and if we can get people who have been made redundant into those jobs as quickly as possible, we will minimise the devastating effects of this coronavirus.

Rishi Sunak Portrait Rishi Sunak
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My hon. Friend is absolutely right. The importance of job matching is critical and the evidence shows us that it works. I know from my time as a Local Government Minister the innovative approach that Councillor Atkins and his team on the county council and the LEP have taken to various economic initiatives. I pay tribute to them for putting this in place with such speed.