Economic Growth

Debate between Andrew Murrison and Emma Reynolds

Monday 7th September 2026 Commons Chamber

[Emma Reynolds]

I can absolutely give my hon. Friend that reassurance. The Government are intent on driving good growth and job creation opportunities across the country—in the north, the south, the midlands and every other part, too.

[Dr Andrew Murrison (South West Wiltshire) (Con)]

The Government insisted on applying the social time preference rate to the disastrous Chagos deal to make an appalling deal look slightly better. Will the Minister confirm that the changes she has announced today as part of her Green Book revision will increase the cost of that deal by £288 million, which is 10 times the amount that she proposes to cut from the Army training budget this year?

[Emma Reynolds]

The Green Book discount rate is a tool of economic analysis. It does not change the cost of the deal.

Farming Road Map and Profitability Review

Debate between Andrew Murrison and Emma Reynolds

Wednesday 24th June 2026 Commons Chamber

[Emma Reynolds]

We have announced additional funding for the farming innovation programme, bringing total innovation funding to £123 million. This is to back practical technology, including robotics, soil health and water management. It is about the shift to sustainable farming practices.

[Dr Andrew Murrison (South West Wiltshire) (Con)]

Wiltshire farmers listened to Ministers at the Oxford farming conference and heard the Government’s pledge to support farmers during difficult harvests and supply shocks. They now find that they are in the middle of a supply shock, with many considering whether to plant their fields right now because of the price of fertiliser, about a third of which comes through the strait of Hormuz. If the pledge was more than rhetorical, is the Secretary of State able to say what practical measures the Government will be executing right now to assist the people I have just described?

[Emma Reynolds]

I will come to fertiliser, but let me first say to the right hon. Gentleman that we are cutting red diesel duty by a third, bringing it to the lowest level in more than 20 years. We are taking measures to help farmers with the increased costs of energy and fuel—[Interruption.] Gosh, there is a wall of sound here, such is the excitement on the Opposition Benches.

We have asked the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board to look at more frequent official fertiliser price reporting. We are also doing all that we can to help farmers move away from such high use of fertilisers to more efficient use, along with a longer-term plan to change fertilisers so that British farming can make use of more innovative practices.