Oral Answers to Questions

Andrew Ranger Excerpts

Thursday 11th December 2025 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

That is not what we have been told by your department, but I am sure we can make arrangements accordingly.

[Andrew Ranger (Wrexham) (Lab)]

6. What steps his Department is taking to help create economic growth.

[Alan Gemmell (Central Ayrshire) (Lab)]

11. What steps his Department is taking to help create economic growth.

[The Minister of State, Department for Business and Trade (Chris Bryant)]

We are championing investment across every nation and region. At the recent regional investment summit and Wales investment summit, we showcased the strengths of our world-leading sectors and secured billions in private investment and commitments. We are making the UK the best place to start, scale and invest, while cutting unnecessary regulation so that businesses can innovate, create jobs and help rebuild our economy.

[Andrew Ranger]

As someone with a long and proud career in the hospitality industry before being elected to this place, I know—as we all do—that the sector plays a vital role for our high streets and communities. It brings people together, provides crucial local jobs and boosts economies. In Wrexham alone, over 1,200 people are employed in the sector. Alongside measures announced in the Budget and already this morning, will the Minister set out what the Government are doing to support the beer and pubs sector as part of their plans to revitalise our high streets, strengthen local economies and safeguard hospitality jobs in Wrexham and beyond?

[Chris Bryant]

My hon. Friend refers to his long and proud career in the industry. It can’t have been that long, because he is so young—[Interruption.] I am being nice.

One thing I have felt very strongly about for a long time is that the hospitality industry in the UK needs to consider a job in the industry as a proper, honourable career. All too often they are seen as jobs that are only done by a few people for a couple of months before they go on to university or whatever. We need to completely change that. That is why as a Minister in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport I tried to ensure that we have proper centres of excellence for hospitality in the UK so that it is a career that is available for people for the whole of their lifetime.

My hon. Friend will know of the work that is being done in Wales via Pub is the Hub to help rural pubs diversify. I think that is really important, and we are committed to ensuring that it continues.

Oral Answers to Questions

Andrew Ranger Excerpts

Thursday 17th July 2025 Commons Chamber

[Justin Madders]

We are not turning our back on parents or children. We are actually having the biggest expansion in workers’ rights and family-friendly policies that we have seen in a generation. Clearly, we will not be able to satisfy every issue in this area, but that is the point of the review. We are looking at the system in the round. It needs improving and modernising and that is what we intend to do.

[Andrew Ranger (Wrexham) (Lab)]

3. What assessment he has made of the potential impact of the industrial strategy on north Wales.

[The Secretary of State for Business and Trade (Jonathan Reynolds)]

I am delighted by the hugely positive response that the industrial strategy has received. It is a plan to lift every part of the country, making it easier and quicker to do business and to invest. For north Wales, with its formidable prowess in advanced manufacturing, it is a very significant set of proposals. The same is true for Wales as a whole, as I demonstrated on Monday at Port Talbot at the groundbreaking of the new electric arc furnace, which will get the enhanced supercharger discounted energy price.

[Andrew Ranger]

I totally agree with my right hon. Friend; this Government’s industrial strategy backs businesses in Wales not just with words, but with action and billions of pounds of investment over the next decade. In Wrexham, we are fortunate to have fantastic businesses, such as Kellogg’s and Hydro Aluminium among others, which have exciting ambitions for high-tech expansion. One barrier that needs to be overcome is sufficient power supply to the industrial and trading estates where they are based. Will the Secretary of State please update me on how the strategic sites accelerator will support them in doing so and the proposed timeline for its implementation?

[Jonathan Reynolds]

I thank my hon. Friend warmly for his question. I am excited about this. The strategic sites accelerator will prepare and accelerate sites for development by using Government tools, such as land acquisition, planning certainty and infrastructure support, to overcome existing barriers to investment on sites. It is designed to create jobs, to attract investment and to support our industrial and net zero priorities. It will work alongside other initiatives such as the connections accelerator service, which will streamline grid connections for major investment projects. It is about going faster, being bigger and being more ambitious for new investments, such as those that could come to my hon. Friend’s area. I can tell him that the Office for Investment is working jointly with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and Ofgem to take this vital work forward. I expect capital to be deployed initially under this programme in 2026-27.