Budget Resolutions

Ben Everitt Excerpts

Tuesday 2nd November 2021 Commons Chamber

[Nadhim Zahawi]

I want to make sure that others get a chance to participate in the debate, so I will make some headway. I hope that the hon. Lady will forgive me; I beg her indulgence.

These investments are putting employers at the heart of our skills economy so that education and training respond to local business needs. In this way, we will not only build one of the best technical education systems in the world, but drive local prosperity and levelling up.

Of course, we know that skills training is not just for the young. As technologies change and develop and businesses adapt, so people will find that they will need to reskill or retrain throughout their lives. Globalisation and automation are changing the modern workplace. Jobs and industries that are flourishing now might not be in five or 10 years. Our skills economy must be sufficiently agile to flex not just for today but for tomorrow and long into the future.

With our “Skills for Jobs” White Paper, we are committed to boosting the job prospects of adults across the country by making sure that they can get the training they need to adapt to a changing workforce. A total investment of over £550 million will make sure that adults at any age can retrain or upskill, and that is part of our national skills fund commitment. We will be investing more in boot camps, which offer free flexible courses of up to 16 weeks, giving people the opportunity to build up specific skills with a clear route to a job at the end. We are also investing more to help adults in England take advantage of our free courses for jobs offer. There are now more than 400 courses to help more adults gain the skills they need to boost their career prospects. There will be opportunities for adults across the whole of the UK to develop their numeracy skills through the multiply programme the Chancellor announced, funded by another £560 million through the UK shared prosperity fund. That means that wherever people live and whatever stage they are at in life, they will be able to access training and education that gives them the skills employers want and which can lead to good jobs and career progression.

[Ben Everitt (Milton Keynes North) (Con)]

This is a national effort. A lot of attention has quite rightly been placed on the areas in the north of England that are targets for levelling up, but will my right hon. Friend confirm to the House that levelling up is a national agenda and that there are poorer areas in the south of England and London that will receive priority funding from the Government?

[Nadhim Zahawi]

Levelling up is at the heart of the Government’s agenda. Levelling up means empowering local leaders and communities to drive real change: boosting living standards, particularly where they are lowest; spreading opportunity and improving public services, particularly where they are weaker; and restoring local pride across the United Kingdom. Every local authority across the UK is eligible for the levelling up fund. In line with the Government’s mission to level up, it is right that we have prioritised areas that have been objectively assessed as most in need of the kind of investment that the levelling-up fund provides. That includes areas in the south of England which are most in need.

Schools are equally important and they have done well in the spending review. One of the biggest challenges we currently face is helping the young people who have suffered so much disruption to our schools during the pandemic. Those young people have been foremost in my mind and are central to the significant investment we announced this week. We know that world-class public services will help to turbocharge our economy. They will give us the skills, knowledge and technical excellence to drive productivity and growth. To deliver them, we have to begin with our schools.

All of us here, without exception, will owe a great debt to a teacher—maybe more than one—who helped us to get to where we are today. Colleagues will be aware that I have more reason to be grateful than most, having arrived here at the age of 11 as an immigrant without a word of English. I will always be grateful to the teachers who helped me on my way, which is why it gives me particular pleasure today, as Education Secretary in Her Majesty’s Government, to say that we are going to increase our spending on our country’s schools. Core funding will rise by £4.7 billion in 2024-25, building on the largest cash boost for a decade provided in the 2019 spending review. That equates to a total cash increase of £1,500 per pupil compared to 2019.

--- Later in debate ---

[Ben Everitt (Milton Keynes North) (Con)]

Perhaps you will indulge me, Mr Deputy Speaker, and cast your mind back to the last Budget in March. You may remember that I spoke about the Chancellor walking a tightrope, having to balance providing support to people and businesses with beginning the process of building back better.

The Budget that we are debating today demonstrates just how far we have come since March. It is full of optimism, investment and growth, levelling up every town, region and industry across the United Kingdom. Of course, I cannot talk about it without first mentioning one of the big successes for my constituents in Milton Keynes North: the announcement that Milton Keynes will receive our share of £70 million for a fleet of more than 50 new zero-emission buses as part of the Department for Transport’s ZEBRA—zero-emission bus regional areas—scheme. Having lobbied the Government with my good friend and colleague, my hon. Friend the Member for Milton Keynes South (Iain Stewart), I am delighted that my constituents will not only benefit from improved connectivity, but be part of the Government’s ambitious net zero strategy.

While it is vital that we continue to invest in the physical infrastructure to boost our communities, I firmly believe that when we talk about levelling up, we must start with investment in people and in their future. That is why I am pleased to see a real commitment to improving accessibility and opportunities in skills, with overall skills spending increasing by more than £3.8 billion over this Parliament. From additional hours in the classroom for up to 100,000 T-level students to expanding the lifetime skills guarantee so that more people can access level 3 courses, the investment in skills will boost not only the productivity of our economy, but the wages in people’s pocket, with level 3 qualifications resulting in a 16% boost in average earnings.

Given the Government’s emphasis on skills and education as we build back better, it is a huge disappointment to me that the proposed university in Milton Keynes, MK:U, was not included in last week’s Budget. One of the main values of the Conservative party, and indeed of this Government, is that we want to empower people by giving them the tools and skills they need to succeed, and that is exactly what MK:U would do. With backing from businesses such as Santander and BT and from academia, including the world-renowned Cranfield University, MK:U is a shining example of how we can address the critical shortage of skills and apprenticeships in sectors such as cyber-security and data science and create a high-skills, high-wage economy in Milton Keynes, the south-east and the whole United Kingdom.

If the Government are serious about improving access to technical education, as I believe we are, and if we are to show that we are serious about apprenticeships and investing in digital and science, technology, engineering and maths, I urge my Treasury colleagues to consider again the case for MK:U. I see the Chief Secretary in his place; I believe that the ball is in his court.

Ultimately, this is a Budget with a huge amount that I can get behind and a huge amount for the people of Milton Keynes North. There is an additional £640 million to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping, an increase in the national living wage, £5 billion for Project Gigabit—the list goes on. With that in mind, I thank my right hon. Friend the Chancellor and the whole Treasury team for making the difficult decisions back in March that ultimately put us on the right path and in a position to invest now in growth to keep unemployment down and employment up. However, I say again that if the Chancellor and the Government are truly committed to upskilling our domestic workforce and levelling up in Milton Keynes North, MK:U has to be the next step in our ambitious plan to build back better.