Stellantis Luton
Blake Stephenson Excerpts(2 months, 1 week ago)
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Jonathan Reynolds
I am extremely grateful to my hon. Friend for her question. I believe everyone in the House who cares about the automotive sector and working people in this country will share the sentiments she has expressed about the scale of what this decision will mean for Luton. I can absolutely promise her that I will take up her invitation to come with her to the site. I can also promise her the full deployment of my Department and, indeed, all of my colleagues across Government to provide whatever help is required. We are in conversations with Stellantis—as is the union, I believe—about the details of the package that will be presented to the workforce, but of course, I will engage closely with my hon. Friend and with my hon. Friend the Member for Luton North (Sarah Owen) to make sure that package is to the maximum benefit of her constituents and the wider area.
Blake Stephenson (Mid Bedfordshire) (Con)
As a Bedfordshire MP, I know how significant the Vauxhall plant is to our local economy and as a local employer. The Secretary of State has explained how devastating this decision will be for families locally, not just in Luton but in my constituency. Unfortunately, though, he has said very little about how he is going to support the people who are losing their jobs. Is the Secretary of State concerned that this Government’s tax on jobs will make it much more difficult to replace these 1,000 manufacturing jobs in Bedfordshire?
Pub and Hospitality Sector
Blake Stephenson Excerpts(3 months, 2 weeks ago)
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Blake Stephenson (Mid Bedfordshire) (Con)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Vaz, and I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Mid Leicestershire (Mr Bedford) for securing this important debate.
Pubs and hospitality are at the heart of communities such as mine in Mid Bedfordshire, which is home to 157 hospitality businesses that support 2,229 local jobs and contribute £66 million to our local economy. That includes everything from big chains such as Center Parcs to the Woburn Safari Park and the local pubs, of which there are many to choose from, such as The White Hart in Ampthill; The Chequers in Westoning; The Musgrave Arms in Shillington, affectionately known as the Muzzy; or the award-winning Woolpack inn— the Wooly—in Wilstead.
One of the best ways we can encourage people to visit Mid Bedfordshire and boost our local pubs and hospitality is for the Government to do everything they possibly can to support the inward investment by Universal Studios in my constituency. Universal would be a £50 billion gamechanger to our local economy, and the biggest single boost to turbocharge hospitality in Mid Bedfordshire. But beyond Universal, in the short term, our hospitality businesses need support. They need the Government to protect them by maintaining their manifesto commitment not to raise national insurance, recognising that job-creating small business owners in places like Mid Bedfordshire are working people too, and that employers’ national insurance is a tax on them. Our pubs and hospitality businesses also need the Government to extend the small business rates relief, ensuring that it is viable for them to continue to serve our communities, and our village pubs need the Chancellor to extend the freeze on alcohol duty.
I will conclude by urging the Government to consider the role of pubs and hospitality in making a place in our communities. Wherever houses are built, hospitality must follow; otherwise we risk building expensive dormitories, rather than places people can be proud to call home.
Valerie Vaz (in the Chair)
Last but not least, we have two speakers, so if you could each take a minute and a half, we can get the wind-ups in.