UK Trade and Investment

Brandon Lewis Excerpts

Thursday 15th March 2012 Westminster Hall

[Laura Sandys]

I reiterate that question to the Minister. Hopefully we will understand more about the issue.

Another point, which arises from the comments of my hon. Friend the Member for Skipton and Ripon (Julian Smith), is about how we help and assist small businesses—I am talking about very small businesses. For example, some of the ways UKTI is approaching trade are positive, but they are for medium-sized companies. There is a strong internet and web-based opportunity, which I have mentioned before in the House. Why are we not translating one or two web pages about small businesses that we know might be of interest to x, y and z markets? That would offer them an opportunity to market online from their office, rather than having to go on expensive trade missions.

The Minister has had his own small business and knows well that it is not actually money that affects small businesses, but time. The idea of spending three or four days speculatively is not really feasible for many businesses, but we could start to amalgamate websites to push certain sectors. For example, in my constituency there is a little brewery called Gadds’. It has five employees and has just made its first sale to Japan on the basis of somebody picking up a quote from a website about microbreweries—I understand that Japan is very excited by microbreweries. Why do we not have a web page in Japanese on our UKTI site that talks about 20 lovely, exciting and interesting microbreweries? Let us try to use what we tell everybody else to use—internet platforms that can save money and time. It is very speculative, but it does not cost anybody anything either.

In conclusion, I would like to ask the Minister some favours. Can we please try to put enterprise zones and areas that have received regional growth fund moneys on the UKTI website? I have been asking for that to happen for months. It is really important as an inward investment platform, but there is no reference to those important coalition initiatives.

[Brandon Lewis (Great Yarmouth) (Con)]

My hon. Friend mentioned enterprise zones. The New Anglia enterprise zone, which covers my constituency, is predicting 2,000 extra jobs in the next couple of years, going up to 15,000. That is being replicated across the country. Does she agree that it is hugely important to promote enterprise zones and to make sure that people overseas—many zones are trying to attract them—understand fully their opportunities and expectations?

[Laura Sandys]

Yes. I very much welcome my hon. Friend’s point. We have both been working very closely on enterprise zones, and my hon. Friend chairs the all-party parliamentary group on local growth, local enterprise partnerships and enterprise zones. Promoting them is absolutely crucial and I understand that there are two reasons why it has not happened. One reason is bureaucracy. The other reason—I was told by somebody from UKTI—is that UKTI does not have enough resources to put it on the website. Well, if they ran the website under IPSA regulations, they would find out exactly how much they have to get their hands dirty themselves. We need those front-end promotions.

UKTI should talk much more to Members of Parliament. I welcome the fact that my hon. Friend the Member for Stourbridge (Margot James) is doing a lot of work with MPs and UKTI, but we should not underestimate how much we know about the texture of our constituencies. That is certainly not about trying to sing our praises. The bizarre information and knowledge we receive as MPs is extraordinary and might stimulate some exciting ideas. As well as going through LEPs, which are big and have not really quite formed yet, and talking to chambers of commerce, who see things through one particular prism, I urge the Department to talk to MPs about their constituencies. That will give a little more flavour.

I am very happy to do what I call a speed-dating pitch at the next meeting of international UKTI executives when they come from all parts of the world to the UK. I am very happy to do a pitch on my enterprise zone and my regional growth fund money, and I am sure that there would be a lot of interest from other MPs who would be happy to do the same. We are here to sell. We are also here to look after potential inward investors. I assure them that MPs are not all as unruly as I am; they behave and they stay on message—if they are told what the message is. There are a lot of opportunities for us to be part of UKTI’s sales pitch, and to welcome people in the way that, when I have been abroad, other countries’ MPs have welcomed inward investors. I still feel that this place is kept apart from an important sales job for the UK. We can be a part of it. We can contribute to it. Hopefully, some of our ideas might even be adopted.