Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Bill

Brooks Newmark Excerpts

Tuesday 18th November 2014 Commons Chamber

[Gordon Banks]

I thank my hon. Friend for making that valid point. The bigger companies have to understand that there is a need for smaller companies in the supply chain. They should view the situation in the round and acknowledge that not every company is big enough to withstand late payments in the same way that they perhaps could. There is a moral argument running through this as well. If I supply goods and services to someone on a Tuesday and they agree to pay me a particular sum by 1 August, for example, why should they not pay me by that date? It is simple: if I keep my part of the bargain, I expect them to keep theirs.

[Mr Brooks Newmark (Braintree) (Con)]

I totally hear what the hon. Gentleman is saying, and I agree that small businesses are the backbone of this country. Does he agree that the banks also have a role to play in loosening up their working capital facilities to help small businesses? That, too, is a challenge that small businesses face.

[Gordon Banks]

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for making that valid point. I shall come to that matter later in my speech when I talk about the changes that have happened over recent years, and perhaps decades, and try to illustrate why prompt payment has become so important.

Let me return to what I was saying about people trying to get their payment on time, and whether they win the argument and risk losing the customer in the process. There does not seem to be much incentive for small businesses to utilise their right against late payers, because just 10% of businesses have even considered doing so. I have been in private business all my working life, having set up my own business in 1986. I can tell this House that late payments are the biggest curse small businesses face: people striving, working hard and going out to sell their wares but then struggling to get paid. As I said, that part of the bargain is not being upheld.

Technical and Vocational Education

Brooks Newmark Excerpts

Wednesday 9th July 2014 Commons Chamber

[Tristram Hunt]

I pay tribute to the hon. Gentleman for his work with the engineering sector. The fact of the matter is that we are not delivering the results. The Royal Academy of Engineering forecasts that the UK needs an extra 50,000 STEM technicians and 90,000 STEM professionals every year just to replace people retiring from the work force. Similarly, new nuclear capacity could boost the UK economy by an estimated £5 billion and create more than 30,000 jobs, but the sector needs thousands of new recruits a year.

If we want to build a high-skill, high-wage economy, we need to build a recovery that delivers for working people. We need an education system that marries the vocational with the academic, and values what people can do alongside what they know. The modern workplace demands non-routine analytic and interactive skills. Businesses want employees who are innovative, flexible, creative team players. Sadly, that has not been the focus of Her Majesty’s Government. At exactly the point when we need a long-term economic plan, there is absolutely nothing in sight.

[Mr Brooks Newmark (Braintree) (Con)]

rose—

[Tristram Hunt]

Talking of which.

[Mr Newmark]

Will the hon. Gentleman explain why the number of people not in education, employment or training went up by a third under a Labour Government?

[Tristram Hunt]

We have a proud record of tackling unemployment and youth unemployment. We championed the delivery of young people into work with a future jobs fund which this Government scrapped when they came into office. As this week’s CBI—

--- Later in debate ---

[Matthew Hancock]

The hon. Lady is absolutely right that we have to ensure that the reformed apprenticeships are super simple, especially for small businesses, but representatives of 500,000 businesses wrote in support of the principle of the reforms and that is why we are going ahead with them.

The reforms are starting to pay off. Standards are starting to rise. Youth unemployment, which rose 40% in the first decade of this century under the Labour Government, is falling—it is down 10% over the past year—and is lower than it was at the election.

[Mr Newmark]

I would almost like two bites of the cherry by asking a question about youth unemployment as well, but I will not do so. The shadow Education Secretary said that our performance on vocational courses was lamentable, but is my hon. Friend aware that the proportion of 16 to 19-year-olds studying at least one of the post-16 level 3 vocational courses available—[Interruption.] I am actually delivering the facts, which might be helpful. Is my hon. Friend aware that that proportion rose from 100,000 under Labour to 185,000 under this Government?

--- Later in debate ---

[Matthew Hancock]

Absolutely. The evidence shows that apprentices on the existing scheme increase their lifetime earnings, but we are not content to rest, so we are redesigning apprenticeship standards. Four hundred employers from different sectors of the economy are engaged to ensure not only that the training is rigorous, which is important, but that it responds to the needs of employers and gets people into higher-paid jobs. We want to ensure that the money that we, on behalf of taxpayers, put into subsidising apprenticeships, is well spent and that we get value for it. Ensuring that the money helps people to get higher-paid jobs is a vital part of that reform. I welcome any suggestions on how to entrench that link between what is taught to apprentices and the needs of employers. That can lead to higher pay for young people, which is what the policy is all about.

[Mr Newmark]

Does my hon. Friend agree that it is important to have joined-up thinking in government? The Chancellor’s proposal, working with the Million Jobs campaign, to abolish national insurance for young people who get jobs, saves employers about £500 a year, and gives them the extra impetus they need to hire a young person.

[Matthew Hancock]

As my hon. Friend may well know, I am an enormous fan of the work of the Million Jobs campaign. The idea that we should not require national insurance from those who employ young people under the age of 21 is such a good one that the Chancellor put it in the Budget.