Budget Resolutions

David Evennett Excerpts

Wednesday 27th October 2021 Commons Chamber

[Sir David Evennett (Bexleyheath and Crayford) (Con)]

I am delighted to follow my right hon. Friend the Member for Tunbridge Wells (Greg Clark), who speaks so powerfully about science and research.

I welcome the Chancellor’s Budget and the actions that he is taking so that we can build back better from the effects of the covid-19 pandemic. It was a constructive, thoughtful, innovative and conservative Budget that was presented with style and dynamism by my right hon. Friend. We are recovering faster than our major competitors, more people are in work and growth is going up. That is brilliant news and a testament to his hard work and his and his team’s successful policies. I congratulate him on and thank him for all his work over the past 18 months. His actions have protected jobs and livelihoods with £407 billion, supporting more than 14.5 million jobs and providing more than £100 billion-worth of business grants and loans, throughout the pandemic.

I know from conversations and correspondence I have had with businesses in my constituency and across my borough of Bexley that the Government support has been much appreciated, particularly the ability to furlough staff and the coronavirus grant funding. These measures have been vital to help businesses survive during a really difficult time, particularly when many of them have not been operational due to necessary restrictions. I also meet and talk to people from small and medium-sized businesses around the country. They, too, are very pleased to have a Chancellor who listens to them, hears what their problems and challenges are, takes note of them and tries to implement policies to assist them. We must never forget that these small and medium-sized businesses are the backbone of our economy and our country.

I should like to direct my main comments to businesses and skills. Business is the key to the economic success of our country. Our ability to invest in our vital public services relies on successful businesses paying the taxes that can then be used for those public services. Our priority now therefore has to be to help people into work and to help them develop the skills they need to progress their careers, as well as to increase and spread opportunity across the whole of the UK by supporting businesses, investing in infrastructure, and encouraging growth.

The Government had already taken positive steps towards that aim, and our plan for jobs is supporting people to gain the skills our economy needs. The £2 billion kickstart scheme has already seen 85,000 young people into employment, and the £2.9 billion restart scheme has helped over 1 million long-term unemployed people to find work.

Regrettably, our country does have a skills shortage. New employees often do not have the skills that employees want, and we need retraining and reskilling of the existing workforce. In an age of great change, and to have a successful, innovative and entrepreneurial economy, we need to boost skills. I am particularly pleased with the commitment to create a new UK global talent network to work with businesses and research institutes to identify and attract the best global talent in key science and tech sectors.

The Government very much understand the importance of lifelong learning and developing skills to support our economy, increase productivity and spread opportunity. The lifetime skills guarantee offers adults in England without an A-level or equivalent the chance to retrain, realigning further education with employers’ needs. The measures announced today to tackle poor numeracy through a new UK-wide numeracy programme called Multiply will benefit some half a million adults through a £560 million investment. This is really good news to help people who do not have the skills or the education to get jobs and make something of themselves throughout their lives. I welcome that really strongly and passionately, because social mobility is so important, and without the basic education we do not get the social mobility that all of us, in all parts in this House, want to see.

I also welcome the substantial commitment to increasing overall skills spending by £3.8 billion over the course of the Parliament, equating to an increase of some 42%. That is big money. We are not talking trivia; we are talking big investment. This includes more hours’ learning for 16 to 19-year-olds, including those who are taking T-levels, which are another great innovation; more traineeships; building institutes of technology to help to close skills gaps in key STEM areas; funding the lifetime skills guarantee; upgrading our further education college estate; quadrupling the number of places in skills bootcamps; and increasing funding for apprenticeships to a record £2.7 billion by 2024-25.

I believe, and have always believed, in local colleges. I had the pleasure of working for one in the years when I was not in Parliament. They have a vital part to play in our determination to upskill and reskill individuals to maximise their potential. In my area of London, we are extremely fortunate in having a first-class college in London South East Colleges, led by Sam Parrett CBE. I regularly visit the Erith campus. The college does a fantastic job in the field of training, spread over the Bexley, Greenwich and Bromley boroughs, and—this is the key point—in working closely with businesses and local authorities to find out what businesses need and then being able to deliver it. The increase in money for schools is very welcome, as is the commitment for more money for per pupil funding and for new school places, particularly for children with special educational needs and disability. That is really good news for education.

The Budget also strikes the right balance between supporting businesses to recover from the pandemic and investment in our public services. One area I have regularly raised is the hospitality industry, which was the first to close but the last to reopen. I have had many discussions with businesses in my area dealing with hospitality on the issues they have had and the problems of lock- down measures and local restrictions. I know that the announcement today to cut business rates to help hospitality, retail and leisure will be most welcome across my borough of Bexley. The measures, alongside the small business rates relief, equate to a business tax cut worth £7 billion for more than 700,000 eligible businesses. It is the biggest business rates tax cut in 30 years. It will significantly reduce the financial burdens on businesses to support further investment.

In conclusion, I am pleased to give this Budget my full support. My right hon. Friend the Chancellor has struck the right balance between improving public services, supporting businesses, upskilling individuals and looking at the public finances. He has delivered a positive and constructive Budget that is good for our country. I think I can do no better than quote my right hon. Friend’s concluding sentence, when he said:

“This Budget builds a stronger economy for the British people.”

I believe it does.