AstraZeneca (Pfizer Bid)

Debate between George Freeman and Vince Cable

Tuesday 6th May 2014 Commons Chamber

[Vince Cable]

I do not know the basis on which the hon. Lady invented that question. From the outset of my statement and in all my subsequent comments, I have made it very clear that the interests of British science—R and D and the jobs associated with it—are absolutely at the centre of our concerns. As it happens, I have spoken to Lord Sainsbury, and I am aware of his concerns. I have spoken to other leading members of the scientific community—we are also aware of their concerns—and they acknowledge that we are working as best we can within the constraints we have to secure a good outcome for British science.

[George Freeman (Mid Norfolk) (Con)]

The life sciences and biopharma industry is in a period of transformation or restructuring worldwide, which is why there has been such strong support for the UK’s life science strategy and its groundbreaking steps to invest in genomics, the patent box, the catalyst fund and early access to innovative medicines. All those measures helped to ensure that Pfizer and AstraZeneca, when they closed their old plants, moved to Cambridge, England, not Cambridge, Massachusetts. May I suggest that rather than embrace the Opposition’s opportunistic calls for protectionist emergency legislation—the shadow Business Secretary dismissed such a step in 2012—we should instead seek to enter into a long-term, 10-year, R and D agreement with Pfizer-AstraZeneca based on accelerating the measures that we have put in place, which will show that we are in favour of business coming to the UK through incentives, not penal legislation?

[Vince Cable]

I think that is a very good statement of where we are. We are indeed trying to encourage business. We are looking 10 years ahead—that is the whole point of the industrial strategy and indeed why it is successful and why business welcomes it. To use my hon. Friend’s word, there is no question of protectionism in this area.

Royal Mail

Debate between George Freeman and Vince Cable

Wednesday 10th July 2013 Commons Chamber

[Vince Cable]

We had 12 years of a Labour Government who had an opportunity to reverse many of the privatisations that occurred, and they did not. I presume that was a recognition that the balance of advantage was positive.

[George Freeman (Mid Norfolk) (Con)]

I welcome the Department’s bravery in setting out this initiative so that Royal Mail can gain access to the investment and innovation that are available to other competing services. I particularly welcome the statutory protection for the six-day universal service for rural areas and the provisions for employee ownership. Does the Secretary of State agree that those in this House who want to support public services do them no favours by locking them in aspic and denying them that which makes the private sector able to flourish and succeed?

[Vince Cable]

Yes, I am sure that is absolutely right. I hope that those words will also be taken to heart by the CWU.

Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation

Debate between George Freeman and Vince Cable

Thursday 21st March 2013 Commons Chamber

[Vince Cable]

I answered the hon. Gentleman’s point in Business, Innovation and Skills questions. Some of the increases in capital spending have already taken place. There was a significant increase in the capital outlay on universities, which my colleague the Minister for Universities and Science is seeing through at the moment in the establishment of R and D centres. After the fiasco of further education college building under the previous Government, the current Government are, in a systematic way, restoring the infrastructure of the FE sector.

[George Freeman]

This week, AstraZeneca announced a global restructuring, in which it committed its advanced manufacturing facility to Macclesfield in Cheshire, and moved its global R and D to Cambridge, with £300 million investment and 2,000 employees. The Government have moved quickly to set up a taskforce to help with the changeover of the old site to an incubator. AstraZeneca has congratulated the Government on their life sciences strategy. May I congratulate the Secretary of State and Lord Heseltine, whose birthday is today, on the leadership that the Conservative and Liberal coalition is giving on a modern industrial policy for new businesses?

[Vince Cable]

I accept the hon. Gentleman’s congratulations. Life sciences are a key area. It is a difficult sector, because the business model of pharmaceutical companies is changing—they are taking much of their R and D to spin-off companies rather than having it at their headquarters. That has been painful, but my colleague the Chancellor of the Exchequer intervened to help to make the process in his constituency less painful than it otherwise would have been. However, the decision of that large company to have its headquarters and R and D centre in the UK in East Anglia is a vote of confidence in Britain.

I want to make one more point on the industrial strategy. Apart from supporting successful sectors, we must reinforce those elements of the economy that drive long-term growth—meaning, basically, innovation and skills. That is why I and the Under-Secretary of State for Skills who is responsible for apprenticeships are driving enormous growth in apprenticeships, particularly in key areas such as advanced manufacturing skills. It is also why we must invest significantly in innovation. We have therefore established the chain of catapults, and we have the excellent proposal that my colleague the Chancellor made yesterday for the small business research initiative for small business innovation.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between George Freeman and Vince Cable

Thursday 21st March 2013 Commons Chamber

[George Freeman (Mid Norfolk) (Con)]

On the day of Lord Heseltine’s birthday, I have no idea what presents he might have been expecting, but I am sure that the Government’s acceptance of his report’s recommendations will have been a strong gift. I invite the Secretary of State, on behalf of the House, to pay tribute to Lord Heseltine’s tireless work for British business over a long career and to encourage the Government to implement his reforms with the radicalism and speed demanded.

[Vince Cable]

Yes, I would be delighted to pay tribute to him. Quite apart from this major report, large parts of which we are accepting, Lord Heseltine has played a major role in chairing the group of business people overseeing the regional growth fund and has led the initiative, now being taken in Birmingham, to mobilise chambers of commerce. Indeed, he makes a contribution far bigger than that of many Ministers in this and previous Governments.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between George Freeman and Vince Cable

Thursday 20th December 2012 Commons Chamber

[Vince Cable]

In relation to the speed of the process, I was assured yesterday that the FSA will complete early in the new year a pilot it has undertaken to identify the range of companies that might be assisted. That will then be rolled out to all companies. There is a genuine problem of definition. Some companies are sophisticated and took on these swaps quite conscious of the risks involved; others were mis-sold them. The borderline between the two is not absolutely clear, but I agree with the hon. Lady’s general proposition—a view that other Members share—that a lot of small businesses have been severely mis-sold products and need to be assisted.

[George Freeman (Mid Norfolk) (Con)]

The rising world population means that by 2050 we will need to double world production, albeit with half as much water, land and energy. Does the Minister agree that British agricultural science, not least at the Norwich research park, has a potentially huge role to play in helping the world to feed itself? May I welcome the agricultural science strategy and ask that it look to draw in as much investment from around the world into Britain’s science base as possible?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between George Freeman and Vince Cable

Thursday 8th November 2012 Commons Chamber

[Vince Cable]

Yes, I did indeed meet the hon. Gentleman and his colleagues. It was a good meeting, and they have followed it up with a very good submission explaining the link between the regional airport and the growth fund bid. We are now analysing that. I hope that he would acknowledge that there has also been some good news, however, in the sense that the Tees Valley LEP has just won a substantial programme bid through the regional growth fund, which will contribute to development in his area.

[George Freeman (Mid Norfolk) (Con)]

Next week is global entrepreneurship week. May I welcome the work that the Government are doing to support entrepreneurship, particularly their support for the national student entrepreneurship union, for silicon valley coming to the UK next week and for the launch of the important Cambridge cluster portal, which highlights that in Cambridge there are now 1,400 technology companies employing 53,000 people and more than 10 billion-dollar companies? Does that not suggest that our policy for an innovation economy is working?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between George Freeman and Vince Cable

Thursday 6th September 2012 Commons Chamber

[George Freeman (Mid Norfolk) (Con)]

Does the Secretary of State agree that what the small business sector in this country needs is confidence, not carping from those on the Opposition Benches? The fact that the Government have created over 900,000 jobs since the election suggests they are doing a lot of good. Does he also agree that the World Economic Forum report of this week showing that Britain’s competitiveness has risen from 10th to eighth in the world league, because, it says, of our more efficient labour market reforms, suggests we are doing exactly the right thing?

[Vince Cable]

I thank my colleague for reminding me of that. It is a very positive report, and it is striking that it puts such emphasis on the fact that we have very flexible labour markets, which is one of the reasons why the private sector has been able to take on so many more people. That is publicly appreciated by many of the large manufacturing companies as well as by SMEs.

Amendment of the Law

Debate between George Freeman and Vince Cable

Thursday 22nd March 2012 Commons Chamber

[Vince Cable]

I think we are talking about integrity and statistics. Of course there has been a big change under this Government, compared with their predecessor. The numbers that the shadow Chancellor used to use were his own numbers. The numbers we are quoting here are independently verified by the Office for Budget Responsibility. We will analyse the underlying assumptions in those figures. The figures in the Budget document are absolutely unambiguous and they have been endorsed by an independent assessor—something that the right hon. Gentleman was never used to when he was in government—which confirms the value of the numbers that we have described.

[George Freeman (Mid Norfolk) (Con)]

Is not the shadow Chancellor’s knockabout class warfare much more to do with appeasing Labour’s union paymasters? The truth is that all the evidence shows that a competitive personal and corporate tax rate is a powerful driver of entrepreneurship. We proved in the 1980s, when we last had to dismantle Labour’s tax time bomb, that lower marginal rates of tax increased revenue. The announcement today from GlaxoSmithKline of inward investment in this country is a sign that this is working.

[Vince Cable]

It is certainly true. My hon. Friend’s central point, which was made very effectively by the Labour Government when they were in office, is that in a highly mobile world, we have to take account of marginal rates of tax in comparable countries. The current top rate of marginal tax in Canada, Australia, France and Germany is around 45%, and that is the level to which we have moved.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between George Freeman and Vince Cable

Thursday 2nd February 2012 Commons Chamber

[George Freeman (Mid Norfolk) (Con)]

Does my right hon. Friend agree that, as we all share an ambition to put the employee’s voice on the board, the best way to do that is to encourage employee share ownership?

[Vince Cable]

It is indeed. Employee ownership is an expanding movement, and a popular one. It allows employees to become involved in the companies in which they have a share, and we wish to see it encouraged. We also wish to see workers properly consulted; there are powers to achieve that under existing legislation, but they are not being sufficiently used.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between George Freeman and Vince Cable

Thursday 8th December 2011 Commons Chamber

[Vince Cable]

I would certainly be happy to look into the background of that particular case. As the hon. Gentleman knows, we have an impartial process. Applications come to Ministers and then go through Sir Ian Wrigglesworth and Lord Heseltine, who sift and assess them properly. There is a new round for the regional growth fund, and if the project that the hon. Gentleman mentions can be reworked, we would certainly be very happy to look at it.

[George Freeman (Mid Norfolk) (Con)]

9. How he proposes that his Department’s investment in graphene will be spent. [R]

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between George Freeman and Vince Cable

Thursday 13th January 2011 Commons Chamber

[Vince Cable]

Mr Churchill’s views have much to commend them, and they are still relevant in many ways. Certainly, we wish to see manufacturing promoted and finance working in support of it rather than against it.

[George Freeman (Mid Norfolk) (Con)]

The Secretary of State shares my view that the life sciences are a key part of the UK small business sector. Does he share my concern that on the basis of the initial representations from the new local enterprise partnerships, there appears to be a lack of appreciation of the importance of joined-up national work on life sciences? Will he agree to meet me and a delegation from the UK life sciences network to talk about how we can ensure that life sciences are properly built in?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between George Freeman and Vince Cable

Thursday 14th October 2010 Commons Chamber

[Vince Cable]

You are right, Mr Speaker, that we have strayed a little.

The hon. Gentleman chaired the Select Committee on Children, Schools and Families for many years, so I am sure he knows that in my statement on Tuesday, I spoke about the implication of the teaching grant for student-graduate contributions. The implications for research remain to be seen till next week.

[George Freeman (Mid Norfolk) (Con)]

Does the Secretary of State agree that the green investment bank is a key part of the important task of shifting our low-carbon policy from one that is based on restriction, targets and negative regulation to one based on enterprise, innovation, science and community? Crucially, does he also agree that the bank must be able to issue bonds? Will he make representations to the Treasury to ensure that its ability to do so is established in the legislation?

[Vince Cable]

At this stage, we are not specifying the precise financial techniques that will be employed, but clearly, we will retain options and look at the variety of possibilities in future. Moreover, I would stress that the green investment bank is one of several policies that is driving the low-carbon economy, which also include reform of the electricity tariff system, the green deal and those that my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change is pursuing.