Oral Answers to Questions

Giles Watling Excerpts

Thursday 8th July 2021 Commons Chamber

[Jacob Young (Redcar) (Con)]

What steps the Government are taking to implement their levelling-up agenda.

[Giles Watling (Clacton) (Con)]

What steps the Government are taking to implement their levelling-up agenda.

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

What steps the Government are taking to implement their levelling-up agenda.

--- Later in debate ---

[Michael Gove]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right to mention Ben Houchen, the Gareth Southgate of local government. It is appropriate that, as the Treasury and the Department for International Trade are recruiting new roles in Darlington and there is more investment in Teesside, we must make sure that we have proper connectivity, including first-class rail travel as well as improved digital connectivity.

[Giles Watling [V]]

I thank my right hon. Friend for his earlier answer. The Government’s levelling up agenda is laudable, and in Clacton some progress has been made. I am doing the best I can to inform residents in the area of what the Government are doing. There is a feeling of being left behind locally, however, so what are the Government doing to communicate more widely what they have been and will be doing for the people of Clacton and other left-behind communities? Will my right hon. Friend come back to the sunshine coast and join me to raise awareness of the Government’s important work?

[Michael Gove]

I absolutely will. There is nothing left behind about Clacton and Frinton and the communities that my hon. Friend so ably represents, and I look forward to visiting them. I understand that there is a fantastic local community theatre that he has played a part in championing, among many other local endeavours. Levelling up is about culture as well as connectivity. I look forward to coming to Clacton and making sure that it is firmly on the map and at the centre of our levelling up plans.