Budget Resolutions

Jack Brereton Excerpts

Monday 1st November 2021 Commons Chamber

[Jack Brereton (Stoke-on-Trent South) (Con)]

The Budget will deliver a stronger economy for the British people, and it has certainly delivered for the great city of Stoke-on-Trent. This has been possible only through Conservative MPs and the Conservative-led city council working together to secure the investment we need.

The £56 million promised for realising our levelling-up schemes comes as a welcome addition to £40 million from the transforming cities fund to improve local bus and rail, as well as the millions secured through the housing infrastructure fund, heritage actions zones and many other schemes. Our successful levelling-up bids focus on making the city even more inviting and an even more attractive place to live, work, study, visit and invest. The historic Spode and Tams factories, which were left to rot by Labour, will receive investment. The arson-prone Tams Crown Pottery in Longton, which has been derelict for more than 15 years, will see 64 modern apartments achieved. With all that combined with the heritage action zone and partnership schemes in conservation areas, we are levelling up Longton back to where it should be. We are breathing new life into and increasing residential footfall for our high street and the much-loved Victorian market hall.

The need to level up is certainly pressing. Three wards in my constituency are identified as left-behind neighbourhoods by the all-party parliamentary group for left-behind neighbourhoods—40% or more of households in those wards do not have a car—so the combination of levelling-up schemes with the TCF and, crucially, the reverse-Beeching schemes is the right one. Labour left our local rail network to rot, just as Labour left our potteries to rot after the disaster of the 2008-09 financial crash and the loss of a huge part of our local industry in the late ’90s. We have changed that: we have rebuilt our local economy to become one of the fastest-growing cities in the country. Thanks to the TCF, the restoring your railways fund and—I might say—my relentless campaigning, Longton station is to be refurbished; Stoke station is to be an intermodal transport hub; Meir station is progressing from the ideas fund to the advanced-project stage of RYR; and, thanks to the Budget, our plans to reopen the Stoke-Leek line have won funding. I should stress that Stoke-on-Trent does not have a working-from-home economy, so commuter transport is needed, reducing congestion for everyone. The scale of bus decline locally is concerning. It is the second highest of anywhere in the country. Only recently Onward identified Stoke-on-Trent as one of the worst areas of the country for access to employment opportunities by public transport.

Alongside TCF, the Government must fund the improvements that we want to see through the bus service improvement plan, including the possibility of franchising for the Potteries. After years of decline, many manufacturers, including our ceramics industry, are enjoying a resurgence. The gross value added of the UK ceramics sector has more than doubled in 10 years—from £419 million in 2009 to £1.2 billion in 2019. My own ambition is for a £1-billion ceramics economy in Stoke-on-Trent alone. While demand is high for our excellent products, energy price fluctuations continue to be a serious concern for both ceramics and other high energy intensive users. Given the prevalence of small and medium-sized enterprises, it is vital that the sector is supported through a larger share of UK R&D investment if it is to transition to cleaner, more efficient and resilient technologies.

Connectivity and regeneration are key to opportunities for good jobs, good pay and access to education and skills. The job now is to deliver locally what we have won funding for nationally.