Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation

Jack Brereton Excerpts

Monday 20th March 2023 Commons Chamber

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

This Budget is about cementing stability in the economy after the turmoil of the pandemic, the lockdowns and Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine. Halving inflation is rightly the Government’s No. 1 priority, and we are forecast not just to meet that goal but to surpass it significantly this year, driving down costs for families and businesses.

The actions the Budget takes to maintain the energy price guarantee for a further three months, to remove the prepayment meter premium charge, to maintain the 5p cut in fuel duty, to significantly extend free childcare and to freeze the duty on a pub pint with a Brexit pub guarantee are all being delivered because this Government understand the need for immediate measures to help tackle the cost of living. And this Government understand that, to expand the economy with non-inflationary growth, we need to increase our productive capacity.

I am glad to confirm to the Chancellor that Stoke-on-Trent is exactly the kind of high-potential regional city with the capacity to expand an excellent science and technology base, including our world-leading local ceramics sector and a burgeoning new digital gaming sector, spurred on by our investment in gigabit digital connectivity.

I am delighted that the Budget confirms Stoke-on-Trent’s much anticipated levelling-up partnership. This new partnership will help unblock the barriers to the levelling up of opportunities and productivity, delivering the improvements our city needs. It unlocks access to part of a £400 million fund, on top of the wider investment we have already secured, including the £56 million levelling-up fund investment that is now being delivered, which will see the repurposing of the historical Crown works in my constituency.

I am also excited by the unique partnership secured by Stoke-on-Trent City Council, under the excellent leadership of Councillor Abi Brown, with Homes England. It is fantastic news that 3,000 homes will be delivered and that the city’s economy will gain £400 million from unlocking this new development, particularly on more challenging derelict brownfield sites. Stoke-on-Trent has a strong record of delivering housing and, with Government support, delivered more than the average London borough last year, with 100% on brownfield sites.

I also welcome the significant extension of tax relief for firms investing in plant and machinery. That will make a big difference to manufacturers, incentivising them to invest more in improved energy-efficiency measures and increased productivity. It will mean a tax cut of up to 25p for every £1 that a company invests, putting £25 billion back into the economy over the next three years.

I am pleased to say that, since 2010, the gross value added of the ceramics sector has doubled in real terms, but it is not easy sailing and the sector is not always neatly compatible with the support schemes that are set up to help industry. I am thinking especially of the 97% of the ceramics industry that are SMEs, which have often not had the capacity to secure support, or have been excluded from the scale of support seen in other sectors. The ceramics sector is vital to our future economy, with almost every sector having supply chain links. There are advanced ceramic components in high-tech materials that are securing the future, from healthcare to aerospace. It is a sector with huge growth potential, and in which UK industry must take a global lead.

Ceramics works alongside other advanced manufacturing in Stoke-on-Trent. I look forward to seeing Goodwin International in the supply chain for small modular reactors, for example. This will help with decarbonisation. It is a hugely welcome step for nuclear now to be on a level playing field with renewables when it comes to investment incentives.

The ceramics sector itself has, so far, invested £600 million in decarbonisation, becoming more gas-efficient by recycling heat, and so on, but there are sadly no immediate viable options to convert the entire sector from gas to electric or hydrogen in the next decade. This reality needs to be acknowledged. It is certainly better for firms to be gas firing efficiently in the UK, and working on further decarbonisation improvements, than offshoring production to countries with lesser environmental protections.

It is also imperative that the Restoring Your Railway fund leads to tangible results, including a restored Meir station, which could be open as early as 2024 with Government support, and a reopened Stoke-Leek line to serve deprived neighbourhoods with notably low rates of car ownership and to support better access to jobs and skills.

Without local transport network improvements, HS2 will only ever be of limited benefit. For far too much of Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire, the current plans for phase 2 mean huge amounts of pain for very little gain. I welcome the pause because phase 2, as currently proposed, would be likely to result in the further diminishing of rail capacity, all at the cost of providing superfast HS2 services that do not connect to the places to which people want to go. It is important that we use this opportunity to consider whether the money for phase 2 could be better invested in upgrading the existing network and further enhancing the local network, as through the Restoring Your Railway fund.

The Budget is another step in the right direction for unleashing further innovation from our excellent advanced manufacturing base. It maintains the momentum for levelling Stoke-on-Trent back up to where it belongs, as a world leader in industry, science and technology.