Budget Resolutions

Jack Lopresti Excerpts

Monday 1st November 2021 Commons Chamber

[Jack Lopresti (Filton and Bradley Stoke) (Con)]

To truly level up, we must address many aspects of people’s lives by implementing measures that contribute to equality of opportunity and of health and wellbeing, and, of course, deliver the benefits of prosperity for all the country. I am delighted that the Government and the Chancellor have so thoroughly addressed these things with a range of initiatives and investments in the Budget that will enable us to truly build back better post-pandemic.

Our home lives and the environment in which we live impact us all greatly. The Government are investing unprecedented amounts of money in housing, including in the new £11.5-billion affordable housing programme, as part of the ambition to deliver 300,000 new homes a year by the mid-2020s. Alongside that, the Government’s 95% mortgage guarantee scheme goes further still, to help first-time buyers secure a mortgage, with a deposit requirement of just 5%. That will enable many people to buy their own home who were previously unable to. Opportunity, aspiration and social mobility go right to the heart of the values and principles of my party.

Even though we have reduced rough sleeping by a third, we must do more. The additional funding of £640 million a year represents an 85% increase compared with 2019, enough to make sure that fewer people are sleeping rough than at any time in the past decade.

On brownfield sites, I was also very pleased to see the £300-million locally led grant funding to unlock smaller brownfield sites, including the £75-million brownfield land release fund to help to unlock locally authority-owned land. Some £57 million of the fund has recently been allocated, with my council, South Gloucestershire Council, receiving £2 million and Bristol City Council receiving just under £200,000. To complement these new communities, the Chancellor also announced a £1.5 billion regeneration fund to improve transport links and other community facilities.

The Chancellor’s announcement in the Budget that the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors will benefit from a 50% discount on business rates will be music to many people’s ears. That will incentivise and assist this important sector of our economy, culture, recreation and overall wellbeing. Although this will be very welcome across the whole of the UK, it will certainly complement a number of developments and regeneration projects in my Filton and Bradley Stoke constituency, including, for example, the impressive YTL arena complex and the new Filton north railway station which collectively will provide a 17,000-capacity concert area, leisure facilities and other employment opportunities, and is due to open its doors in 2024.

Such regeneration projects not only demonstrate the Government’s commitment to building back better and improving transport and connectivity, but play a key part in improving overall wellbeing and enhancing equality of opportunity and aspiration across the country. I am proud that my constituency contains some of the world’s leading defence and aerospace companies, such as Airbus, Rolls-Royce and GKN, so I was delighted by my right hon. Friend’s Budget statement, which confirmed that the Government recognise the need for and benefit of investing even more in innovation and maintaining the target of £22 billion investment in R&D.

I am delighted by the announcement that we will have major transport infrastructure improvements in my constituency and that the west of England will benefit from the £540-million investment in local transport projects. My right hon. Friend stated in last week’s Budget:

“Infrastructure connects our country, drives productivity”—[Official Report, 27 October 2021; Vol. 702, c. 279.]—

That will enable us to level up.

This Budget demonstrates that, on the Government side of the House, there is a commitment and a determination to deliver the people’s priorities and enhance aspiration and opportunity, which will deliver prosperity, social mobility and wellbeing across our whole nation.