Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation

Jane Stevenson Excerpts

Tuesday 9th March 2021 Commons Chamber

[Jane Stevenson (Wolverhampton North East) (Con) [V]]

It is a great pleasure to speak in this debate and to respond to last week’s Budget. I certainly do not envy the Chancellor having to set the Budget during a global pandemic which has had such a devastating effect on our economy. This is a pragmatic, responsible Budget that maintains the commitment to levelling up and aims to speed up our economic recovery. There were undoubtedly some difficult choices to make, but they must be measured against the whole economic picture rather than as single issues. Small pay rises for some must be viewed against more than 1 million new jobseekers, those who have lost their businesses, and those surviving on reduced furlough wages.

Helping people back into work must be our first priority. That is why I applaud several measures in the Budget that highlight the Chancellor’s ongoing commitment to protecting and creating jobs: schemes like Help to Grow, which will offer MBA-style management training and also help businesses to develop digital skills; the creation of freeports, including two that will help to fire up our midlands engine; the extension of furlough; the VAT cut to the hospitality industry; and more money for apprenticeships.

There are many measures, but I especially want to mention something that will benefit my home city. This is where we see real change and a real plan. Without resorting to the school assembly stalwart of giving a man a fish or a fishing rod, the Government’s investment in Wolverhampton has given our city a clear plan to a better economic future. The Budget announced not only a successful £25 million towns fund bid, but we will benefit from £10 million of investment for a taskforce into modern methods of construction. This will be based at a new Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government headquarters in Wolverhampton. This all links to the £15 million the Government invested in our National Brownfield Institute, which sits next to our School of Architecture at Springfield brewery. The Government’s investment means Wolverhampton will be the home of the green home building industry and all the jobs and opportunities that that will bring in over the coming decades.

This vision for Wolverhampton is worth so much more than just the funds the Government have provided. Moving a Ministry away from London proves the commitment to levelling up. I would like to say this to the Leader of the Opposition: I know today’s Labour party is more Wandsworth than Wolverhampton, more Balham than Bilston and more Willesden than Wednesfield, but moving Government Departments away from London is not giving up, it is giving hope: hope to our local economy and hope to the thousands of people looking for work in my constituency.

I commend the Budget, and I commend the Chancellor and the Government, who are committed to changing life chances and giving better opportunities to people around the United Kingdom and in my wonderful home city of Wolverhampton.

Employment Rights: Government Plans

Jane Stevenson Excerpts

Monday 25th January 2021 Commons Chamber

[Jane Stevenson (Wolverhampton North East) (Con) [V]]

Thank you for the opportunity to speak in this debate, Madam Deputy Speaker, and to send my best wishes to those in Scotland and around the UK who are celebrating Burns night this evening.

While I am an ardent supporter of workers’ rights, I will be abstaining on the motion this evening. I will briefly explain why: the recent use of these Opposition day debates to fuel hate campaigns on social media has been disgraceful. I welcome Opposition day debates, and I certainly welcome scrutiny of Government, but at this time of national crisis, with so many people worried about their jobs, their incomes and their health, having this type of aggressive political campaigning that seeks to mislead about the views of Members on my side of the Chamber is like pouring petrol on a bonfire. I hope our abstaining will inform people a little bit better about how Opposition day motions fit into the workings of Parliament.

To return to this evening’s important debate on workers’ rights, I add my thanks to all the workers who have continued to go to work throughout the pandemic to keep our country moving. I believed—probably naively—that the scaremongering on workers’ rights being eroded or abolished was just lines from the 2016 edition of the remain handbook, but the Labour party appears determined to perpetuate these myths. I am mystified when people say it was only our EU membership that led to us having workers’ rights, or that our membership of the EU was the only reason our workers’ rights were maintained. It is simply untrue.

To list a few of the really positive changes the Government have made, they have increased the reference period for calculating holiday pay to ensure greater fairness for those with variable working hours, scrapped the Swedish derogation to ensure agency workers are fairly treated and fairly paid, and required all workers to be given a written statement of their rights by their employer on day one. We estimate that 1.5 million people now have their rights set out clearly for the first time—this is such an important change, and I welcome it. I also welcome the strengthened protections for parents who tragically lose a child. While we all hope those rights are never needed, I commend the Government on having them in place when people are having such a horrific time.

Many people want to speak in this debate, so I will end by welcoming the words of the Secretary of State on ensuring that our workers’ rights are protected and making clear that we have no plans to erode them. I also welcome his commitment to investigate abuse of fire and rehire tactics, and look forward to his future work in this area.

Oral Answers to Questions

Jane Stevenson Excerpts

Tuesday 21st July 2020 Commons Chamber

[Gavin Robinson (Belfast East) (DUP)]

What support he plans to provide to the aerospace sector.

[Jane Stevenson (Wolverhampton North East) (Con)]

What support his Department is providing to the aerospace sector during the covid-19 outbreak.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (Nadhim Zahawi)]

This is the last Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy questions before recess and I want to place on record my thanks to you, Mr Speaker, and your staff for the incredible way that they have managed proceedings in the House.

It is Farnborough week and the Government are providing the aerospace industry and its aviation customers with more than £8.5 billion of support, including through UK Export Finance, the covid corporate financing facility, research grants and the job retention scheme. We are discussing further help with the sector.

[Nadhim Zahawi]

I am grateful to the hon. Member for his question and for his comments about our engagement with the sector. We are supporting the aviation and aerospace sector with £8.5 billion and rising. If he looks at support from other countries, which we do, he will see that we will also consider further support as we progress, as the Chancellor has said, through the recovery.

[Jane Stevenson]

Wolverhampton North East is home to aerospace companies that have seen an unprecedented and sudden collapse of demand. Collins Aerospace is now sadly considering mass redundancies. What further support can the Government offer to limit job losses in Wolverhampton?

[Nadhim Zahawi]

We work with the whole aerospace industry. I am the co-chair of the Aerospace Growth Partnership. As well as access to the furlough scheme and the corporate finance scheme, the Secretary of State announced yesterday £400 million in further funding for research and development support for the sector to get to that Jet Zero flight. The Future Flight Challenge is already investing £300 million. We continue to work with the sector to make sure that those skill sets, that ecosystem that has been so brilliant at delivering an incredible industry in the UK, are maintained for the next three to five years, which is the timeline by which the sector looks to recover.