Spring Statement

Debate between John Hayes and Rachel Reeves

Wednesday 26th March 2025 Commons Chamber

[Rachel Reeves]

I know that my hon. Friend is incredibly proud to represent Barrow and Furness and that her constituents are incredibly proud to work on our nuclear deterrent. This Government will always stand with them, putting in place our new plan for Barrow for new jobs and new investment in the town, so that we get value for money for taxpayers and, critically, ensure our country’s national security.

[Sir John Hayes (South Holland and The Deepings) (Con)]

The Chancellor was right to highlight productivity as an issue, and right, too, to focus on skills shortages, although she did not explicitly note the implicit link between them. She failed, however, to say that her productivity ambitions have been scaled back and that the number of young people not in education, employment or training is growing. Will she set out—perhaps in a note in the Library of the House or in a statement—by how much she expects apprenticeships to grow year on year? When I was a Minister, we reached the highest level in modern times, and the numbers are much lower now. We need to grow apprenticeships to build our skills and to grow productivity. If she does not do that, we will feel that hope exceeds expectation.

[Rachel Reeves]

I thank the right hon. Gentleman for that question. He speaks powerfully about something that he knows a huge amount about. Let me answer three parts of that question. First, the OBR has revised up our productivity in its forecast. Secondly, we have a massive problem with young people not in education, employment or training—it involves one in eight young people. However, as I said in answer to a previous question, the OBR has not taken into account the impact of our back to work programme. It will work on that over the summer with the DWP and the Treasury, because we want to make sure that we design that in a way that gets as many young people back into work, contributing to the economy and contributing to our society.

We were able to announce, just a couple of weeks ago in National Apprenticeship Week, an expansion of the apprenticeship programme, particularly through foundation apprenticeships and by relaxing some of the maths and English requirements. If we want to build the homes that our country needs, we need to get people into construction jobs and not say, “I’m sorry, you didn’t get a grade C in maths and English, so you’re not welcome on the construction site.” That makes no sense at all, which is why we are reforming how apprenticeship works, to get more people with the skills they need so that they can contribute to their families and the economy. We want those numbers going up.

Industry (Government Support)

Debate between John Hayes and Rachel Reeves

Wednesday 16th June 2010 Commons Chamber

[Rachel Reeves (Leeds West) (Lab)]

I welcome you to your position in the Chair today, Mr. Deputy Speaker. It is a pleasure to speak in the debate after so many excellent speeches, not least from the hon. Member for West Suffolk (Matthew Hancock). Ten years ago, he and I started work on the same day at the Bank of England. We had many good debates there and I am sure that they will continue in the House.

It is also a pleasure to follow the maiden speeches of so many Members: the hon. Member for Bracknell (Dr Lee), and my hon. Friends the Members for Bolton West (Julie Hilling), for North West Durham (Pat Glass), for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland (Tom Blenkinsop), for Wansbeck (Ian Lavery), and for Barnsley East (Michael Dugher). I know that my hon. Friend the Member for Barnsley East shares my concerns about the future of Yorkshire Forward, our RDA.

We have heard lots of stories from Members on the Government Benches about the waste of RDAs. I can only tell them what Phil Thompson, managing director of Resource Print Solutions in my constituency, says. His business, like many in all our constituencies, was hit hard by the recession, but he got through it because of a grant from Yorkshire Forward, which enabled him to buy new machinery and equipment and to keep jobs in-house that he had previously had to contract out. During the recession, he did not lay off a single worker. Because of the support from Yorkshire Forward and changes to shift patterns, he managed to keep people in work. The company is now growing again as we recover from the recession. What Phil’s business needs now and what the British economy needs now is economic growth.

[Mr Hayes]

The hon. Lady is already a distinguished and articulate advocate of her cause—I note it from her many interventions in the debate. In an effort to be helpful on RDAs, may I recommend to her the National Audit Office report and the report that preceded it from the Public Accounts Committee, which make it absolutely clear that in many instances the RDAs are cost-ineffective and insensitive to the very local circumstances that she champions?

[Rachel Reeves]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for that intervention. I think that we can tell from the debate today that different Members, representing different areas of Britain, have different views about their RDAs. I plead with the Minister. Labour Members representing Yorkshire, the north-east and the west midlands have spoken with huge passion about their RDAs. They have related the stories that they hear day in, day out from businesses and the people they represent. Let us keep our RDAs and let them continue to do the work that they are doing in our regions. That is all that I ask.