Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies (Environmentally Sustainable Investment) Bill

Julie Marson Excerpts

2nd reading & 2nd reading: House of Commons
Friday 11th September 2020 Commons Chamber

[Anna McMorrin]

Environmental sustainability needs to be defined. At the moment, co-operatives have very strong environmental sustainability values at their heart, but that would clearly need to be set out in the confines of this Bill.

Added to that, environmental and social governance, or ESG, is the buzzword of the City right now. Investors have flooded into the market looking to immunise their portfolios against climate risk and help promote a sustainable recovery from this pandemic. This Bill provides such an opportunity or pathway for investment, and it would be a travesty if this Government were to walk away from that opportunity.

My Bill is not just warm words on the environment. It would provide a genuine route towards greening our local communities for the benefit of all, creating green jobs, creating green skills, raising capital for the vital retrofitting of housing association stock, and strengthening sustainable and secure sources of good-quality British food and produce from British farms. The list is endless. My Bill is a bid to match co-operative values to the mission of climate action, with communities pooling resources collectively to install and generate energy; taking small steps with huge benefits, such as creating cheap renewable energy, so that no one in the community is left behind by rising energy costs and fuel poverty or priced out of green evolution.

Co-operatives UK expects there to be 1 million employee and worker owners in the UK co-operatives sector by 2030, but we can go one step further: we can ensure that co-operatives kickstart a local green economy and create local jobs and skills. There are Awel and Egni co-operatives and others across the country, such as Brixton energy and Bristol energy co-operatives and OrganicLea, a co-operative farm that trains local people. Initiatives such as these spark local imagination and creativity and put the power back into the hands of local people.

The Bill is about not just the co-operatives of today, but the ones of tomorrow that could be born out of the successes of this Bill—the co-operative bus and rail companies creating genuinely affordable and environmentally sustainable modes of transport as we decarbonise our roads, or seed capital for communities to take over local utilities. In Wales, we have Dwr Cymru, which is a prime example of a semi-mutual water company run on a not-for-profit basis, with profits invested and recycled solely for customer benefit. I am thinking of co-operative run social care, childcare and other communal services, as proposed by the Welsh Co-operative Centre in its “better, fairer, more co-operative Wales” report, or even co-operative agriculture, food production, or community zero-waste cafés and restaurants, such as SHRUB co-op in Edinburgh. Action is needed—not empty words and greenwash—and that is what my Bill aims to deliver.

[Julie Marson (Hertford and Stortford) (Con)]

The hon. Lady mentions Co-operatives UK and action. Does she acknowledge that in June this year, Co-operatives UK, when reviewing and commenting on her Bill, called it “counterproductive” and “impractical”. We want positive action, for sure, but her Bill just does not deliver that.

[Anna McMorrin]

I thank the hon. Member, but she is being very selective in her comments. She fails to mention that Co-operatives UK also said that it fully supports the Bill and that what this needs is more detail in the Public Bill Committee. That is exactly what is needed. We are on Second Reading now. We need to take the values and strengths of the Bill through to the next stage to make this legislation able to really transform communities across the country. I hope that the hon. Member will be with me on that.

Legislation of this kind is, in fact, already in force around the world, from Australia to Canada, Italy and the Netherlands, demonstrating that this can be done. Back in 1844, the co-operative pioneers envisioned a community business model where shared values of sustainability, equality and fairness took priority. Co-operatives can play a major role in helping to rebuild our communities, end fuel poverty, create jobs and foster a sense of community pride in helping to tackle climate change.

Each one of us must play our part in the fight against climate change, but for so many people, the feeling of being able to physically effect change feels remote or expensive. Pundits, legislators and policy makers talk of climate change, quite rightly, as the greatest threat facing us, but many workers are focused only on making it to the end of the month. Climate action often feels distant, but it is our job to find ways of not only solving the crisis, but rooting the solution in the lives of workers and families. It must be viewed as a benefit to their health, wealth and happiness.

The Economy

Julie Marson Excerpts

Wednesday 8th July 2020 Commons Chamber

[Julie Marson (Hertford and Stortford) (Con)]

Right now, the FTSE 100 is stacked with establishment companies that will rally once the covid crisis eventually subsides, but it will not be those industries that provide the high-growth success stories of the next 10 or 20 years. The highest growth will come from fledgling, disruptive sectors just entering their growth phases now or not even yet created. The development of our highly successful start-up ecosystem, which houses the world-leading sectors of tomorrow, such as FinTech, green energy and automation, will be essential to our long-term global competitiveness and prosperity. I would love to see an extension of the Government’s existing commitment to support those industries, at the pre-seed, seed and series A levels.

When the Government introduced the growth accelerator programme in 2012, I do not expect that even they imagined how successful it would be. The 18,000 businesses that participated in the scheme achieved growth that was, on average, four times faster than that of a typical small and medium-sized enterprise, and the programme added at least £1 billion to the British economy. I hope that the Government will consider a scheme like this as they evaluate where our future growth lies and what initiatives will best suit the long-term needs of our country. Back in 2012, this £200 million programme delivered a return on investment of at least 700%. Amended for today and focused on specific high-growth, high-opportunity sectors, with provisions made for regional business, the ROI could be even higher, and it could create even more jobs than it did before.

We have already seen the potential that can emerge when we diverge from London—for example, through the innovation corridor, which runs through my constituency of Hertford and Stortford. We can build on this success. As we look to long-term growth opportunities, I hope the Government will build on their brilliant work by investing in skills clusters across the UK, to drive public and private investment in left-behind regions.

To conclude, the Chancellor and the Treasury team today have been hugely bold, and I enthusiastically applaud them. During this crisis, the heroes of our country have been our doctors, nurses, carers and key workers. In the recovery stage and beyond, it will be the businessmen and women driving growth for their companies and helping the economy back to health. Our job in this place will be to provide the platform for this next set of heroes to carry our economy forward.

The Economy

Julie Marson Excerpts

Monday 27th April 2020 Commons Chamber

[Rishi Sunak]

The hon. Member is absolutely right that companies in the retail, leisure and hospitality sector are the hardest hit during this crisis. Of course, they can avail themselves of all the various interventions we have put in place more generally, but they also have one specific benefit: for most of these businesses, rent is a significant part of their cost structure, which is why we have given them a complete business rates holiday for this entire year.

[Julie Marson (Hertford and Stortford) (Con) [V]]

The economic package that my right hon. Friend has put in place is historic in its scope and ambition and has been an absolute lifeline to so many people and businesses in Hertford and Stortford. The bounce-back loans will help still more. Some—mainly larger—businesses are entitled to taxpayers’ support but do not need it, so they have not taken it. Does he agree that we should applaud the lead they have taken and encourage others that do not need it to do the same in the national interest?

[Rishi Sunak]

I thank my hon. Friend for her kind comments. I agree with her that they should be applauded. As I said earlier, as we go through this crisis, everyone has their own role to play, and they should play that role responsibly. Whether it is individuals, Government or businesses, I am glad to see everybody taking that advice to heart. She is right that the businesses that have done that deserve our praise. More generally, we are trying to support workers remaining attached to their jobs, and I will try to do that in as broad and comprehensive a way as I can, but she is right that those businesses deserve our praise.

Oral Answers to Questions

Julie Marson Excerpts

Tuesday 7th January 2020 Commons Chamber

[Christian Matheson (City of Chester) (Lab)]

5. What recent representations he has received on the application of the 2019 loan charge.

[Julie Marson (Hertford and Stortford) (Con)]

11. What recent progress has been made by Sir Amyas Morse on the independent review of the 2019 loan charge.

[The Financial Secretary to the Treasury (Jesse Norman)]

Happy new year, Mr Speaker. Given that it is my first time at the Dispatch Box since you became Speaker, let me just say that I recall running an operation in 2014 to prevent your predecessor from rigging the selection of the Clerk of the House of Commons; I think it speaks to the esteem in which you are held across this House that one could imagine no such thing under your speakership.

The Government published Sir Amyas Morse’s independent review of the loan charge on 20 December, alongside the Government’s response to his recommendations.

[Jesse Norman]

As the hon. Gentleman will be aware from reading the review, it is a very thorough and comprehensive piece of work and Sir Amyas goes into this question. He has accepted the case for a loan charge in principle—he recognises that it was important to address the issue of abusive tax avoidance—but he said that it should apply to loans taken out after a specific date. In his judgment, that represents a fair balance between the concerns that the hon. Gentleman raises and the loan charge, and the Government have accepted that.

[Julie Marson]

The Morse report and the Government’s response are very welcome, and will help many of my constituents in Hertford and Stortford who have been deeply affected by the loan charge. Will the Minister agree to meet me so that I can share with him some of my constituents’ experiences and residual concerns and discuss the Government’s response in more detail?

[Jesse Norman]

I hope I may join the Chancellor in congratulating my hon. Friend on taking her place in this Chamber. I have met many colleagues about this issue and would be delighted to meet her. She will understand that I cannot deal with individual cases, but I would be happy to meet her to discuss the issues of principle.