Asked by: Justin Tomlinson (Conservative - North Swindon)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what discussions he has had with representatives of car manufacturers who have construction plants in the UK about expanding their operations in this country.
Answered by Nick Hurd
The automotive sector is of vital importance to the UK. In 2015, car production hit a ten year high at almost 1.6 million units adding £14.6 billion of Gross Value Added to the UK economy. We are in regular dialogue with companies in the sector on a range of issues and work in partnership with the Automotive Council on an Automotive Industrial Strategy to deliver sustainable growth in the sector.
Asked by: Justin Tomlinson (Conservative - North Swindon)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what estimate he has made of the contribution of the manufacturing industry to the UK economy in each of the last six years.
Answered by Nick Hurd
Despite difficult global economic conditions, manufacturing output has increased by 2.4 per cent in real terms and 14.9 per cent in current prices since 2010. Manufacturing productivity has also increased more than three times faster than the UK economy as a whole over the past 10 years. The sector spans over 130,000 businesses and directly employs 2.7 million of people, with an estimated 5.1m employed across the total manufacturing value chain. It accounts for half of all British exports, and around 70 per cent of all UK R&D spending. Manufacturing activity creates demand and value in other sectors, with official statistics suggesting that each £1 increase in demand for manufacturing industry products results in an over £1.70 in output across the economy as a whole.
Asked by: Justin Tomlinson (Conservative - North Swindon)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he is taking to reward local authorities that invest in renewable energy creation.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The Government provides support for renewable electricity generation through the Feed-in Tariff scheme – which is available to individuals, businesses, communities, schools and local authorities.
The Government provides support for renewable heating through the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI). The RHI is open to all buildings – including local authorities, commercial, industrial, public sector, not for profit and domestic properties and also supports injection of biomethane into the gas grid.
Asked by: Justin Tomlinson (Conservative - North Swindon)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he is taking to reduce domestic energy bills for consumers.
Answered by Jesse Norman
Effective competition is key to keeping bills down, and consumers must have trust in the market. It is important every household gets a fair deal and that is why we supported the Competition and Markets Authority investigation into the energy market and will be responding in due course.
There are now over 40 energy suppliers in the domestic retail energy market, up from 13 in 2010. Independent suppliers now have over 17% of the duel fuel market. Customers on expensive standard tariffs could save around £300 by switching to the cheapest fixed deal.