Oral Answers to Questions

Luke Murphy Excerpts

Thursday 30th January 2025 Commons Chamber

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Business and Trade (Justin Madders)]

No.

[Luke Murphy (Basingstoke) (Lab)]

T4.  Basingstoke is a digital powerhouse, once dubbed the “silicon suburb”. It is home to over a thousand tech companies and thousands of high-quality tech jobs. Will the Minister set out what the Government are doing to support high productivity digital hubs, like Basingstoke, to scale, secure investment and contribute towards the Government’s national growth mission?

[Sarah Jones]

My hon. Friend is right that there is a lot of expertise and a lot of tech companies in his patch, and we want to see them thrive. It is for the Government to support that growth, to listen to what the barriers to growth are and to tackle them. Our digital development strategy, the UK’s digital strategy and our AI strategy, which the Prime Minister launched, are all vehicles to support these brilliant industries that we want to encourage. I am always happy to talk to my hon. Friend about what more we can do to encourage more of them on to his patch.