Michael Fallon
Main Page: Michael Fallon (Conservative - Sevenoaks)Department Debates - View all Michael Fallon's debates with the Department for Education
(10 years, 4 months ago)
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Mark Menzies (Fylde) (Con)
6. What steps he is taking to promote regional growth.
The Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (Michael Fallon)
We want to see growth that is sustainable and balanced, but it is local businesses and civic leaders who best understand what drives growth in their area. Through local enterprise partnerships they will have at least £20 billion to allocate until 2020.
Mark Menzies
May I take this opportunity to welcome the Government’s proposed plans to build a high-speed rail network between our great northern cities? In the light of that announcement will the Minister assure me that local businesses in Fylde and the local enterprise zone in Warton will continue to receive the full support of Government to promote growth in west Lancashire?
Michael Fallon
Yes, I give my hon. Friend that assurance and tell him that we hope before the summer recess to agree a growth deal with the Lancashire local enterprise partnership, centring on the arc of prosperity it has identified alongside Lancashire’s huge strengths in energy, manufacturing and engineering.
Nick Smith (Blaenau Gwent) (Lab)
On support for regional growth, when will the financing be agreed for the electrification of the south Wales valleys train lines?
Michael Fallon
I shall certainly raise that with my colleagues in the Department for Transport. I do not have the date to hand, but I hope that the hon. Gentleman will welcome that investment.
John Stevenson (Carlisle) (Con)
17. Does the Minister agree that it is incumbent on local government leaders, LEPs and local MPs to work with local businesses to ensure that places such as Carlisle maximise their potential as an economic powerhouse in their region? Does he agree also that local government and local businesses are as important as national Government in promoting growth and job creation?
Michael Fallon
Yes, I absolutely agree. I thank my hon. Friend and his colleagues for their input into the Cumbria economic plan. I saw that close working for myself when I chaired the recent Cumbria forum on advanced manufacturing.
Martin Vickers (Cleethorpes) (Con)
Regional growth is dependent on good transport connections, and there has been widespread concern in northern Lincolnshire among the business community about the threat to services on the south transpennine line. Will the Minister agree to meet a delegation of business leaders from northern Lincolnshire to discuss that and other issues?
Michael Fallon
I am very happy to meet any delegation of business leaders with my hon. Friend. I am not the Minister for rail transport, but I shall certainly refer the issue to the Department for Transport, and I am happy to have the meeting that my hon. Friend requests.
Mr Nigel Evans (Ribble Valley) (Con)
7. What additional funding for training his Department has provided to support unemployed people and people aged 16 to 24 to get into employment.
Andrew Rosindell (Romford) (Con)
10. What steps he is taking to reduce the burden of regulation on businesses.
The Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (Michael Fallon)
We have significantly reduced the burden of regulation on business. The one-in, two-out rule has cut the annual cost of domestic regulation by £1.2 billion so far, and the red tape challenge has identified over 3,000 regulations to be scrapped or improved. To ensure that all future Governments remain committed to reducing burdens, the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Bill published yesterday requires Governments to publish a target for removing regulatory burdens in each Parliament and to report against it.
Andrew Rosindell
I thank my right hon. Friend for his excellent reply. Does he agree that for business and enterprise to flourish, particularly in constituencies such as mine that have many small and medium-sized enterprises, we must stop the strangling of business by regulation from the European Union, and that means that the Prime Minister is doing absolutely the right thing in trying to reform Europe so that business can flourish in this country?
Michael Fallon
I completely agree with my hon. Friend, and I can tell him that of the 30 specific reforms requested by the business taskforce I chaired last year, nine have already been delivered, two further directives were withdrawn last month, and since the transposition rules were tightened three years ago there has been only one example of a European directive being gold-plated, which was the consumer credit directive that banned excessive payment surcharges.
Toby Perkins (Chesterfield) (Lab)
The Bathroom Manufacturers Association is just one trade body which feels that regulatory policy has too little focus on enforcement of regulation. That leads to the undercutting of compliant, high-quality British manufacturers by cheap, non-compliant foreign imports. When will the Government understand that a mature and consistent approach to enforcement of regulation is not a burden on high-quality British manufacturing business, but an aid to it?
Michael Fallon
I am happy to meet that trade association to follow up its specific concerns. The hon. Gentleman is right that business needs uniform and proportionate enforcement, and we are looking to deliver that through improved guidance with the relevant bodies, such as the Health and Safety Executive and the Environment Agency.
David Mowat (Warrington South) (Con)
11. What steps his Department is taking to support energy-intensive industries.
The Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (Michael Fallon)
In the Budget the Government announced a package of support of £500 million a year for energy-intensive industries. From 2016, we will introduce compensation for the costs of the renewables obligation and the feed-in tariff. We will also be extending to 2019 the compensation scheme for the emissions trading scheme and the carbon price floor. Together with amendments to the carbon price floor, these changes will be worth around £7 billion to businesses in Britain.
David Mowat
My right hon. Friend will be aware that several of our EU competitors are increasingly cross-subsidising industrial use of electricity, creating a difficult landscape for our energy-intensive industries. A recent example of the impact of this is BOAL Aluminium, an aluminium processor which was going to invest £2 million in the UK but has moved that, with all the associated jobs, to Belgium, where energy costs 30% less. Is there more we can do to prevent carbon leakage of that type?
Michael Fallon
I am grateful to my hon. Friend for bringing representatives of the aluminium industry to see me in the Department. It is important that we in Britain do not lose out on such investment. We have already paid out some £30 million of compensation to 53 of the most electricity-intensive companies and we will continue to press for further reform in Europe.
Nic Dakin (Scunthorpe) (Lab)
It is good that some support is coming from 2016, but energy-intensive industries need support now in the challenging times they face. It is good that the Government have finally got their package of compensation for their unilateral carbon floor tax through Europe, but the Minister has previously given commitments to get that backdated to 2013, as promised to business. What progress has he made in getting that compensation backdated?
Michael Fallon
It took some 18 months to get that compensation scheme approved by the Commission, which is why it will take some time to get the compensation for the renewables obligation and the feed-in tariff and why that scheme will not apply until April 2016. The Commission did not agree to our request for backdating.
Mr Iain Wright (Hartlepool) (Lab)
The hon. Member for Warrington South (David Mowat) asked exactly the same question in April and today received pretty much word for word the same unsatisfactory response. The fact is that the Government have imposed a unilateral carbon price floor that is widely divergent from the EU emissions trading scheme, which has put Britain’s energy-intensive industries at a competitive disadvantage to our European counterparts and done nothing to prevent carbon leakage or encourage investment in low-carbon energy. What practical steps is the Minister taking to shape reform of the ETS to make it more credible and to level the playing field for British industry, or have the Government lost that battle in Europe too?
Michael Fallon
Other countries such as Germany can of course offer higher support to their industries, but they did not have the appalling deficit that we inherited, because of course they did not have a Labour Government. I intend to ask the new Commission this autumn for an early review of the ETS and to include new sectors, such as cement, that have missed out so far.
Jack Lopresti (Filton and Bradley Stoke) (Con)
12. What support his Department is providing to apprenticeships.
Neil Carmichael (Stroud) (Con)
14. What assessment he has made of recent trends in the level of manufacturing.
The Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (Michael Fallon)
Office for National Statistics figures for April show that manufacturing output in the UK rose by 4.4% year on year—the fastest pace since February 2011. Industrial production rose by 1.1% in the three months to April compared with the previous three months—the strongest three-monthly growth since June 2010.
Neil Carmichael
I thank the Minister for that encouraging answer. With the need for more skills in energy engineering in mind, does he agree that it is a very good idea to have a centre for those skills at the now-decommissioned Berkeley power station, and that that represents a significant step in the right direction for the long-term economic plan?
Michael Fallon
Yes, I do agree. That project is a key part of Gloucestershire’s economic plan, and it can provide the skills that we will need for the next generation of nuclear power stations at Hinkley and Oldbury. We are currently considering Gloucestershire’s request for local growth funding to support the project. I hope to announce the allocation for Gloucestershire as part of the growth deal before the summer recess.
Stephen Metcalfe (South Basildon and East Thurrock) (Con)
16. What recent support his Department has provided to small businesses.
Mr David Nuttall (Bury North) (Con)
On the issue of new EU legislation, does my right hon. Friend agree that it would benefit British business if the EU adopted the same one-in, two-out rule that the UK Government apply?
The Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (Michael Fallon)
It is encouraging that the one-in, two-out rule, or the one-in, one-out rule, is increasingly being adopted by other member states, including France and Spain. I shall visit Brussels next month to urge the Commission to redouble its efforts to remove unnecessary directives, and to make sure that where new directives are proposed, they fully take account of the needs of small businesses, which are most likely to create the jobs we need in Europe.
Tom Blenkinsop (Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland) (Lab)
T5. More than a third of winning bidders in the regional growth fund’s first round have now withdrawn, while others have waited about two years to receive any money at all. Is this all part of the Government’s long-term economic plan?
Michael Fallon
It certainly is not. There are many reasons why some RGF bidders withdraw—because they do not get the planning permission they were anticipating, their main board does not give final approval for the plant, or they are not prepared to put in private sector money alongside the regional growth fund grant. Any money that is not used is of course put into future rounds of the fund. It is important that we carry out the necessary due diligence and check before taxpayer money is handed over.
Miss Anne McIntosh (Thirsk and Malton) (Con)
The Business Secretary gave us the welcome news that the local growth fund will come on stream next year. Infrastructure is the key to allowing local businesses to develop. Will there be enough money in the local growth fund to improve and upgrade the A64 along its whole route from York through Malton to Scarborough?
Michael Fallon
I am afraid that my hon. Friend will have to be patient for a few weeks longer before we announce the local growth deal for the local enterprise partnership covering her constituency, but I am aware that that is one of the projects that the local enterprise partnership wants to prioritise.
Fiona O’Donnell (East Lothian) (Lab)
T6. When the Prime Minister returned from the G7, he painted a very positive picture of progress in establishing public registers of beneficial ownership in the overseas territories and Crown dependencies, but the real picture is that only half of them have started or concluded their consultations. This is an opportunity for the Secretary of State to show off his leadership skills, so what work is he doing with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to make some real progress on this issue?