Michael Fallon
Main Page: Michael Fallon (Conservative - Sevenoaks)Department Debates - View all Michael Fallon's debates with the Department for Education
(11 years, 8 months ago)
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Mr Dominic Raab (Esher and Walton) (Con)
2. What steps he is taking to reduce business regulation for start-ups and small businesses.
The Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (Michael Fallon)
Through the red tape challenge, we have committed to scrapping, improving or simplifying at least 3,000 regulations. We introduced the ground-breaking one in, one out rule, which has saved businesses around £1 billion in regulatory costs; and from January we upped that to one in, two out. In addition, the micro-business moratorium introduced in April 2011 has protected the very smallest firms, and I hope that we can build on that when the moratorium expires next March.
Mr Raab
I thank the Minister for that answer. The Institute of Directors estimates that regulation costs British business £112 billion each year. I understand that the Government moratorium on new regulation applied to micro-businesses and start-ups, to which the Minister has referred, expires next year. Will he extend it for another three years in order to boost growth and get firms hiring?
Michael Fallon
We are looking hard at what we can do to extend that protection for the very smallest businesses from burdensome regulation from next year. In addition, we are pressing the Commission to make more proposals to implement its own commitment to a moratorium. We have seen a couple of examples from the European Union so far and we need to see more.
Mr Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield) (Lab/Co-op)
The Minister will agree that most of the small firms we meet want light regulation, if none at all, but they also want good finance. What does he have to say about Rich Ricci, who has just been awarded a £16.7 million bonus by Barclays? What has Barclays ever done for small business in order for a man to get a £16.7 million bonus on the same day as the Budget took welfare money away from the poorest in our country?
Michael Fallon
I am not sure what that has to do with the red tape challenge, but Barclays is one of the banks that we are pressing hard to do more to lend more to small businesses, and we expect it to steadily increase the take-up of the various Government schemes on offer.
Miss Anne McIntosh (Thirsk and Malton) (Con)
Will my right hon. Friend look at removing gold-plated provisions on items such as jam, which has to be marketed as a preserve unless it has the right amount of sugar or fruit in it?
Michael Fallon
It was the previous Government who transposed the European directive but who failed to transcribe the flexibility that France and Germany have to lower the minimum sugar content in jam. We will consult on that shortly. Under this Government, not only is there more flexibility towards the European Union, but there will be more jam tomorrow.
Mr David Hanson (Delyn) (Lab)
Given that Members in another place—not just Labour peers, but a former Conservative Chancellor of the Exchequer and former Cabinet Ministers and Cabinet Secretaries—have this week rejected the Government’s shabby proposals on cash for workers’ rights, is it not right that the Government now reconsider their shabby proposal?
Michael Fallon
This House agreed before Christmas to make available this additional right. Nobody has to take it up—they cannot be bullied or harassed into it. There is no need for them to take it up, but equally there is no need for the other place to deny them the opportunity if they wish to do so.
Jonathan Ashworth (Leicester South) (Lab)
3. What recent assessment he has made of the operation of the regional growth fund.
The Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (Michael Fallon)
The regional growth fund is a success, not least in the east midlands where 16 projects and programmes have access to nearly £117 million. Nationwide, 198 projects and programmes have already been finalised and can draw down their funding, including 15 from round 3 which have already benefited from the accelerated process I announced last October. The rest of the round 3 awards will be finalised in the middle of next month, including, I hope, the Leicester and Leicestershire local enterprise partnership programme, which will support businesses in the hon. Gentleman’s constituency.
Jonathan Ashworth
I think that the right hon. Gentleman intends to visit my constituency tomorrow to attend the Federation of Small Businesses conference. I am sure he will find that we have a significant number of small and medium-sized enterprises in Leicester, Leicestershire and the east midlands, and a significant manufacturing base. Despite what he has said, the east midlands appears to be bottom of the pile when it comes to regional growth fund allocations. In round 3, we received just 2% of allocations. When will the east midlands get a fair deal?
Michael Fallon
I am looking forward to attending the FSB’s annual conference with the Secretary of State in the hon. Gentleman’s constituency tomorrow, and to hearing more about how it applauds what was in yesterday’s Budget. I hope the hon. Gentleman will be there, too.
On the regional fund’s allocation for the east midlands, this is a competitive fund. There are no specific targets for each region and 19 bids have been selected in the east midlands. Subject to finalising the award I mentioned, the Leicester and Leicestershire LEP programme will support SMEs across the hon. Gentleman’s constituency with 25% capital investment grants ranging from £25,000 up to £150,000. I hope he will encourage—
Duncan Hames (Chippenham) (LD)
The regional growth fund has certainly attracted interest in Wiltshire, with bids from Melksham’s Cooper Tires and the Corsham Institute. Whether it brings sustainable energy solutions or exploits the digital economy, is this not a welcome diversification of Wiltshire’s economy?
Michael Fallon
It certainly is. The purpose of the regional growth fund is to help better balance our economy by encouraging manufacturing, especially in those regions that have been over-dependent either on public sector employment or single types of employment.
Michael Connarty (Linlithgow and East Falkirk) (Lab)
4. If he will bring forward proposals to require companies to include supply chain issues in their annual narrative reporting.
Martin Vickers (Cleethorpes) (Con)
11. What support his Department is providing to encourage investment and growth in north and north-east Lincolnshire authority areas.
The Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (Michael Fallon)
North and north-east Lincolnshire are benefiting from over £41 million of Government investment from the regional growth fund, including the £30 million Humber local enterprise partnership that I launched in February with my hon. Friend, which will support businesses in his constituency. The Humber has also secured the largest enterprise zone allocation in England—1,200 acres over two sites—which will help to support the development of the offshore renewable industry in both north and north-east Lincolnshire.
Martin Vickers
We obviously welcome the Government’s continuing support and any further initiatives. To emphasise that Cleethorpes is a good place to start businesses, today is the fifth anniversary of the launch of the Cleethorpes Chronicle by two local businessmen. Does the Minister agree that if people show determination and enthusiasm and have a quality product, it is appropriate to start a business, even in these difficult times, as we have seen with the success of the Cleethorpes Chronicle?
Michael Fallon
I congratulate the Cleethorpes Chronicle on reaching that milestone and we should send our best wishes to Nigel Lowther, Mark Webb and the team. It is a great local paper, committed to the community and the businesses that it serves.
Roger Williams (Brecon and Radnorshire) (LD)
12. What plans he has to implement a share scheme for Royal Mail employees.
The Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (Michael Fallon)
Parliament decided two years ago that employees of Royal Mail should share in its success. It would be wrong to deny employees this any longer. They should be sharing in the company’s success and dividends, and it is our intention to have such a scheme in place at the time that we conduct a sale of Royal Mail.
Roger Williams
I thank the Minister for that encouraging reply. The better financial performance of Royal Mail owes much to the loyalty of postmen and women getting the mail out to every address in the country, even in during these difficult weather conditions. Can the Minister give us a little more certainty about the timing of this scheme and how those loyal postmen and women will benefit?
Michael Fallon
It is our intention to conduct a sale during the forthcoming financial year, 2013-14, and I confirm that at the time of that sale we intend to make a share scheme available to the 130,000 employees of Royal Mail who, as my hon. Friend says, have worked so tirelessly to turn it into a successful and profitable business and should share in that success.
Mr Russell Brown (Dumfries and Galloway) (Lab)
What assurances can the Minister give to small businesses and many individuals across the UK who rely on a well performing, six-day-a-week service to their homes and businesses? Will that remain so once Royal Mail is privatised?
Michael Fallon
Yes, it will, because Parliament put in place, in the Postal Services Act 2011, the statutory requirement for a universal postal service that is secured by Ofcom, an independent regulator, and that will exist irrespective of the ownership of Royal Mail.
Ian Murray (Edinburgh South) (Lab)
We very much support genuine employee ownership, especially for hard-working Royal Mail employees. However, we vehemently oppose this Government undermining employee ownership by attaching it to the Beecroft agenda of giving up rights at work. The Chancellor announced this policy by proclaiming:
“Workers of the world, unite!”
Well, they have: they have united against this policy, along with the Employee Ownership Association and the vast majority of responses to the consultation. The Minister is not listening to this large body of opinion, so may I press him again, following the question from my right hon. Friend the Member for Delyn (Mr Hanson), to heed the advice of Conservative Lords Lawson, King, Forsyth and Gummer who voted yesterday, with a large majority of other Lords, to dump these divisive shares for rights policies?
Michael Fallon
I note that the hon. Gentleman wants to divert the House from the question about Royal Mail and the more interesting question of whether those on the Opposition Front Bench will support this opening up of Royal Mail to private capital and the scheme to ensure that those who work for the company will share in its success.
Richard Fuller (Bedford) (Con)
13. What recent assessment he has made of the costs and benefits of international students to the UK economy.
Miss Anne McIntosh (Thirsk and Malton) (Con)
T6. I believe it is Lord Heseltine’s birthday today. I wish him congratulations. Large rafts of money are going to city regions such as Leeds and Sheffield for transport infrastructure and other projects. We feel that we will be left in the lurch, so may I ask the team what support will be given to rural areas of North Yorkshire to improve the roads and other infrastructure?
The Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (Michael Fallon)
That is a perfectly fair point, but let me reassure my hon. Friend that the single pot funding from 2015 will be allocated not simply to the cities, but through local enterprise partnerships. It is her local enterprise partnership that will be able to make a bid to the Government.
Mr Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield) (Lab/Co-op)
T4. I do not want to use my topical question to talk about the obscene Barclays bonus; I want to ask whether the Secretary of State is aware of the fine example of CEEP—clean and energy efficient production—and sustainable manufacturing in our country’s industrial production. We are a world leader and we have amazing markets in China and India for this product. Will he put even more effort behind CEEP—he has done well up to now—so that we can conquer those markets?
Mark Menzies (Fylde) (Con)
T8. The north-west is at the heart of Britain’s aerospace industry, and I welcome this week’s announcement of the £2 billion aerospace technology institute. May I urge the Minister to consider the Warton enterprise zone in my constituency as a potential location for it?
Michael Fallon
We will certainly do that. The aerospace industry received an enormous boost on Monday with the announcement of £1.5 billion that is to be shared, along with another £1 billion from the private sector. I hope that that will give the industry the confidence to invest, right across the remainder of this Parliament and through to the end of the next one, in what is already one of Britain’s great success stories.
Sheila Gilmore (Edinburgh East) (Lab)
T10. The Secretary of State has often told us of his plans to rebalance the economy. Is he as worried as I and many commentators are that a huge plank of the Chancellor’s growth strategy seems to be predicated on a policy that could reinflate the housing bubble?
Emma Reynolds (Wolverhampton North East) (Lab)
As chair of the all-party parliamentary group on aerospace, I want to welcome the announcement earlier this week of the aerospace technology institute. Will the Secretary of State or the Minister say more about the timetable for its creation and what types of investment it will support?
Michael Fallon
Yes, I co-chaired the aerospace growth partnership on Monday to press the industrial side of the partnership to get on with the money made available—some £2 billion spread over seven years. I have challenged them to make sure that the money starts to get put into action so that the institute is established as rapidly as possible this year.
Neil Carmichael (Stroud) (Con)
In welcoming the industrial strategy being supported by £1.6 billion, I ask whether the Secretary of State agrees that we need to encourage our SMEs to start thinking about investing in tooling for components, especially in the automotive sector, because that is how we will further boost the values of our already impressive exports in cars?