Financial Assistance to Industry

Mike Kane Excerpts

Monday 24th May 2021 General Committees

[Mike Kane (Wythenshawe and Sale East) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship today, Mr Robertson. I congratulate you on your football team, Bolton Wanders, gaining promotion to league one. The Trotters have an astonishing history of football in the north-west. As a Manchester City fan, having watched them lift the premier league title yesterday and having worked for the club in the 1990s on a zero-hours contract—the lowest paid, highest status job I ever had; my job now is well paid, but I leave hon. Members to decide the status of the work we do—I can say that there is hope for all clubs in the future. That is why the proposed superleague was such a bad idea.

I wholeheartedly concur with the Minister’s comments about Belarus. The news yesterday of a Ryanair flight being diverted from its course to land in Minsk by the Belarusian Government is very troubling. We rely on free and open skies for our aviation markets to work. I join the Minister in condemning this act and support the strong response that the British Government have just announced—suspending Belavia’s licence to operate and avoiding Belarusian airspace. It is the best we can do in a limited period, and I am sure there is more we and the international community can do to stop what Ryanair called “state-sponsored hijacking” in the sky.

I welcome the extension of the AGOSS for a further six months. The scheme provided up to £8 million in rates relief to airports and ground operators last year, and it will offer £4 million in the first half of this year. While the scheme is indeed welcome, financial support for the aviation sector is something Labour has been demanding for over a year. The Minister laid out certain measures the Government have taken, but did not provide the context of what has been happening. The money provided under the motion will not cover even the rates bill for our largest airports. Manchester Airport, which is in my constituency, is losing tens of millions of pounds every month, even with the bare minimum of operating costs and while running a skeleton staff. The £4 million relief this year barely touches the sides.

Realistically, with our domestic vaccination programme extending into the autumn and with very few overseas destinations on the green list, aviation will be grounded for much of the rest of the year. It is great to see confidence coming back in the past few weeks, particularly about Portugal, but it remains a worrying time for the industry. Without further financial support, the chances of failures in the sector are becoming very real. The UK has the third largest aviation sector in the world, but we are now at risk of falling behind other countries, which are supporting their aviation sectors fully. For example, France has bailed out Air France-KLM, and the US has offered tens of billions of dollars to its sector.

The UK Government have halted all covid-related appeals of business rates and said they will introduce a new rates relief fund to provide support for businesses that need it, but they have yet to set out any details of how the new fund will work. Retrospectively changing tax laws has created huge financial uncertainty. The Government need to confirm the terms of their rates relief fund as soon as possible. I know the Minister shares my passion for our aviation industry. I hope he will work with colleagues in government and ensure that the sector gets the vital support it needs, so that it gets back in the air as soon as possible.

Finally, let me take this opportunity to say that, without our staff, parliamentarians are nothing. I lost a member of staff, who retired at the age of 67, a matter of weeks ago, and now, after four years with me, my parliamentary assistant Steve Kay, who writes these fantastic speeches to hold the Government to account, is off for a bigger and better job in the private sector. I wanted to put on the record my thanks to him for all his hard work to keep Government and Opposition functioning, and particularly to keep the Government on their toes.