Oral Answers to Questions Debate

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Department: Cabinet Office

Oral Answers to Questions

Neil Carmichael Excerpts
Tuesday 6th January 2015

(9 years, 10 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Greg Clark Portrait Greg Clark
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My hon. Friend is right that he has raised this with me before and I am keen to see the scheme that he paints in such glowing terms, so if he is free to see me a week on Friday I will come up to his constituency and view the mill. I am confident that it will be as attractive as the picture he paints of it.

Neil Carmichael Portrait Neil Carmichael (Stroud) (Con)
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4. What assessment he has made of the effect on economic growth on the regional growth fund.

Greg Clark Portrait The Minister of State, Cabinet Office (Greg Clark)
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The regional growth fund has already helped create or safeguard more than 100,000 jobs across the country and more still in the supply chain and it is contributing to the 1.75 million more people in work since 2010. I will shortly announce the outcome of round 6 of the regional growth fund, with £200 million available for investment in further job creation.

Neil Carmichael Portrait Neil Carmichael
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Does my right hon. Friend agree that to underpin that work, things such as GREEN at Berkeley—the Gloucestershire renewable energy, engineering and nuclear project—in which the Government have invested to improve training in engineering, energy and renewable energy, are exactly the way to ensure that we have jobs that are lasting, sustainable and productive?

Greg Clark Portrait Greg Clark
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My hon. Friend is absolutely right. If we want high-quality jobs to be sustained in the future, we need to invest in skills. That is why the Gloucestershire growth deal will see substantial investment in training in such skills at the former Berkeley power station. I know that he has been a big champion of that.