Oral Answers to Questions

Nigel Mills Excerpts

Monday 17th October 2022 Commons Chamber

[Dehenna Davison]

I am delighted that the hon. Gentleman mentions the mini-Budget, because he will know that one of the most incredible measures in it is investment zones, which our Department is committed to delivering to bring about local opportunity, local jobs and local investment to benefit local people, including in Scotland.

[Nigel Mills (Amber Valley) (Con)]

11. What assessment he has made of the potential merits of investment zones for local (a) residents and (b) businesses.

[Dr James Davies (Vale of Clwyd) (Con)]

15. What assessment he has made of the potential merits of investment zones for local (a) residents and (b) businesses.

[The Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (Mr Simon Clarke)]

Investment zones will turbocharge our plans for growth, spread opportunity and be transformational for towns and cities across the country. They will create new jobs and homes on targeted sites while maintaining strong environmental outcomes and keeping national green-belt protections in place. They will attract businesses and jobs through lower taxes and streamline planning rules to unlock commercial development. They will be created across the UK, including, we hope, in Wales.

[Nigel Mills]

I thank the Secretary of State for that answer. I hope he will look favourably at the bids from Derbyshire that were duly submitted last week. Can he confirm how investment zones will interact with freeports and whether sites could have both statuses to really supercharge growth on those sites?

[Mr Clarke]

I am a convinced believer in the merits of freeports. Clearly, the final Government approval for some of those will go into place this autumn, and many are already operational. We are already seeing investment in freeports that we want to see in investment zones. Investment zones have the chance, through a very simple streamlined expression of interest process, to upgrade to full tax freedoms.