Oral Answers to Questions

Oliver Dowden Excerpts

Thursday 12th December 2024 Commons Chamber

[Ms Polly Billington (East Thanet) (Lab)]

13. What steps his Department is taking to support high streets.

[Sir Oliver Dowden (Hertsmere) (Con)]

14. What steps he is taking to support high street businesses.

[Baggy Shanker (Derby South) (Lab/Co-op)]

16. What steps his Department is taking to support high streets.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Speaker]

I call Sir Oliver Dowden.

[Sir Oliver Dowden]

Question 14, Mr Speaker.

[Mr Speaker]

No, just ask the question. You’re grouped.

[Sir Oliver Dowden]

I did not realise you had grouped them, Mr Speaker. Forgive me—a schoolboy error.

What advice would the Minister give struggling businesses in my constituency who are trying to work out how to absorb Labour’s national insurance hike? Would he advise them to increase their prices, to squeeze wages or to cut investment, and can he explain to those businesses how that fits with the Government’s promises to increase growth?

[Gareth Thomas]

I think the best advice I could give to businesses in the right hon. Member’s constituency is to never vote Conservative again. His and his party’s idea of good economics in Government seems to be to create a huge fiscal hole and leave it to the next Administration to fix it. We are working at pace to try to tackle the difficult economic inheritance that he and his colleagues in Government helped to create. Measures such as the industrial strategy and the decisions we have taken in the Budget—albeit some are difficult—will help to bring back economic stability to this country. In the long run, that will help businesses in his constituency and, indeed, in constituencies up and down the country.