Oral Answers to Questions

Ruth Cadbury Excerpts

Tuesday 7th November 2017 Commons Chamber

[The Minister for Climate Change and Industry (Claire Perry)]

I commend my hon. Friend and her local enterprise partnership for their work. We look forward to seeing that report and to having productive conversations. We do not want any barriers that impede economic growth in her constituency and region.

[Ruth Cadbury (Brentford and Isleworth) (Lab)]

T6. Net present value is the economic measurement generally held to provide the most robust assessment of all the costs and benefits of any proposed major infrastructure project. Would the Government ever support a major infrastructure project that, at its inception, was calculated to have a negative net economic benefit?

[Greg Clark]

One of the things that the House has correctly required of the Government is that we should take account of the impact on local economies—for example, on small businesses. That is something that has changed in the impact guidance, and it is right that it has.