Reducing Costs for Businesses Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
Sarah Champion
Main Page: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)Department Debates - View all Sarah Champion's debates with the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
Reducing Costs for Businesses
Sarah Champion Excerpts(2 years, 11 months ago)
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Sarah Champion (Rotherham) (Lab)
Today, Rotherham businesses are facing an economic crisis. Prices across the board are skyrocketing. Last year saw the fastest ever rise in production costs. Staff retention and recruitment is harder than ever. Inflation is at a 10-year high, and taxes on people and businesses have reached a 70-year high. It is no wonder that consumer confidence is down and that, according to Make UK, two thirds of UK manufacturers are worried about further cost increases in the coming year. Why is this happening? Because the Government have lost control and because they have not got a plan. Ministers seem more interested in protecting the Prime Minister than in protecting British businesses, and more interested in saving their own jobs than in saving those of our constituents.
The warning signs were clear. Even before the pandemic, costs for businesses were at record levels, thanks in no small part to the Government’s failure to deliver a working Brexit, and nowhere was that clearer than in the energy-intensive industries. For nine years, I have been sounding the alarm on energy prices, but time and again the Government have failed, despite pledges of support. Warm words will not forge steel, but action to bring down production costs might. Our steelmakers pay 61% more for electricity than competitors in Germany and 51% more than those in France. Similarly, glass producers such as Beatson Clark in Rotherham face unsustainable energy costs thanks to a 400% increase in wholesale gas prices. Costs of that kind cannot be sustained.
Where this Government step back, however, Labour steps up. We propose a contingency fund to support firms through hard times, including energy-intensive industries such as steel and glass. Labour would freeze business rates and replace them with a system fit for purpose that would ensure a level playing field between the online giants and physical shops, and Labour proposes a patriotic commitment to buy British.