Asked by: Wendy Morton (Conservative - Aldridge-Brownhills)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps his Department is taking to support small and medium-sized enterprises in the West Midlands facing increases in energy and regulatory costs.
Answered by Blair McDougall - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Government is committed to lowering operating costs for all small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), including those in the West Midlands.
Government is helping support businesses to lower their energy costs through energy efficiency and decarbonisation. Recent research from the Willow Review highlights that SMEs adopting sustainability initiatives are reaping the financial rewards.
The Government is also committed to ensuring the allocation of energy costs is fair to all consumers, including SMEs. As part of this, Ofgem have launched a Cost Allocation and Recovery Review (CARR) to consider how energy system costs can be recovered from consumers, including from SMEs, in a fairer and more efficient way. DESNZ will continue to engage closely with Ofgem on the work.
Asked by: Wendy Morton (Conservative - Aldridge-Brownhills)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the Industrial Strategy on trends in the level of private sector investment in the West Midlands.
Answered by Blair McDougall - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Government will use the Office for National Statistics dataset (Gross Fixed Capital Formation, Volume Index Capital Service) to analyse investment trends. This dataset releases regional level data annually; Government will analyse sector-level trends once the data is released. Information on specific investment commitments in regions can be found in the Industrial Strategy Quarterly Report excel tables on GOV.UK (published on 7th October 2025), such as the Boeing contract from US Air Force that will create 150 high-skilled jobs in Birmingham.
Asked by: Wendy Morton (Conservative - Aldridge-Brownhills)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the Industrial Strategy on the fiscal position of the UK.
Answered by Blair McDougall - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Since publication, over £250 billion of investment commitments have been made into the IS-8, boosting our frontier industries. These commitments will enhance their rate of growth and in turn bring in higher tax revenues.
Fiscal policy is a matter for the Treasury, and the Chancellor has commissioned the Office for Budget Responsibility to produce an economic and fiscal forecast to be published alongside the Budget on 26 November.
Asked by: Wendy Morton (Conservative - Aldridge-Brownhills)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps his Department is taking to help mitigate the potential impact of regulatory changes on compliance costs for SMEs.
Answered by Blair McDougall - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Government is committed to reducing regulatory compliance costs for SMEs and announced in March a commitment to reduce the administrative burden of regulation for all businesses by £5.6 billion by the end of this Parliament. We have already announced a number of specific measures to ease the regulatory burden on SMEs, including our efforts to modernise corporate reporting requirements. This will include exempting tens of thousands of companies from producing Strategic and Directors' Reports, helping to deliver annual savings of around £230 million.
Asked by: Wendy Morton (Conservative - Aldridge-Brownhills)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the Industrial Strategy on trends in the level of private sector investment.
Answered by Blair McDougall - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Government published its first Industrial Strategy Quarterly Update on 7th October 2025 on GOV.UK, which contains information on the £250bn worth of investment commitments since the Industrial Strategy launched, and trends for business investment, gross value added, employment and productivity.
Asked by: Wendy Morton (Conservative - Aldridge-Brownhills)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of Government support for the (a) supply chain and (b) SMEs, in the context of the cyber attack on Jaguar Land Rover.
Answered by Chris McDonald - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
We recognise that many automotive suppliers, particularly SMEs, are under pressure following the recent cyber incident at Jaguar Land Rover (JLR). The phased restart of production at JLR is now underway and is positive news, however the picture is still developing.
The Department for Business and Trade is continuing to monitor the situation and is working closely with JLR and industry bodies such as the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders to assess how the recent measures being taken and support being provided is helping suppliers, including SMEs.
Asked by: Wendy Morton (Conservative - Aldridge-Brownhills)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of UK energy policy on the competitiveness of the UK manufacturing sector.
Answered by Chris McDonald - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
This government recognises the importance of reducing energy costs to boost UK manufacturing competitiveness. Under the Modern Industrial Strategy, the British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme will reduce electricity costs by up to £40/MWh for over 7000 manufacturing businesses. We will also increase support for our most energy-intensive industries under the British Industry Supercharger, uplifting the Network Charging Compensation scheme from 60% to 90%.
These measures are supported by the Connections Accelerator Service (to reduce grid connection waiting times for strategically important projects), continued support for the Energy-Intensive Industries Compensation Scheme and support to develop the UK Corporate Power Purchase Agreement market.
Asked by: Wendy Morton (Conservative - Aldridge-Brownhills)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, pursuant to the Answer of 27 Oct 2025 to Question 83835, if he will publish a list of (a) businesses and (b) sectors in Walsall Borough with whom they consulted.
Answered by Blair McDougall - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The government consulted a wide range of businesses from across the UK during the development of the Industrial Strategy, through roundtables, workshops, and direct conversations with businesses, business representation organisations, and networks.
This included the Invest 2035 public consultation which sought feedback on 36 questions to inform the Industrial Strategy. The consultation received over 27,000 online answers to individual questions from a wide range of businesses and organisations, including more than 250 business associations representing hundreds of thousands of businesses across the UK.
We cannot publish a list of businesses and sectors in Walsall Borough with whom we consulted, as no data was systematically collected on respondents’ geographic location. Additionally, to maintain respondents’ confidentiality we cannot share the names of individual respondents or the details of individual responses to the consultation.
Asked by: Wendy Morton (Conservative - Aldridge-Brownhills)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what discussions he has had with the Mayor of the West Midlands on the resilience of supply chains in the West Midlands.
Answered by Chris McDonald - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
In recent interactions the Secretary of State discussed with the West Midlands Mayor the importance of improving the resilience of supply chains in the region and our goal to do so through the Industrial Strategy. A Supply Chain Centre, based in DBT, will lead the government's work to build the resilience of critical supply chains and our £2.5bn DRIVE35 programme will support Zero Emission Vehicle manufacturing and its supply chain.
DBT's Advanced Manufacturing Sector Plan also sets out to strengthen UK capabilities and secure more diverse import resources, ensuring better connected and agile supply chains.
Asked by: Wendy Morton (Conservative - Aldridge-Brownhills)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, pursuant to the Answer of 21 July 2025 to Question 68454 on Manufacturing Industries: West Midlands, which SME sectors in the West Midlands were consulted during the development of the UK’s Modern Industrial Strategy 2025.
Answered by Blair McDougall - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
As part of Invest 2035 the Department issued a public consultation asking for feedback on 36 questions to inform the Industrial Strategy. The consultation received over 27,000 online answers to individual questions from a wide range of businesses and organisations, including more than 250 business associations representing hundreds of thousands of businesses across the UK.
In the West Midlands input was sought from businesses across a wide range of sectors, including all eight growth driving sectors. We engaged with organisations representing business interests across sectors, including the Combined Authority, Midlands Engine Partnership, local business representation organisations, and regional networks such as the export champions. Additionally, we met directly with representatives from businesses in the growth driving sectors in the region to give them an opportunity to feed into the development of the strategy.