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 pubs in (a) Clacton and (b) nationally.

Pubs, including in Clacton, are at the heart of our communities and play a vital role in supporting economic growth across the UK. We will restore consumer confidence through measures such as the plan to Make Work Pay, which sets out an ambitious agenda to ensure employment rights are fit for a modern economy, empower working people and contribute to economic growth. Furthermore, through the English Devolution Bill we will introduce a new ‘right to buy’ for valued community assets, empowering communities to reclaim empty premises including pubs, to stimulate local growth.

We have also established Skills England, a new partnership which will transform the existing Apprenticeship Levy into a more flexible Growth and Skills Levy to better support business and boost opportunity for people to work in pubs. This will address one of the key asks of the Hospitality Sector that the Levy should include shorter courses that would be more suitable to this sector.