Asked by: Louise Haigh (Labour - Sheffield Heeley)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what plans he has to bring forward legislative proposals for the construction of high-speed railway from the West Midlands to Sheffield and Leeds.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson
Plans for legislation covering the Eastern Leg of HS2 Phase 2b will be confirmed following the publication of the Integrated Rail Plan. The Government is committed to ensuring the Midlands, Yorkshire and the North East realise the benefits of high-speed services. The Integrated Rail Plan will set out the best way of doing so, looking at how best to deliver and design HS2 alongside other major schemes, such as Northern Powerhouse Rail and those within Midlands Engine Rail.
Asked by: Jonathan Gullis (Conservative - Stoke-on-Trent North)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to improve rail connections in (a) Stoke-on-Trent and (b) Staffordshire.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris
The Department is working to improve rail connections across the network including at Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire through both the HS2 and Midlands Connect schemes. Plans are being developed for the Midlands Engine between the Department for Transport and Midlands Connect, which include proposals to increase the frequency of trains between Stoke-on-Trent and Crewe.
Avanti West Coast currently run an hourly service calling at Stoke-on-Trent between London Euston and Manchester Piccadilly.
West Midlands Trains also run an hourly service between Birmingham New Street and Crewe, calling at Stafford, Stone and Stoke – on – Trent. From December 2020 the timetable will be uplifted so this service includes calls at Penkridge, meaning an extra hourly service at this station in addition to the calls made by the existing Birmingham New Street – Liverpool Lime Street service.
HS2 services are expected to serve Stoke-on-Trent once the railway is operational. No final decisions have been made on the exact HS2 train service, however, and the Department has appointed West Coast Partnership Development to analyse passenger demand on the route and present options for train service patterns that best allow this demand to be met with the available infrastructure. The Secretary of State will decide on the preferred option, once it has been subject to wider consultation, nearer to the time that HS2 opens.
In January 2020 the Secretary of State announced the £500 million Restoring Your Railway fund to deliver our manifesto commitment and start reopening lines and stations, reconnecting smaller communities. Meir station was successful in the first round of the Ideas Fund and is currently on track to progress to the next stage of the Restoring Your Railway process.
Asked by: Pauline Latham (Conservative - Mid Derbyshire)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he will take to collaborate with regionally-focused private equity firms to help encourage local businesses to expand as the economy reopens and covid-19 lockdown restrictions are eased.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Government is already collaborating through regionally-focused private equity firms which are benefiting from funding from the government-backed British Business Bank (BBB) programmes such as the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund, Midlands Engine Investment Fund and Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Investment Fund. As of June 2020, the BBB’s dedicated regional funds support more than £240m worth of finance.
In order to support its regional activities further, BBB launched the £100m Regional Angels programme in 2018 – which is designed to help reduce regional imbalances in access to early stage equity finance for smaller businesses across all regions; and the UK Network – which engages with business finance stakeholders in each of the English regions and Devolved Nations, to increase small businesses’ awareness and understanding of the finance options best suited to their needs. The Future Fund is also open to companies from all regions and from all backgrounds.
We are considering a range of options that look at enhancing both new and existing levers to increase the supply of equity finance, particularly in regions, as part of the 2020 Comprehensive Spending Review discussions in order to support local businesses to expand as the economy reopens.
Asked by: Dan Poulter (Labour - Central Suffolk and North Ipswich)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, pursuant to Answer of 1 September 2020 to Question 78611, if he will make an assessment of the strategic importance of upgrading the A14 in Suffolk to (a) enhance the route for transport between the port of Felixstowe and the areas incorporating the Midlands Engine and Northern Powerhouse schemes and (b) contribute to the delivery of the UK's (i) economic and (ii) trade strategies after the end of the transition period.
Answered by Greg Hands
The Department for International Trade does not currently have any plans to undertake any such assessment.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate she has made of the number of job vacancies in (a) Birmingham and (b) the West Midlands in each month since January 2020 to date.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
Official statistics on vacancies are not available for each region and nation of the UK. However, experimental statistics on online job adverts are available at a regional level. These statistics are provided by ONS in partnership with Adzuna (an online job search engine).
Asked by: Dan Poulter (Labour - Central Suffolk and North Ipswich)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what discussions she has held with the Secretary of State for Transport on upgrading the A14 in Suffolk to enhance the route for transport between the port of Felixstowe and the areas incorporating the Midlands Engine and Northern Powerhouse schemes.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Secretary of State for International Trade has had no formal discussions with the Secretary of State for Transport on this matter.
Asked by: Dan Poulter (Labour - Central Suffolk and North Ipswich)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what assessment she has made of the strategic importance of upgrading the A14 in Suffolk to (a) enhance the route for transport between the port of Felixstowe and the areas incorporating the Midlands Engine and Northern Powerhouse schemes and (b) contribute to the delivery of the UK's (i) economic and (ii) trade strategies after the end of the transition period.
Answered by Graham Stuart
No assessment has been made by DIT of the strategic importance of upgrading the A14 in Suffolk.
Asked by: Jonathan Gullis (Conservative - Stoke-on-Trent North)
Question
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what plans she has for the Government's Equality Hub to help tackle (a) geographical and (b) socio-economic inequality in (i) Stoke-on-Trent and (ii) Staffordshire.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - Leader of HM Official Opposition
The Prime Minister has set out our vision to level up and spread opportunity and I want the Equality Hub to look at issues such as geography and social background to identify barriers to success.
The Government has introduced unprecedented support for business and workers across all regions of the UK, including Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire, to protect them against the current economic crisis. We will support jobs in every region, and invest in our towns, cities, people and places.
The forthcoming Local Recovery and Devolution White Paper will set out the place-based regional economic strategy. This will build on regional partnerships like the Midlands Engine which promotes the global footprint of our regions and the economic opportunities within.
Asked by: Dan Poulter (Labour - Central Suffolk and North Ipswich)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he plans to upgrade the A14 in Suffolk to enhance the route for transport between the port of Felixstowe and the areas incorporating the midlands engine and northern powerhouse schemes.
Answered by Baroness Maclean of Redditch
The Government recognises the importance of the A14 as a key artery and has invested £1.5 billion in the recently-opened improvements between Cambridge and Huntingdon. The second Road Investment Strategy, published with the Budget in March, confirmed funding for the development of a scheme to enhance the Copdock Interchange in Suffolk to enable smoother journeys for goods vehicles to and from the Port of Felixstowe.
Asked by: Marco Longhi (Conservative - Dudley North)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent steps he has taken to support small businesses in (a) Dudley and (b) throughout the West Midlands.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Government-backed British Business Bank (BBB) is working alongside LEPs in the Midlands to deliver the Investment Strategy for the Midlands Engine Investment Fund (MEIF). To date is has made over £80m of investments in firms located across the Midlands and includes £31 million of private sector leverage.
The Chancellor’s has announced temporary measures to support businesses during the coronavirus outbreak. This support is comprised of two packages that we are asking local authorities in England to administer to support small businesses. They are the Small Business Grant Fund and the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Business Grants Fund.
The first scheme is a £10,000 grant per eligible business. Eligible businesses will be those with a rateable value of £15,000 or less and thus eligible for relief under the Small Business Rates Relief scheme (full relief and tapered relief) or the Rural Rate Relief Scheme. We estimate that this will apply to some 730,000 businesses across England.
The second scheme is the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Business Grants Fund. This fund is intended to support businesses in sectors that we know are being profoundly impacted and which are crucial to local economies across England. The businesses that are eligible will be those that eligible for a discount under the Expanded Retail Discount scheme. Grants will be provided in respect of each property (hereditament); so businesses with multiple outlets would receive more than one grant and may receive grants from separate local authorities.
There will be two levels to this grant: £10,000 for properties with a rateable value for £15,000 or less; £25,000 for properties with a rateable value of more than £15,000 but less than £51,000.