Speeches by Bance.

“Coming back to your partnerships with the British Business Bank, do the British Business Bank’s products have enough flexibility? What improvements, if any, would you make to the product offering of the British Business Bank?”

“Yes, I was going to ask exactly that question about the London bias in business finance and lending. How can banks encourage growth outside London and the south-east? Was there anything that you wanted to add on that point, Louis?”

“I will ask the same question about the regions. Andy, would you like to take that?”

“Turning to the industrial strategy, 4,000 businesses contributed to the consultation, which was published in early summer. Secretary of State, what are your key priorities for the industrial strategy?”

“Why are we waiting until the start of 2027 for relief for industry? There are ceramics automotive foundries in my constituency that need support now. Frankly, we should be moving faster than we are.”

“Welcome. When they came to see us, Nissan said that their Sunderland plant was the most expensive in the world for energy costs. We have a new support scheme for energy-intensive industries, but the British industrial competitiveness scheme consultation is not out yet. We have a timetable for the start of 2027. Frankly…”

“I was glad to hear you mention the appointment to be the chair of the Fair Work Agency. Frankly, if a previous Prime Minister had listened to the recommendations from the person in question a number of years ago, we would not be in the situation we are in now. How will you make sure that the Fair Work Agency has the re…”

“In this Committee, we have heard from many employers who have welcomed their relationships with unions, and we hope for further constructive working between unions and employers. I turn to one of the other issues in the new deal for working people: the “Make Work Pay” plan. We have heard significant evidence about that…”

“Moving on, the leader of the GMB union says that if the provisions of the Employment Rights Bill had been in place when his members at Amazon had sought union recognition, they would have won the ballot. Given that, is it time for Amazon to voluntarily recognise the GMB union at its Coventry warehouse and across the co…”

“In that case, I turn to some of the specific commitments. On the ban on zero-hours contracts and guaranteed hours, will you commit now to a rolling 12-week reference period and to all workers on all levels of hours being eligible for the protection of guaranteed hours?”

“Okay.”

“The key question is this. As we face next year’s EU summit and the further expansion of the agreements that we saw this summer, which are being led by the Cabinet Office rather than by your Department, many of us have quite high hopes that steel and chemicals may well be some of the industries that can be helped by fur…”

“Are you still committed to implementing the Employment Rights Bill in full? If so, why are there still six outstanding consultations on aspects of the Bill?”

“UK Steel has warned that the EU’s proposed tariff increases to 50% could be disastrous for domestic producers. What concrete steps have you taken on that?”

“I was very glad to hear what you had to say about using procurement in a muscular fashion to buy British wherever possible. That is absolutely is what we should be doing. Following the Government’s decision to take over British Steel earlier this year, what sovereign capabilities do you think we ought to have in the Un…”

“Thank you. I want to put on record my thanks for the work that you, your staff team and your civil servants did to ensure that we got to a good solution for JLR. I think many Governments would have just allowed the market to take its course, and this Government did not. Having said that, what are you doing to make sure…”

“Building on that, one of the things that this Committee continues to worry about is making sure that the industrial strategy is understood as being the priority across the range of Departments that touch the industrial strategy’s eight sectors. We are again beginning to see some things where it feels like some other De…”

“That will be great, thank you very much. We all think that there probably is some funding that is being lost or not able to be used, which could be better used if it were able to be shared down the supply chains. I have heard that from SMEs and from OEMs. There is something we can do there, and it would be good if you …”

“The hon. Member is not being very clear. Does he like the pre-2016 trade union regime, which is the one this Bill takes us back to, or does he like the post-2016 trade union regime, which is the one he seems to be advocating except when he talks about the 30 years of settled consensus? Which is it, because it cannot be…”

“For Sarah, if I may, following up, some criticisms of Skills England have been that it does not have the directive power that it needs to actually push the findings from your insight work. I have been impressed by some insight work that I have seen so far. As you say, I know you have been set up only since June. The is…”