Speeches by Western.

“Indeed, so why should we be buying them from elsewhere?”

“Related to that, you may have seen the story from Norway and Denmark, where authorities have been concerned about buses sold by the Chinese company Yutong. That company can remotely access each individual bus and switch off its software. Buses are an important part of infrastructure. Do those sorts of stories concern y…”

“I want to talk a bit about tax in the gig economy. A couple of days ago, I witnessed a delivery rider—I don’t know whether he was from Deliveroo or Just Eat—get knocked off his bike. Police get involved. The guy probably had to go to hospital. You are left wondering who picks up the bill, because he will not be insured…”

“You mentioned automotive; above the 100,000 threshold the tariff goes from 10% to 27.5%. It is a pretty squeaky time for manufacturers, as we get towards the end of the year, and there are also the quarterly splits, in terms of achieving targets. Small manufacturers and micro-manufacturers are really worried that they …”

“It has now been six months since the economic prosperity deal. The Government were quite rightly lauded for doing such a great job—we were first up and really the envy of so many other nations—but a huge amount is still unresolved. What are we doing to support UK manufacturers?”

“Just to elaborate a bit more on that—as you will appreciate, Secretary of State, it is so important—speaking to organisations such as the Confederation of British Metalforming and others, they are saying, “Don’t get us wrong, the Government have done a great job with the OEM at tier 1, but the real crunch is coming at …”

“Would you lobby at least to bring changes to business rates as they stand?”

“Welcome, it is good to see you. On small businesses and high street hospitality, some of the changes you have made are very welcome, but we had café owners before us a few weeks ago, and if you talk to the average pub in your town or city, they are really struggling. They may have covid loans, energy loans and, of cour…”

“I am pleased that the Government published the witnessed statements last night, but clearly there are a lot of questions yet to be asked in terms of how this came about and what evidence there was that may not have been shared, or perhaps was not asked for. The Joint Committee met this morning to discuss the situation.…”

“I beg to move, That leave be given to bring in a Bill to make provision about the accountability of police and crime commissioners; to make provision about the measurement of police and crime commissioners’ performance; to make provision about the setting of priorities for police and crime commissioners; to require the…”

“Tim Balcon, I am interested to know where you see the really significant gaps in the construction industry, in terms of roles or subsectors trying to get people in and trained?”

“Morgan, would you welcome something along those lines?”

“Very briefly, from talking to pubs in my constituency, Warwick and Leamington, they would really welcome minimum pricing for alcohol. Stephen, in Scotland, how does it work for you?”

“This is putting a lot of pressure on them. What about covid loans? Is that something that you can relate to? Are there issues with outstanding covid loans that you may have taken out or that have been taken out across the sector?”

“It is just those other additional pressures on the sector. The margins may have been reasonable to slim.”

“Lydia, are there any other costs that are really bearing down on the business?”

“Would many of your pubs, do you reckon, have taken out loans, especially for some of the energy hikes that they saw?”

“So a good town centre would have really good connectivity, easy access and public transport. What else?”

“Just to pick up on a couple of points, you have clearly articulated some of the pressures that the 2024 Budget has brought. I would be interested to know about some of the challenges that may also have been contributing to the viability of business prior to the 2024 Budget. Starting with you, Morgan, in terms of the pu…”

“We need to sort out rents. We need to sort out business rates. What else?”