Gareth Thomas MP: speeches 2024

Speeches

• 31 Oct 2024 · High Street Businesses · Hansard source

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  I welcome my hon. Friend’s question, and I know the high streets in his constituency that he mentioned, as they are very close to Britain’s greatest constituency. He will be aware that we have already taken steps to help businesses recruit more skilled staff. It is one of the reasons why we have established Skills England. We have also taken steps to reform the apprenticeship levy, and earlier this week the Prime Minister brought forward plans to help people get back to work.

• 31 Oct 2024 · High Street Businesses · Hansard source

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  The hon. Gentleman is an assiduous champion for his constituency in this House. If he wants to bring his chamber of commerce to meet me to discuss issues in his constituency in more detail, I will happily make time to meet him and them.

• 31 Oct 2024 · High Street Businesses · Hansard source

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  I gently suggest to the hon. Lady that those making up the anti-growth coalition are sat on her side of the House, and I gently point out to her that the highest number of businesses to go bust for 30 years was under the Conservative party last year. I would also happily ask her to use her influence with the Conservative-led council in my constituency, which is bringing in parking charges that will certainly damage the night-time economy.

• 31 Oct 2024 · High Street Businesses · Hansard source

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  I am grateful to my hon. Friend for her question, and I think this is the first time I have had the chance to congratulate her on her election to this House. She is absolutely right that if we are to see our high streets thrive, we need to ensure there is a genuinely level playing field for businesses online and those on the high street. As the Chancellor announced yesterday, to deliver that pledge we intend to introduce permanently lower tax rates for retail, hospitality and leisure properties from 2026-27. To fund that, we intend to introduce a large business multiplier from 2026-27, which will apply a higher rate on the most valuable properties. That will capture the majority of large distribution warehouses, including those used by the online giants. However, we want to go further, so the Chancellor published a discussion paper yesterday asking businesses for further ideas on the reform of business rates.

• 31 Oct 2024 · Small Businesses: Scaling Up · Hansard source

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  Let me take the opportunity to congratulate my hon. Friend on his election to this House. I remember well, as I am sure he does, the problems that the people and businesses of Kent had to endure when the M20 became a lorry park, thanks to a combination of poor planning by the last Government and the poor-quality trade deal they negotiated with Brussels. We certainly support the expansion of rail freight, not least as it helps to build the resilience of supply chains. I would be happy to meet him or facilitate a meeting for him with Transport Ministers, to hear more about his campaign.

• 31 Oct 2024 · Small Businesses: Scaling Up · Hansard source

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  I am glad that the hon. Gentleman welcomes, I think, the measures we took in the Budget to raise employment allowance to help the very smallest firms. The Federation of Small Businesses said yesterday that it will be a very big help for small firms. On his wider point about the Budget, I gently say to him, as I am sure he knows only too well, that the economic inheritance the Government face has led to our having to make some very tough decisions. If he does not support the measures we have set out in the Budget, he needs to say how he would finance the extra investment in the NHS and in industry that we have set out.

• 31 Oct 2024 · Small Businesses: Scaling Up · Hansard source

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  We are certainly looking at the issues that have arisen for the industry from the judgment. More generally on access to finance, I am sure the right hon. Gentleman will welcome our launch, at the investment summit referenced by the Under-Secretary of State for Business and Trade, my hon. Friend the Member for Ellesmere Port and Bromborough (Justin Madders), of the British Growth Partnership, which is aimed at unlocking investment in businesses that want to scale up.

• 31 Oct 2024 · Small Businesses: Scaling Up · Hansard source

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  I say very gently to the hon. Gentleman that if he and his party are determined to oppose the measures we took in the Budget, including on employers’ national insurance contributions, they need to set out how they would fund the extra investment in the NHS, the investment in the automotive and aerospace sectors, and the measures to protect and raise living standards.

• 31 Oct 2024 · Small Businesses: Scaling Up · Hansard source

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  Let me take this opportunity to congratulate my hon. Friend on her election, too. I agree that local authorities working with local communities are fundamental to supporting SMEs in local economies. That is one reason why, as well as backing local authorities in yesterday’s Budget, we are backing Tracy Brabin, the excellent Mayor of West Yorkshire, with funding to support the priorities of local communities in constituencies such as that of my hon. Friend. It is also why we are introducing measures such as high street rental auctions and a powerful community right to buy, so that local communities can start the process of reviving their high streets.

• 31 Oct 2024 · Small Businesses: Scaling Up · Hansard source

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  Our plan for small businesses will help them to scale up and increase productivity and growth. We are doing that by creating opportunities for businesses to compete and access the finance they need to scale, export and break into new markets. Furthermore, at yesterday’s Budget, we announced a small business Command Paper next year, which will set out more detail on how we will support small businesses.

• 31 Oct 2024 · Night-time Economy · Hansard source

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  We recognise the important role that night-time economy businesses play in supporting local economies and communities. Healthy night-time economy businesses not only support our creative industries, including musicians, DJs and performance artists, but bolster tourism and day-economy businesses. We are focused on our five-point plan to breathe life back into Britain’s high streets. That work will ensure that our high streets are great places for our businesses, supporting economic growth across the UK, including in the night-time economy.

• 31 Oct 2024 · Night-time Economy · Hansard source

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  I would gently point businesses in the night-time economy to a series of measures that we took in yesterday’s Budget, including to reform business rates for the long term, from 2026-27. We listened to businesses, including those in the night-time economy, and did not abolish the business rates relief. Under the measures that we have taken, for example, the average pub with a rateable value of almost £17,000 will save over £3,300 next year.

• 31 Oct 2024 · Night-time Economy · Hansard source

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  I will be very happy to meet my hon. Friend. I know from talking to pubs that they are also very worried about the rise in antisocial behaviour and crime in our high streets and town centres. She and the pubs and other members of the night-time economy that she works with will, I hope, be reassured by some of the measures that we have taken in the Budget to begin the process of cracking down on antisocial behaviour.

• 31 Oct 2024 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  I welcome the decision by my right hon. Friend’s Select Committee to take a further look at the issue. It is a priority for the Department to speed up the compensation process. Victims are still coming forward, and we are actively looking at whether all those who come forward are covered by the compensation schemes. We have asked the Post Office to write to all those sub-postmasters who have not yet come forward to see if they are eligible for compensation.

• 31 Oct 2024 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  As others across Whitehall have already set out, we have established Skills England and begun the process of reforming the apprenticeship levy to help businesses get better access to the skills they need.

• 31 Oct 2024 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  I would be very happy to meet the hon. Gentleman and the Eastbourne Hospitality Association to discuss the concerns that he has articulated. I gently say to him, as other Ministers have pointed out, that we faced a tough economic inheritance, and had to make very difficult decisions in the Budget yesterday.

• 31 Oct 2024 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  Given that almost 9,500 bank branches closed over the past 14 years, on the Conservative party’s watch, it has increasingly been left to the Post Office to provide vital banking services on the high street. I am sure the banking industry recognises its responsibility to work with us to ensure that sub-postmasters, whose pay has not increased for a decade, and the Post Office has what its needs to help meet the critical cash and banking needs of all our constituents.

• 31 Oct 2024 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  No. I gently point out to the hon. Gentleman the difficult economic inheritance that his party left this Government to sort out. We are determined to walk towards all the tough decisions his party refused to face up to in government. If he is against the increase in employers’ national insurance contributions, he needs to say how he will fund the investment we announced yesterday in the aerospace and automotive sectors, and how he would fund the extra investment that we will make in the NHS and other public services.

• 31 Oct 2024 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  When we were in opposition, we set out a five-point plan to help with the revival of high streets. We are working to bring forward that plan. My hon. Friend will see more detail in the small business strategy Command Paper that we are committed to publishing next year.

• 31 Oct 2024 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  We have held discussions with a range of organisations on exactly that issue. I promised the hon. Gentleman earlier that I would meet him. If he wants to add that to the list of subjects that we talk about, I am happy for him to do so.

• 22 Oct 2024 · Pub and Hospitality Sector · Hansard source

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  I heard the point the hon. Gentleman made, and I want to come to the issue of access to talent to work in pubs and hospitality venues. While we always need to consider issues around visas and the right to work, we can do more to help people in our country to get access to jobs in the pubs and hospitality industry. The point I intend to make in relation to the intervention by the hon. Member for North Norfolk (Steff Aquarone) is pertinent to that. As I said, we all know that hospitality businesses are struggling to recover from the pandemic, where closures and customer restrictions decimated cash reserves and drove up levels of debt. I say this gently with so many Conservative Members present, but the subsequent cost of living crisis, which was driven in part by the incompetence of previous Governments, has compounded the challenge for hospitality businesses and increased costs, and it has caused real difficulties and challenges for businesses in repaying some of those debts. One thinks in particular of the contribution Liz Truss made to those issues.

• 22 Oct 2024 · Pub and Hospitality Sector · Hansard source

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  Lastly, Ms Vaz, Ofgem has announced a series of measures to protect non-domestic energy customers from poor behaviour by energy suppliers, which I hope will address some of the concerns that we heard on that issue.

• 22 Oct 2024 · Pub and Hospitality Sector · Hansard source

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  I am very grateful to the hon. Gentleman for giving me the prompt to get on to the issues around the Budget next week. He will understand, as one or two of his colleagues alluded to earlier, that I will not speculate on what will or will not be included in the Chancellor’s Budget. However, I can say that we recognise the very important role that hospitality businesses play in supporting local economies and communities, and we understand the pressures facing those businesses. When we were in Opposition, one of the biggest complaints we heard from high street businesses was the unfairness of the antiquated system of business rates. I apologise to him—I appreciate it is difficult to hear—but I think one of the reasons his party lost the confidence of the business community was because it had made multiple promises to abolish or reform the business rates system, but never actually got to that issue. Business rates are particularly unfair for hospitality, leisure and tourism businesses which, as others have alluded to, create 5% of the UK’s GDP but pay 15% of all business rates. Not only is the current system of business rates unfair, but we know that it disincentivises investment, creates uncertainty and places an undue burden on our highstreets, and in the context of this debate, on pubs and hospitality and venues. That is why we included in our manifesto a commitment to reform business rates, and it is why the Chancellor has continued to commit to setting out next steps on that at the next Budget.

• 22 Oct 2024 · Pub and Hospitality Sector · Hansard source

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  I am happy to confirm to the right hon. Lady and the whole House that I will ensure that the Treasury and the Chancellor are aware of the comments made in this debate. She will understand that crucial to the future of pubs and the hospitality industry is getting growth going in our country—in particular, getting more disposable income into the pockets of potential customers of pubs and other hospitality venues. That is one reason the Prime Minister has made growth the number one mission of the Government. It is why we have already taken a series of steps to underline the significance of growth, from publishing a Green Paper on industrial strategy through to the success of the investment summit last week. It is also why we have introduced the package of measures to make work pay, including the Employment Rights Bill, which the House debated yesterday. I want to pick up one or two specific points hon. Members made, in particular the reference by the hon. Member for North Norfolk to training. He may know that there has been much frustration across the business community, including from pubs and hospitality businesses, about how the apprenticeship levy works. We have committed to reforming that levy and to giving more focus to the skills needs of businesses. That is one reason we have already established Skills England, which will have a new partnership with employers at its heart and will transform the existing apprenticeship levy into a more flexible growth and skills levy, to support business and boost opportunities for those living and working in the UK—something the hon. Member for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross (Jamie Stone) will be pleased to hear. Interventions from the hon. Gentleman, my hon. Friends the Members for Cumbernauld and Kirkintilloch (Katrina Murray) and for Edinburgh East and Musselburgh and the hon. Member for North East Fife (Wendy Chamberlain) provide me with an opportunity to suggest gently that the Scottish Government might want to think again about their decision not to pass on the business rate relief to pubs that the Treasury in London sends them—

• 22 Oct 2024 · Pub and Hospitality Sector · Hansard source

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  I congratulate the hon. Member on getting his constituency’s pubs into the debate. I look forward to having the opportunity to visit one or two of those in his constituency again. I will come back to the significant point about training, on which I hope we will have some good news for the pubs in his constituency and more generally. Pubs and hospitality venues are important to local economies. They help to create vibrant towns and cities that we all want to visit, to study, work, live and invest. Pubs help us to celebrate the very essence of life and friendship, to socialise with family and friends, to enjoy music and great sport, and to celebrate the important points in life’s journey. They are crucial to supporting wider social objectives: providing accessible jobs, as other Members have already touched on, helping to support community cohesion and providing welcoming spaces for those who feel isolated and alone to enjoy the company of others. In short, hospitality is the backbone of our high streets and the lifeblood of so many of our communities. We all know that hospitality businesses are still struggling. At the weekend, the Yorkshire Post published a survey suggesting some 500 pubs had closed in Yorkshire since 2019, which is just one indication of the challenges facing the pub and hospitality industry.