Windsor MP questions Government on steps to make the UK best place for business

On Tuesday 30^th April Adam asked the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy for an update on the steps it is taking to ensure that Britain is the best place in the world to set up or grow a business (11:56:39 to 11:58:10):

The Windsor Parliamentary constituency is comprised of wards from three councils: the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead, Bracknell Forest Council and Slough Borough Council.

 

Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Questions, 30^th April

Adam Afriyie (Windsor, Conservative): 6. What recent progress he has made on meeting the Government’s ambition to make the UK the best place to start and grow a business.

Andrew Stephenson (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy): To encourage the next generation of innovative entrepreneurs, our modern industrial strategy announced the biggest increase in public research and development funding on record—an extra £7 billion by 2021-22. We have also launched an independent review of the barriers facing young entrepreneurs, and we have published a review of the barriers facing female entrepreneurs.

 

Adam Afriyie (Windsor, Conservative): I very much welcome that answer, and I very much welcome the Minister on his debut appearance at the Dispatch Box. I would also very much like to welcome him to Windsor, where residents of the royal borough have the lowest council tax in the country and residents of Bracknell Forest have low council tax but also high-quality services. That is why so many talented people come to Windsor to live and work. Will the Minister join me in recognising the good work of the Thames Valley Berkshire local enterprise partnership and the two key local authorities in making the Windsor constituency a great place to live, work and, above all, to start and run a business?

Andrew Stephenson (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy): I agree with my hon. Friend and welcome his support for the good work of the Thames Valley Berkshire LEP and his local councils. My officials will work with his LEP and its local authority partners to produce a local industrial strategy for Berkshire that will boost productivity and support business start-ups. That is in addition to the £142 million local growth fund investment that we have already made in the county.

 

 

The MP for the Windsor constituency, Adam Afriyie welcomed the statement:

“These policies come from a Conservative Government that is keen to support aspiration and ambition. The UK is already the best place in the world to start or grow a business in many industries, such as FinTech, and a recent report by Enrst and Young found that the UK was the world’s most attractive destination for mergers and acquisitions. For the Government to achieve its objective of ensuring that the UK is the best place in the world to start or grow a business we must continue to promote entrepreneurship, keep taxes low and ensure that regulation is kept as limited as possible.

“Local Government can also play a big role in building the best possible environment for business. The fact that the Thames Valley area generates the highest level of economic output per head next to London is credit to the fastidious governance of the, predominantly Conservative, local councils.

“I very much hope that on Thursday 2^nd May the voters of RBWM and Bracknell Forest will reward the effectiveness of their Conservative councillors, and that Slough voters will endorse the opposition Slough Conservatives and their innovative plans to support businesses.”

 

 

ENDS

Note to editors

1.   Adam Afriyie has been Member of Parliament for Windsor since 2005.

2.   He lives in Old Windsor with his wife and children.

3.   At the 2017 General Election, Adam was returned with the greatest number of votes in the history of the constituency, and the highest share of the vote since the 1950s.

4.   He is Patron of Berkshire Young Enterprise, Sebastian's Action Trust, and Chandler Day Centre.