Industrial Strategy Consultation

Debate between Greg Clark and James Heappey

Monday 23rd January 2017 Commons Chamber

[Greg Clark]

They are both important. The third of the three challenges I mentioned at the beginning of my statement was to make and keep the UK as one of the best places in the world to found or grow a business, and both of the policies my hon. Friend mentions are crucial to that. This country has succeeded in creating and hosting new businesses in recent years partly because we in the Conservative party have had that very much in mind.

[James Heappey (Wells) (Con)]

I congratulate the Secretary of State and his team on the Green Paper and welcome the recognition that the digitisation of our energy system and the inclusion of storage and demand-management technologies will improve productivity as keenly as any other infrastructure improvement. Does he agree that the UK could and should be the world leader in clean tech, and does he share my view that the south-west would be an ideal focal point for the UK’s growth in that sector?

[Greg Clark]

I certainly agree with the first proposition; we have an opportunity there. On the second, I would say that my hon. Friend is commendably vigorous in his promotion of the south-west, which will have a very big role to play. So, too, will other parts of the country: Cumbria, for example, with its strong nuclear cluster; and the east coast with its expertise in marine engineering and supplying offshore wind. All parts of the UK can benefit from our leadership in clean growth.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Greg Clark and James Heappey

Tuesday 8th November 2016 Commons Chamber

[Greg Clark]

I have not seen the report. I will have to consider it and I will then, of course, write to the right hon. Gentleman with my reaction to it.

[James Heappey (Wells) (Con)]

I commend to the Secretary of State and his team the final report of the Energy and Climate Change Committee, and particularly our recommendations on energy storage and demand-side management. I encourage my right hon. Friend to enact some of those recommendations, so that we can upgrade our energy system.

Housing

Debate between Greg Clark and James Heappey

Wednesday 10th June 2015 Commons Chamber

[Greg Clark]

I have the figures in front of me and the low point for dwellings started was actually in 2008-09, under the previous Labour Government, when it was 88,000.

[James Heappey (Wells) (Con)]

My right hon. Friend mentions the regional statistics. Some 24,000 new homes have been made available in the south-west since 2010, and in Somerset specifically between 1997 and 2010 there were only 440 homes per annum, whereas there have been 900 homes per annum since 2010.

[Greg Clark]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right.

The point I wanted to make is not that we have built all the homes that were needed—it would be absurd to say that—but that we have turned around a situation that was proving ruinous and was destroying the aspirations of people up and down the country.