Business of the House

Andrew Jones Excerpts

Thursday 4th December 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hague]

I cannot promise an immediate statement, but my hon. Friend is clearly concerned about the implications in a few weeks’ time, so I shall draw his point to the attention of Ministers at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and ask them to respond to him directly.

[Andrew Jones (Harrogate and Knaresborough) (Con)]

One of the most significant elements of the autumn statement was the progress on the northern powerhouse, covering many different policy areas, infrastructure investment, support for the economy in terms of exports, manufacturing and skills, and the devolution of decision making and budgets. That is very good news, but we have not yet had the chance to debate it, so please may we?

[Mr Hague]

I hope there will be many opportunities to do so, although the Opposition are not very good at choosing the economy for Opposition day debates. It does not happen very often. There will be Treasury questions on Tuesday. My hon. Friend is right to say that the further announcements about the northern powerhouse, including in particular the improvements in rail services across the north of England and the proposals for a new advanced material science centre in and a new sovereign wealth fund for the north of England, are all major proposals. They add up to the strongest platform for the north of England that any Government in modern times have presented, and I hope we will have many opportunities to debate it.