Jacob Young
Main Page: Jacob Young (Conservative - Redcar)Department Debates - View all Jacob Young's debates with the HM Treasury
Oral Answers to Questions
Jacob Young Excerpts(3 years, 6 months ago)
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Kemi Badenoch
I absolutely agree with my hon. Friend that free ports will benefit communities across the UK by unleashing the economic potential of our ports, as he will very well know, having been one of my predecessors in this role. I thank him, the Mayor of Tees Valley and my hon. Friend the Member for Redcar (Jacob Young) for their support on this agenda. Our consultation response, published on 7 October, confirms our intent to deliver free ports by 2021, and the free port locations will be selected according to an open, transparent bidding process.
Jacob Young (Redcar) (Con)
If he will make a statement on his departmental responsibilities. [907821]
The Chancellor of the Exchequer (Rishi Sunak)
This Government have put in place a £200 billion programme of support to help jobs and businesses throughout this crisis. Although we will not be able to save every job or business, we remain committed to doing what we can to protect the economy and people’s livelihoods at this difficult time.
Jacob Young
This Government have taken extraordinary steps to protect the economy and now we must take the extraordinary steps to unlock it. Uncertainty stemming from coronavirus and the volatility of the oil price is leading to delayed investment in the Tees Valley. One thing that could break the deadlock in that investment would be the announcement of a free port in Teesside. Will my right hon. Friend assure the House that he will not delay the roll-out of 10 new free ports? Does he agree that a free port in Teesside could lead to thousands of new jobs for my constituents in Redcar and Cleveland?
Rishi Sunak
My hon. Friend—like my hon. Friend the Member for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland (Mr Clarke) and the Mayor of the Tees Valley, Ben Houchen—is a fantastic champion for the free ports agenda. They are all absolutely right: this policy can unlock investment and growth, and therefore create jobs in parts of our country that want to see that growth. I can assure my hon. Friend that I look forward to receiving the bid that, no doubt, he and his colleagues are putting together for us.