Oral Answers to Questions
James Sunderland Excerpts(1 year ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Watch Debate Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Chloe Smith
The hon. Gentleman makes a very good point, which comes from his deep expertise in music and the creative industries more generally. I look forward to my conversations with the industry on this very subject this afternoon. The UK has world-leading copyright and intellectual property protections, and we know how important they are for the continued success of the creative industries. We want to maintain them, and they will therefore be a focus as we take this work forward.
James Sunderland (Bracknell) (Con)
Mark Menzies (Fylde) (Con)
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology (Paul Scully)
The Government published the science and technology framework in March 2023, setting out our approach to making the UK a science and technology superpower by 2030. This will increase the UK’s strategic advantage in relation to other nations. As part of that, we have a 10-point plan, having identified five critical technologies, including AI, semiconductors and quantum, which we will prioritise to deliver the framework’s ambition.
James Sunderland
The Minister will know that I have written to the Department about the future of Syngenta in Bracknell. Berkshire is the Silicon Valley of the Thames valley, and it is important that we do everything possible to maximise investment and job creation. Will the Minister please agree to visit Syngenta with me, and to do what is necessary to ensure that this is not another GSK moment?
Paul Scully
I acknowledge my hon. Friend’s work to encourage innovation, including at Syngenta. My colleague, the Minister for Science, Research and Innovation, has already met Syngenta, and one of us will follow up with my hon. Friend to see what more we can do to support innovation in the Bracknell area.
Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation
James Sunderland Excerpts(1 year, 1 month ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Watch Debate Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
James Sunderland (Bracknell) (Con)
I rise to support last week’s excellent Budget, but also to provide some context about why it is so important for my constituency and why our local offer is so good.
As we know, Bracknell Forest is the silicon valley of the Thames valley. It has a strong and vibrant economy and can boast a number of world-class companies. Some 150 international companies have their offices in Bracknell, including Syngenta, 3M, Fujitsu, Honda, Waitrose, Panasonic, Hitachi, Dell and many others. Why is that important? Bracknell can act as a template for what can be achieved elsewhere in the country, because business and the way we live personally are integrated so well. It is also home to fantastic infrastructure and businesses, and it is vital that those companies remain in Bracknell as we go forward.
Well, so what? Last week, the Chancellor announced the delivery of 12 new investment zones in the west midlands, Greater Manchester, the north-east, South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, the east midlands, Teesside and Liverpool, with at least one in each of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. That totals 11, and my contention is that Berkshire—Bracknell—could be a perfect candidate for the 12th. With the Minister in her place, I am going to push for that and to state the case right now.
To qualify for £80 million of support for a range of interventions, including skills, infrastructure, tax relief and business rates retention, each area will need to successfully identify where it can offer
“a bold and imaginative partnership between local government and a university or research institute in a way that catalyses new innovation clusters.”—[Official Report, 15 March 2023; Vol. 729, c. 838.]
Well, guess what? We have lots of innovation clusters right now in Bracknell. We have a close tie-up locally with Reading University. We also have Syngenta at Jealott's Hill, which is hopefully about to become a global hub for agricultural R&D, with huge investment and 3,000 jobs. It is a no-brainer—we have all the ingredients locally to make a really good case.
Bracknell has full employment. It has one of the best-performing healthcare trusts in the country. Forty of 40 schools are rated good or outstanding. We have fantastic leisure facilities and open spaces. We have one of the top five average incomes of any borough in the country. We also have the Lexicon shopping centre. What more do we need? However, the important thing is that Bracknell is run by a Conservative council, and that council is absolutely focused on local investment, technology, infrastructure and full employment. The offer is really good locally.
Bracknell is a hub for R&D, and more than 200 organisations contribute to R&D in the constituency, in addition to the companies that are based there. Last week’s Budget labelled economic growth as its core objective, and it achieves that for many of Bracknell’s companies, especially in R&D. The Budget also promotes strong economic growth, exciting new job opportunities and stable local economies.
To prove the point, if a qualifying small or medium-sized business spends 40% or more of its total expenditure on R&D, it will be able to claim a credit worth £27 for every £100 spent. That is a huge tax rebate. When I talked to a boss of one of our Formula 1 teams based in the UK a couple of weeks ago, he told me that that is worth millions of pounds to him every year. It is worth millions of pounds to SMEs right across the UK. The UK has to be a place for R&D, for AI, for investment, for tech, for innovation—and we have just the place in Bracknell.
Before I finish, I have some concerns to raise. First, the way the R&D tax credits work is they are a net credit after tax. In other words, credit is taxed at the prevailing rate of corporation tax; if CT goes from 19% to 25%, the value of the credit goes down. My plea to the Minister is to please leave corporation tax as low as it can be, for the benefit of all of us.
Secondly, the type of business that will benefit in Bracknell will be life sciences businesses. Given the significant up-front development and—almost by definition —research costs, the challenge for these businesses locally is that pre-revenue and pre-profit tax credits may be of limited value, even if carried forward. Therefore, we need additional incentivisation to improve that.
Thirdly, we need a suitably qualified high-tech workforce to carry out R&D. We have that in Bracknell. Alongside tax credits, we need to ensure the availability of skilled labour. I cannot stress enough that in parts of the country, particularly the south-east and Berkshire, where we are lucky enough to have full employment, we need to do more to generate more labour. Therefore, the schemes announced last week to bring the over-50s and other people back into the workplace are absolutely brilliant.
I commend the Budget. It will entice people back into work and incentivise more R&D, which can only benefit Berkshire and Bracknell and elsewhere across the UK. Finally, why not an investment hub in Bracknell too?
London Zoo Lease
James Sunderland Excerpts(1 year, 1 month ago)
Westminster HallRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Westminster Hall is an alternative Chamber for MPs to hold debates, named after the adjoining Westminster Hall.
Each debate is chaired by an MP from the Panel of Chairs, rather than the Speaker or Deputy Speaker. A Government Minister will give the final speech, and no votes may be called on the debate topic.
This information is provided by Parallel Parliament and does not comprise part of the offical record
The Minister of State, Department for Culture, Media and Sport (Julia Lopez)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Dame Caroline. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Harrow East (Bob Blackman) for securing the debate on the important topic of London Zoo and its lease. I should like to please him by ending this debate by saying yes. However, I can only say yes in principle, and I want to make sure the Government works with ZSL to that end. We are alive to its concerns and want to make sure that we can deliver on them. It is a matter of finding the right legislative vehicle, notwithstanding my hon. Friend’s upcoming private Member’s Bill.
As my hon. Friend notes, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport acts as the landlord for the site occupied by London Zoo in Regent’s Park on behalf of the Crown. While the policy area is led by my expert colleague Lord Parkinson and I answer on his behalf, as the newly minted Tourism Minister, I also have my own interest in seeing the zoo succeed. It was wonderful to hear how it contributes £24 million to the local economy every year.
The zoo’s current lease was recently renewed for another 60 years, taking it to 2081. I hope that gives hon. Members comfort. However, I understand that London Zoo is looking to extend the length of that lease to have a secure future for the long-term investment it seeks, and continue to develop and make the most of a historic and treasured site. The change, as other hon. Members have noted, would bring the zoo in line with other similar organisations that have leases on Crown Estate land, including the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew. We agree that increasing the length of the lease would have a significant impact on the zoo’s long-term sustainability and help it continue its tremendous work to educate and inspire zoo visitors and conduct vital conservation work for many years to come. I have enjoyed hearing hon. Members’ stories about their memories and experiences of London Zoo. It is a much-loved national institution and I am among many of my fellow citizens, having visited the zoo several times. I think about canal boat holidays where we moored on Regent’s canal next to the wonderful aviary, taking many day trips and being part of the keeper-for-a-day experience when I met Rocky, the rockhopper penguin. I want to make sure that my children have the same experiences and enjoyment for years to come.
I know that the question of the lease is especially relevant now because of the significant impact of the covid pandemic on the zoo, which relies on visitors for most of its income. Officials in my Department are in regular contact with ZSL and are committed to exploring ways in which we can amend the primary legislation to extend the maximum term of the lease in the very near future. We recognise the immense value to the nation of ensuring that future. London Zoo is an important and unique part of our capital’s culture and heritage offer. It is not only a significant tourist attraction for visitors from across the country and the world, but the world’s oldest scientific zoo and a world-leading force in wildlife conservation. We firmly believe that it is an asset worth protecting and championing.
As other Members have noted, it was opened in 1828 by the Zoological Society of London. When the zoo opened, it was purely for scientific research; eminent scientists of the day, including Charles Darwin, used it for study purposes. The zoo subsequently opened to the public in 1847. Since that opening, the zoo has achieved many world firsts, including the first reptile house, the first public aquarium, the first insect house and the first children’s zoo.
As well as being of historic significance due to the pioneering nature of the zoo, many of those assets are of notable architectural significance. The zoo’s grounds and its animal enclosure in Regent’s Park were originally laid out by architect Decimus Burton. Since then, many leading architects have contributed to the zoo’s built environment, creating a wonderful collection of buildings that includes two grade I, and eight grade II/II* listed structures. Because of advances in our understanding of animal welfare, many of those structures are no longer suitable or used for their original purposes. London Zoo is working very hard to reimagine those spaces, bringing them back to new life in innovative and sustainable ways.
One notable example is the magnificent Snowdon Aviary, which has been a feature of the north London skyline since 1965. It is a feat of engineering inspired by the movement of birds, and has recently been transformed into a state of the art walk-through enclosure for Colobus monkeys—nicknamed the high-flying monkeys because of their impressive leaps from treetop to treetop. That project was made possible with the help of over £4 million of funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
In addition to its unique built heritage, London Zoo is part of the Zoological Society of London, which is a global conservation charity that is home to nearly 20,000 animals. It undertakes crucial conservation work at London Zoo and its partner zoo in Whipsnade, as well as at over 70 locations across the world, caring for and breeding endangered species and promoting participation and knowledge of conservation to the wider public. Alongside that world-leading conservation work, the zoo, and the park in which it is based, are important and popular visitor destinations. My hon. Friend the Member for Cities of London and Westminster (Nickie Aiken) made a compelling case for not just London Zoo’s importance to tourism but the importance of all the wonderful attractions in her constituency.
James Sunderland (Bracknell) (Con)
The Minister is making an excellent speech, and I agree with the direction of travel today. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Harrow East (Bob Blackman) for bringing forward this excellent debate and his Bill. I have a strange intervention to make. My grandfather worked for many years at London Zoo. When he retired, there was a policy in force where the next animal to be born in situ after retirement would be named after that individual. I am proud to report that my grandfather was followed by a giraffe called Robbie—my grandfather was Albert Roberts. I would be interested to understand if that scheme still exists today; could the Minister find out and report back? It would be great to know where Robbie is, if he is still around and if he is in good health.
Julia Lopez
I think that is the most tremendous intervention I will ever take. While I cannot confirm or deny Robbie’s continued existence, I suspect he has sired many children, and there are many giraffe babies with Robbie’s genes. I am sure that somebody from ZSL will be able to answer that question for my hon. Friend. If he needs any help, I would be happy to make inquiries.
The zoo itself is the capital’s 10th most visited attraction, and contributes £24 million to the economy each year locally, as my hon. Friend the Member for Harrow East said. In 2022, London Zoo saw 1.8 million visitors, inspiring adults and children alike with a much greater appreciation for wildlife and nature. To build on that success, and open up the zoo to an even wider audience, this year ZSL has introduced a wonderful community access scheme to help families with lower incomes access the zoo for only £3 a ticket. That scheme is part funded by a grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund. I was interested to hear about the experiences of the hon. Member for Westminster North (Ms Buck) with the education facilities as the local MP. The queues for the zoo during the recent half-term are testament to how well that kind of scheme is received. I understand that the scheme saw 50,000 people on income support visit the zoo during half term. London Zoo is therefore considering how to build on that scheme, taking it forward in the long term so that everybody can access its inspiring zoos.
The commitment to accessibility does not stop there. The zoo also runs audio-described tours, sign language tours and early morning openings aimed at autistic and neurodiverse visitors. Over 80,000 school students visit London Zoo each year, learning about wildlife and conservation and taking part in workshops, on subjects including climate change and plastic pollution. All of those initiatives serve to improve access for everybody, across society, to visit and learn more about the natural world.
Looking forward, in 2028 London Zoo will celebrate 200 years of being open, and I am sure I am not alone in wishing it success in the next 200 years. There are ambitious plans to modernise the zoo by redeveloping its animal spaces to create naturalistic, multi-species zones; I am sure the way in which the zoo is approaching the important issue of conservation means that its future is secure.
I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Harrow East for bringing the House’s attention to the issue of the lease. We firmly believe that London Zoo is an asset that is worth protecting and championing. As I said, Lord Parkinson leads on policy in this area and I am sure he will be happy to meet in order to discuss the specific issue of the lease, as well as the question of a legislative vehicle through which the extension of that lease might be delivered. I thank everybody for contributing to the debate.