Oral Answers to Questions

Joe Powell Excerpts

Thursday 12th June 2025 Commons Chamber

[Laura Kyrke-Smith (Aylesbury) (Lab)]

7. What steps he is taking to support small businesses.

[Joe Powell (Kensington and Bayswater) (Lab)]

13. What steps he is taking to support small businesses.

[Melanie Onn (Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes) (Lab)]

19. What steps he is taking to support small businesses in Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes constituency.

--- Later in debate ---

[Gareth Thomas]

I very much enjoyed my visit to my hon. Friend’s constituency and the roundtable we had with some of the fantastic businesses there. I very much hope that Conservative-controlled Buckinghamshire council will finally get its act together and sort out some of the traffic and parking issues she mentioned. We will set out our plans to do more to help small businesses across the country, including in Aylesbury, in our SME strategy. One particular measure that we will be able to take action on is to improve access to finance for small businesses, following the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s significant increase in the capacity of the British Business Bank yesterday.

[Joe Powell]

Small businesses on our high streets across my constituency, from Earl’s Court Road to Queensway, Notting Hill Gate and Portobello Road, are fed up of being blighted by candy shops, low-grade souvenir shops, Harry Potter shops and even barbershops, with accusations of VAT and business rates evasion and even links to money laundering and serious organised crime. Can the Minister outline what steps the Department is taking, in conjunction with the Minister responsible for high streets, His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs and the National Crime Agency, to crack down on these operations and create a legitimate level playing field for our small businesses?

[Gareth Thomas]

I recognise that my hon. Friend has been very persistent on this issue, and he is entirely right to be so. We have been working with colleagues in the Home Office and the National Crime Agency to take action to crack down on illegitimate businesses that threaten to undermine the legitimate ones that exist on all of our high streets. In March, the National Economic Crime Centre co-ordinated a three-week crackdown on barbershops and other cash-intensive businesses where there were concerns, visiting almost 400 premises and securing freezing orders over a series of bank accounts totalling more than £1 million.

Horizon Redress and Post Office Update

Joe Powell Excerpts

Tuesday 8th April 2025 Commons Chamber

[Gareth Thomas]

I recognise from the meetings that I had with the hon. Member and also with a Bexhill Labour councillor how strong the feeling is about the threat to the post office in Bexhill. I have made it clear that the Post Office should replace the directly managed branch with a mains franchise. That is what I expect it to do. I also expect there to be a consultation with local stakeholders in Bexhill, including with him as the Member of Parliament. If he has concerns about that process, he is welcome to get in contact with me.

[Joe Powell (Kensington and Bayswater) (Lab)]

I thank the Minister for meeting me to discuss the directly managed branch on Kensington high street in my constituency of Kensington and Bayswater. More than 1,000 residents joined my campaign to save the services at the branch. Today’s news is welcome for them, but can the Minister give us some reassurance on when the transition will take place from the current system to a franchise model, and what guarantees he has on continuing service levels?

[Gareth Thomas]

I welcome my hon. Friend’s question. I recognise that he has campaigned and made representations to me on this issue, as he has set out. As I have said to other Members today, he and other local stakeholders should expect to be involved in discussions about the future of post office services in Kensington and the transition to a franchise. We have the expectation—the Post Office has accepted this expectation—that it will be a mains service, as opposed to a local franchise, which provides Government services such as passports, driving licences and so on. I cannot give him an exact timeframe for when those discussions will begin, but the Post Office has already begun to have conversations with staff and potential franchisees. I would expect them to start getting in contact with Members of Parliament over the next few months.

Oral Answers to Questions

Joe Powell Excerpts

Thursday 5th September 2024 Commons Chamber

[Jonathan Reynolds]

I thank the hon. Member for his interest in this incredibly important issue and the work, which he will be aware of, that ensured that we got to this point. I think this is the biggest miscarriage of justice in British history, and the moves to provide some form of redress are extremely important.

We have moved at pace to put the scheme in place. We were able to do so because of the legislation we got through in the wash-up at the end of the last Parliament. The hon. Member will have heard what I said about the letters that we got out to get that information to people. [Interruption.] What was that? We will take that up offline. I welcome his interest and will continue to work with him on it.

[Joe Powell (Kensington and Bayswater) (Lab)]

T6. Businesses—especially creative industries—in Kensington and Bayswater tell me that they are fed up with the adversarial relationship we have had with the EU and the pointless red tape and trade barriers that have come with it. Will the Minister outline what steps the Government are taking to address that challenge?

[Mr Douglas Alexander]

The reset, of which we have spoken today, is fundamentally about turning the page and reinvigorating our alliance with our friends, neighbours and partners in the European Union. As well as securing a broad-based security pact and tackling barriers to trade, we aim to build stronger and wider co-operation in a whole range of areas including foreign and defence policy, irregular migration, law enforcement and judicial co-operation, while promoting climate, energy and economic security.