Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between John Glen and Ben Bradley

Tuesday 15th November 2022 Commons Chamber

[Ben Bradley (Mansfield) (Con)]

5. If he will bring forward measures in his autumn statement to increase financial support for local councils.

[The Chief Secretary to the Treasury (John Glen)]

The Government are committed to ensuring that local authorities are able to deliver vital public services. At the spending review last year, we provided councils with the largest annual increases in core funding in over a decade, and the Chancellor will set out further information on the Government’s fiscal approach at the autumn statement on Thursday.

[Ben Bradley]

If we are ever to have a sustainable set of council services, we have to move money upstream into services that can help us tackle rising demand. That is the non-statutory stuff—prevention services in communities, such as children’s services or youth centres, for example—but when budgets are tight, those non-statutory services are often the first to go, which removes councils’ ability to intervene and manage demand. With that in mind, what can my right hon. Friend do to support councils by ensuring that we take a long-term approach to managing those public services rather than adopting counter-productive plans based only on short-term budget pressures?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between John Glen and Ben Bradley

Tuesday 11th September 2018 Commons Chamber

[John Glen]

I will take no lectures from the hon. Lady about food banks. The Trussell Trust was founded in my constituency. I have a dialogue with the charity, which has done a great deal to assist many people up and down the country, and I am proud of its work.

[Ben Bradley (Mansfield) (Con)]

5. What steps he is taking to invest in infrastructure in the east midlands.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between John Glen and Ben Bradley

Thursday 14th September 2017 Commons Chamber

[Ben Bradley (Mansfield) (Con)]

2. What assessment she has made of trends in the level of tourism to the UK in the next five years.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (John Glen)]

Data from Visit Britain show that 2016 was a record-breaking year for tourism, with 38 million inbound visits, and the Government are working hard with Visit Britain and the sector more broadly to achieve the aim of 40 million visits per year by 2020.

[Ben Bradley]

Mansfield is the biggest and best town in Nottinghamshire, with a wonderful theatre, a nationally acclaimed museum and Sherwood forest on its doorstep, but we do not make the most of those assets. In fact, we do not have a single major hotel in the constituency. Will the Minister join me in commending the work of Mansfield Town football club, which is striving to bring such a hotel to the constituency, and will he offer the Government’s support in making Mansfield a tourist destination in the future?

[John Glen]

I commend my hon. Friend for his ambition, in his first three months in the House, and I certainly pay tribute to Mansfield Town football club. I would say to him and to all hon. Members that there are such opportunities, particularly looking at the Discover England Fund, which specialises in supporting tourism products outside London. I would draw his attention to that in the first instance.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between John Glen and Ben Bradley

Thursday 29th June 2017 Commons Chamber

[John Glen]

I am extremely grateful to the hon. Lady for that interesting point. I will be happy to discuss it further with her and see if we can move that forward.

[Ben Bradley (Mansfield) (Con)]

I welcome this week’s announcement of more funding for the arts and museums largely in Nottingham city, but did the Minister hear me mention this week the potential for a mining museum in my constituency of Mansfield? Will he meet me to help us further celebrate that heritage and culture and see whether we can make progress on that?

[John Glen]

I welcome my hon. Friend to his place and congratulate him on his election to the House. I gently point out that seven of the new joiners in Nottinghamshire are outside the city itself, but I will be happy to meet him to discuss what can be done to assist him in his plans.