Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between John Glen and Jonathan Reynolds

Thursday 17th July 2025 Commons Chamber

[Jonathan Reynolds]

I am always grateful to the Chair of the Select Committee for his helpful and pragmatic work and engagement. I recognise the issue that he has highlighted. A lot of small businesses were locked into uncompetitive contracts after covid, and the legacy of that has been very difficult. Of course, we will always look at measures to address that. Fundamentally, we must break the link that means that gas sets the price of electricity in the UK. There are no shortcuts to that; we have to get enough clean energy on to the system to make that possible, which is exactly what the Government are doing.

[John Glen (Salisbury) (Con)]

T3. On Monday, Tina McKenzie, the policy chair of the Federation of Small Businesses, said: “For the first time in the history of the Small Business Index more small businesses are predicting they will shrink than expand, meaning that as a country we are potentially facing a very dangerous situation.” I have listened carefully to what the Economic Secretary to the Treasury has said about the concierge service, which I welcome, and have seen the Leeds reforms this week, much of which I welcome. However, will the Minister respond to that stark warning from a very credible source of information?