The Economy

Julie Marson Excerpts

Wednesday 8th July 2020 Commons Chamber

[Julie Marson (Hertford and Stortford) (Con)]

Right now, the FTSE 100 is stacked with establishment companies that will rally once the covid crisis eventually subsides, but it will not be those industries that provide the high-growth success stories of the next 10 or 20 years. The highest growth will come from fledgling, disruptive sectors just entering their growth phases now or not even yet created. The development of our highly successful start-up ecosystem, which houses the world-leading sectors of tomorrow, such as FinTech, green energy and automation, will be essential to our long-term global competitiveness and prosperity. I would love to see an extension of the Government’s existing commitment to support those industries, at the pre-seed, seed and series A levels.

When the Government introduced the growth accelerator programme in 2012, I do not expect that even they imagined how successful it would be. The 18,000 businesses that participated in the scheme achieved growth that was, on average, four times faster than that of a typical small and medium-sized enterprise, and the programme added at least £1 billion to the British economy. I hope that the Government will consider a scheme like this as they evaluate where our future growth lies and what initiatives will best suit the long-term needs of our country. Back in 2012, this £200 million programme delivered a return on investment of at least 700%. Amended for today and focused on specific high-growth, high-opportunity sectors, with provisions made for regional business, the ROI could be even higher, and it could create even more jobs than it did before.

We have already seen the potential that can emerge when we diverge from London—for example, through the innovation corridor, which runs through my constituency of Hertford and Stortford. We can build on this success. As we look to long-term growth opportunities, I hope the Government will build on their brilliant work by investing in skills clusters across the UK, to drive public and private investment in left-behind regions.

To conclude, the Chancellor and the Treasury team today have been hugely bold, and I enthusiastically applaud them. During this crisis, the heroes of our country have been our doctors, nurses, carers and key workers. In the recovery stage and beyond, it will be the businessmen and women driving growth for their companies and helping the economy back to health. Our job in this place will be to provide the platform for this next set of heroes to carry our economy forward.