Lee Anderson

Reshoring, alongside progressive key trade agreements, will be important of our national resilience, and we are determined to make the UK a prime location for globally competitive manufacturing.

The Industrial Strategy this spring will set out an ambitious long-term vision for UK manufacturing competitiveness and will detail how we intend to boost R&D, skills, and fast track adoption of new manufacturing technologies here in the UK.

Our commitment to the steel industry remains unwavering. On Sunday 16 February we published a consultation on our Plan for Steel. Along with work already ongoing across Government, this will provide a clear evidence base on the needs of the steel sector and its customers. This work will ensure the best use of our funding commitment of up to £2.5bn to deliver change and unlock private investment, ensuring a bright and sustainable future for UK steelmaking.

The Government provides an annual £50m Network Subsidy funding to support the delivery of a minimum number of Post Office branches and a geographical spread of these branches in line with published access criteria. This requires 99% of the UK population to be within three miles of their nearest Post Office outlet. The Government-set Access Criteria ensures that however the network changes, services remain within local reach of all citizens, including those living in the Ashfield constituency.

The Secretary of State and I have met with the CEO and Chair of Post Office Limited to ensure that Post Office delivers for postmasters and its communities. We recently met with the Post Office Chair, Nigel Railton, and discussed his proposals for the future of the company before Mr Railton announced Post Office's Transformation Plan on 13th November. While Post Office has the freedom to make commercial decisions regarding the composition of its network, Government sets the parameters for the Post Office to operate in.

Government protects the branch network by setting minimum access criteria which require 99% of the UK population to be within three miles of their nearest Post Office outlet. The access criteria ensure that however the network changes, services remain within local reach of all citizens.

We will publish an Impact Assessment alongside the legislation that implements the increase to the National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage in April 2025.

This Government remains committed to helping small businesses thrive and will be publishing our Small Business Strategy next year. This will set out our vision for all small businesses, from boosting scale-ups to growing the co-operative economy. It will address key policy areas such as creating thriving high streets, making it easier to access finance, opening overseas and domestic markets, building business capabilities, and providing a strong business environment.

We will publish an Impact Assessment alongside the legislation that implements the increase to the National Living Wage. We estimate that over 3 million workers will receive a pay rise due to the increase in the National Living Wage in April 2025.

Pubs, including those in Ashfield, are at the heart of our communities and vital for economic growth. That is why the Government is creating a fairer business rate system by introducing permanently lower tax rates for retail, hospitality, and leisure businesses from 2026-27 and extending the current relief for 1 year at 40%.

The government is also reducing alcohol duty on qualifying draught products, representing an overall reduction in duty bills of over £85m a year.

We will transform the apprenticeship levy into a more flexible growth and skills levy to better support business and boost opportunity for people to work in Pubs.

Through the Hospitality Sector Council, we are addressing strategic issues for the sector related to high street regeneration, skills, sustainability, and productivity.

Economic Growth is the first priority of this government. To deliver on this, one of our first steps after taking office was to announce that we were resuming Free Trade Agreement negotiations with the Gulf Cooperation Council, India, Israel, South Korea, Switzerland and Turkey. Having carefully reviewed our negotiation objectives we have now started talks with the first of these key partners. This is a first step towards getting businesses access to international markets, boosting jobs, and delivering growth. We are also committed to ensuring UK businesses can take full advantage of CPTPP when it enters into force in December.

This information is not held centrally.

Energy prices for households on default tariffs are determined by Ofgem’s price cap, which is set at a level that protects such consumers from paying inefficient prices, while allowing for competition between suppliers.

Prices for other tariffs, including fixed tariffs and non-domestic tariffs, are set by suppliers, who compete for customers on the basis of price and quality of service.

I refer the hon Member to the answer I gave to my hon Friend the Member for Falkirk (Euan Stainbank) on 29 January 2025 to Question UIN 25410.

I met with the Chair and Trustee representatives of the British Coal Staff Superannuation Scheme on 16 December where they outlined their proposals for changes to the Scheme.

A consultation was held under the previous administration on whether a transitional support mechanism should be introduced for large-scale biomass generators when their current support ends. Government is considering the responses to that consultation and no final decision has been taken as to whether alternate future support arrangements will be introduced.

The Government supports biomass as a low carbon source of energy only where relevant sustainability criteria are met. Drax must demonstrate compliance with these criteria to Ofgem as the independent regulator. Evidence provided is independently audited. Ofgem recently published their conclusions on an investigation into Drax’s compliance with sustainability standards on 29 August 2024. The investigation found that whilst Drax complied with the standards, it failed to report data accurately. Government expects full compliance with all regulatory obligations and the size of Drax’s redress payment, £25m, underscores the robustness of the regulatory system.

Although standing charges are a commercial matter for suppliers, and are regulated by Ofgem, we know that too much of the burden of the bill is placed on them. The Government has worked constructively with the regulator on the issue of standing charges, and we are committed to lowering the cost of them.

Standing charges recover the ‘fixed’ costs of the system, meaning costs that do not vary by energy use. This includes suppliers’ fixed operational costs of serving each customer, the cost of network upgrades and maintenance necessary to keep all consumers connected and fund the technologies to drive progress towards net zero targets. It also includes the cost of providing Warm Home Discount payments to eligible customers.

The Government has fulfilled its manifesto commitment to transfer to the Mineworkers' Pension Scheme investment reserve to Members. I am open to considering options put forward by the Trustees for changes to the British Coal Staff Superannuation Scheme.

The Government has fulfilled its manifesto commitment to transfer to the Mineworkers' Pension Scheme investment reserve to Members. I am open to considering options put forward by the Trustees for changes to the British Coal Staff Superannuation Scheme.

I am open to considering options put forward by the Trustees for changes to the British Coal Staff Superannuation Scheme.

The UK was the first country to set legally binding carbon budgets and the first major economy to establish a net zero target in law. An Impact Assessment of the level of the Sixth Carbon Budget was published at the time, including a cost-benefit analysis which showed the economic costs and benefits of net zero. Without the shift to renewable energy, we will continue to be exposed to volatile fossil fuel markets and the cost of living crises households had to live through in the last Parliament.

Although standing charges are a commercial matter for suppliers, and are regulated by Ofgem, we know that too much of the burden of the bill is placed on them. The Government has worked constructively with the regulator on the issue of standing charges, and we are committed to lowering the cost of them.

Ofgem’s recently published discussion paper sets out the options for how standing charges could be reduced, including by moving some supplier operational costs off standing charges onto the unit rate, increasing the variety of tariffs available for consumer in the market, and in the longer term, reviewing how system costs are allocated. Ofgem's publication can be found here: https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/call-for-input/standing-charges-domestic-retail-options.

We know that to achieve net zero, we must look at how we can accelerate the potential of all low carbon technologies including geothermal. The Government understands that geothermal can play a role in our decarbonisation ambitions particularly as a low carbon source for heat via heat networks. We have commissioned research into the potential costs of geothermal heat in the UK and will use this to understand how the government can support the sector to achieve its potential, in both the domestic and commercial sectors.

The Government will accelerate innovation, investment and productivity through world class science, research and development. Advanced science and engineering in fields such as clean energy, AI and quantum technologies support economic growth and the industrial strategy. University of Nottingham and Nottingham Trent University were both recognised for their world leading research including in engineering in REF2021. Decisions about public investment of R&D funding are made by experts on behalf of UK Research and Innovation in line with the Haldane Principle. For example, University of Nottingham has been awarded £6.4m to lead an EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training on Resilient Chemistry which will tackle challenges including synthetic fuels and next generation battery materials.

Public R&D generates significant benefits for the UK, with each pound of public R&D investment estimated to leverage, on average, £2 of private R&D investment in the long run. We know businesses grow faster because of public R&D. In the 6 years after receiving their first R&D grant funding, employment increases in the average business by 21% and turnover grows by 23%.

The measurable returns of R&D projects will vary, depending on the specific area of research. Returns for closer-to-market research are generally less challenging to quantify than those for fundamental, curiosity-driven research. To ensure that public R&D investments continue to have high impact all new significant DSIT investments are assessed for their value for money and the Department evaluates programmes’ impact.