Levelling Up Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities
Mike Wood
Main Page: Mike Wood (Conservative - Dudley South)Department Debates - View all Mike Wood's debates with the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities
Levelling Up
Mike Wood Excerpts(2 years, 3 months ago)
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Mike Wood (Dudley South) (Con)
The west midlands has some world-leading, innovative companies as well as universities and research institutions doing ground-breaking research, but public research and development investment in the west midlands has been low compared with other areas, even though for every £1 of Government investment, we have seen a private sector return of £4. How will the innovation accelerator help to close that gap?
Michael Gove
My hon. Friend brilliantly encapsulates the challenge. The innovation accelerator will bring together representatives from the private sector—from business—as well as those in the outstanding universities that, as he rightly points out, are a feature of the west midlands in order to ensure that its manufacturing strengths can be leveraged more effectively. I look forward to working with him and others to achieve that.