Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, with reference to paragraph 4.74 of the Autumn Budget and Spending Review 2021 Red Book, what steps the Global Britain Investment fund will take to ensure that economic opportunities are spread more evenly across the UK.

The Global Britain Investment Fund (GBIF) will provide grants to encourage internationally mobile companies to invest in the UK’s critical and most innovative industries, where the UK has natural strengths and geographic spread. For example, the GBIF will cover the automotive sector, which has key regional clusters in the West Midlands, North West, and North East, as well as the life sciences sector, which currently has two thirds of jobs already located outside of London and the South East. Also included is the offshore wind sector, which is attracting significant new investment to our coastal communities, including floating offshore wind in Scotland and Wales.