PARLIAMENTARY DEBATE
Infrastructure: Impact on Business Investment - 7 March 2024 (Commons/Commons Chamber)

High-quality infrastructure is crucial for delivering economic growth. To quote a previous Prime Minister:

“You and I come by road and rail, but economists travel on infrastructure.”

We know how important investment is. The whole House will agree that the UK is the leading light when it comes to offshore wind farms, where we are already securing investment.

Let me point to a few examples of further investment: Nissan is investing £2 billion in new electric car models in the UK, Microsoft and Google have announced data centres worth over £3 billion, and my Secretary of State oversaw the global investment summit, unlocking £30 billion of investment. In fact, since 2010 we have secured more inward investment than any other country in Europe. Over the last few years, we have received the third highest amount in the world, after the United States and China. I could go on, Mr Speaker, but I might test your patience.

As the Minister for the auto sector, I am very keen to ensure that we are breaking bad memes around the electric vehicle sector. We are doing a huge amount of work in this space. At the moment, we have 53,600 public charge points. We have a rapid charging fund and a local electric vehicle infrastructure fund— I am sure that the hon. Gentleman’s local authority will want to tap into those. The Department for Transport is working with local authorities to ensure that they have charging strategies. We have a £381 million local EV infrastructure fund, which will deliver tens of thousands more charging points and support for on-street residential charge points, too. It is really important that local authorities are aware of the funds available, and I suggest that the hon. Gentleman get in touch with the DFT to support the installation of charging points in his constituency.

I do not think that any hon. or right hon. Member could disagree in general terms with the Minister’s reply. It would have been a more interesting reply if she had made an assessment of the reduction in investment since the cancellation of High Speed 2, because there is no doubt, as she said, that investment in rail infrastructure leads to business investment all along the route. We can see that in Birmingham and Manchester, and we can now see the lack of new investment because of the cancellation. Was it not a mistake to swap that investment, which would have led to many new high-technology jobs, for money to replace what has been taken from local government to fill potholes?

In my previous response, I wanted to expose the opportunities and grants that are available to ensure that charging points are criss-crossing the country. Often parliamentarians are not aware of all the great work we are doing.

On HS2, just last week we announced the extra support that will be made available for local transport plans, which cover everything including rail, road and even buses and, of course, potholes. Network Rail has received £36 billion from the Government to improve transport in every region of the UK. Just last week, we announced an extra £4.7 billion of additional funding for local transport authorities in the north and midlands. We want to make sure that decisions on transport are made locally and that the infrastructure is needed and wanted by local communities, which is why we are making sure that the funds from HS2 are being made available.