Businesses need cuts to red tape, a speedier planning system, and more devolution – they were some of the key messages from Labour Party Conference as it focused on business on its first full day in Liverpool.
Thousands of delegates poured into the ACC Liverpool complex and its surrounding venues for this year’s conference as Sir Keir Starmer and his ministerial team try for a fresh start after a turbulent few months.
Sunday saw many events and announcements focusing on business and the need to kickstart growth.
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Housing secretary Steve Reed announced work on 12 New Towns would be taken forward. And he said: I will do whatever it takes to get Britain building. We’ve got to ‘build baby build’.”
Some delegates were spotted later that day wearing “build baby build” baseball hats. Meanwhile the – committed to “tearing down the barriers to growth” – now calls itself “the largest backbench grouping in the party” with more than 100 MPs.
Its co-chair, Chris Curtis, joined West Midlands Mayor Richard Parker on the panel at a debate called “How Business Can Help to Deliver Labour’s Growth Mission”, organised by think tank Labour Together with the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Mr Curtis said: “We should be talking more about just how brilliant and investable a place the 海角视频 is.”
He added that we need to “find ways to say yes rather than saying no”. That, he said, included reforming the planning system to make it quicker and more responsive, and supporting more devolution to reduce the British state’s tendency to overcentralise.
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Mr Parker , billed as the biggest and most ambitious of its kind in the 海角视频. It will include the £4 billion Birmingham Knowledge Quarter, the HS2 station at Curzon Street, the £2 billion Smithfield development, and the the £3 billion Birmingham Sports Quarter the mayor talked about with pride at the conference event.
He said: “We want to give the business community confidence that there will be political stability.”
And he added: "That means they can have confidence that the things they want to do will be supported.
The mayor said the three key things West Midlands businesses wanted were to make planning “speedier”, to boost the skills of the local workforce, and for unnecessary red tape to be removed.
As an example, he said he had worked with Government to help free up land around the HS2 stations in the West Midlands for development. That, he said, was "removing red tape and delivering investment”.
The panelists, quizzed by host and Bloomberg presenter Lizzy Burden, also agreed that high energy costs were hitting businesses across the 海角视频.
Karim Fatehi, chief executive of the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry, warned of “intense cost pressures” on his members. He said those member companies needed stability and to know “their Government is listening”.
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James Howat, chief economist at Labour Together, said the Government faced difficult choices, including potential tax rises, and warned there was “no good way out of this”.
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