Liam Byrne MP addresses business leaders in Oldbury

Liam Byrne MP addresses business leaders in Oldbury, discussing the future government industrial strategy

Transcript

00:00So I'm Liam Burnham, Chair of the Business and Trade Commission at the House of Commons

00:03and here at Richardson's with an old friend of mine, Carl Richardson, just listening to

00:07the views of the business community across the black country.

00:10It's one of the big things we're trying to do as a committee is change the relationship

00:14between Parliament and the business community and so we're experimenting with a lot of these

00:18formats where business can just kind of put their views on the table.

00:22That makes it a heck of a lot easier for us to get the reports that we table to Parliament

00:26in a better place because it's got the benefit of that business shop floor wisdom.

00:30Things are tough and the cost of doing business is a real concern for businesses right now.

00:36Second, businesses want to see the growth plan.

00:40They can understand the need for taxes, they don't like the decisions on taxes, but they

00:44can swallow that if there is a clear plan for growth.

00:47There's a sense that it's coming but they'd like it now.

00:50And then I think the third thing really is about changing the way that business and government

00:54work together.

00:55You've got the industrial strategy as soon as a big opportunity, but again, how is that

01:00going to change the way that business and government actually works in practice day-to-day?

01:05People aren't clear enough about that and in particular I would say small businesses

01:09concerned that it's going to be left out of the room.

01:12So I mean there are two big things that the government, in my view, needs to kind of crack

01:16on with.

01:17One is getting the reset with Europe done.

01:19At the moment, there is so much red tape that is ensnaring the exports of our small business

01:25that they're just not selling as much as they could or want to.

01:28So getting the reset done, I think, needs to be ambitious and rapid.

01:31And then two, the industrial strategy with investment attached to it, like if that was

01:38on the table tomorrow, everyone would breathe a sigh of relief.

01:40So look, I know government's got to kind of work out quite where the money is best spent

01:44and so on, but business really needs that and it's got to come with a clear plan for

01:49how businesses can influence that money.

01:53So that it's taxpayers' money, so we just need to make sure that we get the biggest

01:57bang for our buck.