11:00 Mr. Austin Mitchell (Great Grimsby) (Lab)

Secondly, we need manufacturing policy to channel investment and provide venture capital. Thirdly, we need to break bottlenecks through training, particularly in skills. Fourthly, we need to ease the burdens on manufacturing. We have privatised all the utilities, with the result that they are imposing higher charges on manufacturing for energy, water and everything else; now, we are proposing to reduce the rebate on the climate change levy, which will hit manufacturing. It is crazy to impose such burdens when we need manufacturing to expand. We must concentrate on small and medium-sized plants.

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00:00 John Thurso (Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross) (LD)

I congratulate the hon. Member for Great Grimsby (Mr. Mitchell) on securing the debate. Before I respond to him, however, I shall pick up on a point made by the hon. Member for Chorley (Mr. Hoyle) about green industries, on which he was absolutely right. There is amazing potential in my part of the world for offshore wind and marine tidal energy, but there is a big danger that all the platforms will be made in Rotterdam, instead of in Nigg and all our constituencies, using the steel that we want in this country. If there is one thing that I have urged the Government to do—both the Department of Energy and Climate Change and BIS—it is to look at supply chain issues and ensure that we are capable of fulfilling what is needed.

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12:10 Mr. Jonathan Djanogly (Huntingdon) (Con)

The Conservative party has set a target for the United Kingdom to overtake Germany and become Europe’s leading exporter of high-tech products. To fulfil that goal, we need a long-term strategy based on increased investment in talent, technological innovation and raising the nation’s skill base. That is why Sir James Dyson is leading a Conservative taskforce to set out a clear vision for boosting high-tech production in Britain. We are confident that by harnessing our resources, a Conservative Government could generate a major expansion of high-tech product development and renewable energy, address the capital gap and create real sustainable growth in the UK economy.

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