Contribution
There is much to welcome in this Budget for my constituents in Hyndburn and Haslingden. Some of the measures include £100 for 41,000 of my residents. They will benefit from this immediate support with their energy bills as we seek to tackle the cost of energy crisis. The measures also include the expansion of paid parental leave to self-employed people, which will help around 90 new families in my patch every single year, and the business rates relief for businesses with rateable values of £18,000 or less, which builds upon and goes further than the previously announced plans to increase business rates relief on pubs from April 2027.
I know how hard our pub and shop owners work and the huge contribution they make to our local communities. I must give a shout-out to my local, the White Bull in Oswaldtwistle, which has recently undertaken plans to extend its dining area, and where I would be delighted to treat the Minister to lunch if they were to come and visit—I strongly recommend the Hungarian goulash.
I will focus on two main substantive issues in this Budget. First, I welcome the commitment to a mayor of Lancashire. This Labour Government have made it clear that having a mayor is firmly on the table for Lancashire, and at my business event last week, with over 130 leaders from across east Lancashire, business leaders were clear that they want this to happen as quickly as possible. Therefore, it is time for Reform-led Lancashire county council to stop delaying and get behind a mayor for Lancashire, which is key to unlocking our economic potential.
But even better, we do not have to wait for a mayor for us to get going. Following the calls from many Labour colleagues, including my hon. Friends the Members for Ribble Valley (Maya Ellis) and for Rossendale and Darwen (Andy MacNae), the Budget includes a commitment to capacity and capability funding for areas that are progressing towards a mayoral strategic authority, which will put £7.7 million of funding into Lancashire from next year. Alongside that, there is the development of the local growth funds, with a total of £80 million for non-mayoral areas to support priority projects that will support their economic growth and development.
Secondly, I turn to what this Budget does for entrepreneurs. Some of these measures include the increases to the trading allowance, a proposed young entrepreneurs’ allowance and £200 million of additional funding for female founders. Furthermore, there is a significant set of plans to support early-stage and scale-up funding, with a commitment of an extra £5 billion to the British Business Bank, £450 million of which is allocated to a new venture debt product to help innovative firms access capital without immediate equity dilution.
Over the past year, I have been raising with Ministers the challenge faced by these businesses during their pre-commercialisation so-called “valley of death” and the opportunity to help low-carbon technology businesses in Hyndburn and east Lancashire that face this barrier through funding the RedCAT proposals that I have shared. RedCAT provides businesses that are trying to produce new products for their first identified customer, and I hope that through these combined announcements there may be ways of funding RedCAT. I urge Ministers to meet me to work out how we can overcome some of the siloed approaches within Government to unlock this and unlock economic growth not just in Hyndburn and Lancashire, but in other parts of the country.
This Budget goes a long way towards helping my constituents through these difficult global headwinds, as well as outlining a broader ambition to reshape our energy markets and the economy for the future in a way that delivers good growth in every postcode and hope in every heart. Devolution is the chance for Lancashire to take control of our own future and stop having to come cap in hand to Westminster. While we work towards this, I will continue to work with Ministers to deliver the jobs, opportunities and growth that Hyndburn desperately needs.