Hunt: Back British business and unlock foreign investment
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt says that “no economy can prosper without investing in the potential of its people". He adds his measures will "boost business investment" by “increasing the number of apprentices in engineering and other key growth sectors”. Report by Rowlandi. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
Transcript
00:00 The private sector is more productive in countries like the United States, Germany and France
00:06 because it invests more—on average, two percentage points more—of GDP every year.
00:12 The 110 measures I take today help close that gap by boosting business investment by £20
00:20 billion a year. They do not involve borrowing more and ramping up debt, as some advocate.
00:28 Instead, they unlock investment with supply-side reforms that back British business in the
00:35 following areas.
00:37 First, skills. No economy can prosper without investing in the potential of its people.
00:45 Despite strong opposition, we took difficult decisions to reform our schools.
00:51 Last month, the Prime Minister set out the new advanced British standard to ensure all
00:56 school leavers reach minimum standards in maths and English. While the party opposite
01:01 wants to reduce the number of apprentices, we want to increase them. Following engagement
01:08 with Make UK and others, I am announcing a further £50 million of funding over the next
01:13 two years to pilot ways to increase the number of apprentices in engineering and other key
01:19 growth sectors where there are shortages.
01:22 I move on to planning. It takes too long to approve infrastructure projects and business
01:28 planning applications. Many businesses say they would be willing to pay more if they
01:33 knew their application would be approved faster. So, from next year, working with the Communities
01:38 Secretary, I will reform the system to allow local authorities to recover the full costs
01:44 of major business planning applications in return for being required to meet guaranteed
01:50 faster timelines.
01:51 I move.
01:52 Today, we take further decisions to unlock the building of more homes. We will invest
01:57 £110 million over this year and next to deliver high-quality nutrient mitigation schemes,
02:03 unlocking 40,000 homes.