Last week started with a good catch up with Hitachi who are joining forces on a scheme with Hyperdrive Tech from Sunderland to develop battery powered trains. This is an innovative beginning to the creation of a North East hub for battery technology which will assist with the governments Net Zero target and provide more employment to this area. I then attended a briefing meeting with Local Trust regarding our first full meeting of the APPG on Left Behind Neighbourhoods.
On Thursday it was the BEIS select committee where we had the Secretary of State Alok Sharma joining us to be questioned on the work of the BEIS (Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy) department. He was joined by Sam Beckett who is the interim Permanent Secretary and two Director Generals, Joanna Whittington and Jo Shanmugalingham. We covered a number of subjects including Project Birch (which relates to specific business support); Support in local lockdowns (like Leicester); Commercial rent and business support; Pregnant women and Covid 19 work implications; 5 Business focus groups established by his department; the Green recovery agenda; Industrial Strategy and “Shovel ready projects”; Sunday Trading; COP 26; The energy White paper; Funding Research and Development; The Horizon enquiry into Sub Postmasters; Equality and Diversity within his department and more generally; reform of the audit market and supply chains that include exploited workers.
As you can see the brief of BEIS is incredibly wide.
I was then able to join Rachel and David in the office as we start to organise ourselves as we await IT connectivity etc and we are looking to plan our summer as hopefully Covid 19 constraints continue to lift and we can get out and about more. If you would like us to visit your organisation or if you would like to meet us at the office please do get in touch.
I then had a meeting with Labour MPs around the project proposal to reopen the Leamside line and reconnect Ferryhill with Tyneside and Wearside. I was able to follow this with meetings on Monday with Grant Shapps, Secretary of State for Transport, and then Chris Heaton-Harris, Minister for Rail, where I raised this further.
Tuesday saw the first meeting of the Left Behind Communities APPG which was very well supported with over 70 people joining us. We discussed the need to look at how we could drive support into these communities as they are at higher risk than most from the impacts of Covid 19 and it must be understood, were not in a good place even before the pandemic. I am determined to make sure this APPG delivers tangible actions and real improvements to these communities and is not just a ‘talking shop’.
After the 23rd July, Parliament is in recess. This means that I am much more available in the constituency and hopefully, as Covid lifts, it will mean I can get out and about and see more of you.
Please remember that as we all get out more and resume some aspects of our normal routines it is still vitally important that we respect the virus and maintain as much social distance as we possibly can and, where appropriate, wear our face coverings.
Please also give your consideration to our key workers, some of them are also getting used to the additional PPE they are now wearing.
Stay Safe and look after each other,
Paul Howell, MP
