Speeches by Glen.

“You achieved something: you got it mentioned here.”

“Thank you. I have another question for Mr Woods, in terms of your Mansion House speech, in which you referred to this proposal to provide capital relief to banks on their portfolio of foreign Government debt. You used quite a striking phrase: “would be equivalent to ripping off our jacket, warm hat and gloves and throw…”

“The ABI will be happy when we see them next.”

“I recognise that. I, as a former Minister, was sat in between you. It felt like sometimes I got an extreme view of one side and an extreme view of the other, and I sat in the middle trying to mediate. It is technically quite complicated to do that, and I would be sympathetic to all my successors, whichever Government t…”

“We hear sometimes, when we talk to people in the City, that that sounds very reasonable but they say that there is, overall, a lack of not so much urgency but determination to put emphasis on growth‑enabling activities. A moderate reduction in, say, some of the reporting requirements for an entity that is not go…”

“Mr Woods, I would concur with your assessment of our previous dialogue. I very much respect the way you conducted that dialogue. Can we turn to the matters at hand around your role at the PRA in terms of supporting economic growth? We have seen the letter that you wrote to the Prime Minister, and last year you had 23 c…”

“Yes, and that was never going to be fruitful in the first place.”

“So are the Government doing enough to create information flows to possible new opportunities for funding?”

“Basically, you have all referred to the aggregation of pension funds, new financial instruments that look at things such as intellectual capital as something that you can invest against, and improving market awareness.”

“I am not trying to be difficult.”

“That is what I was going to ask.”

“Could I take forward the conversation around what you see as necessary to get more investment in high-growth firms? That is a universal imperative in the economy, on which the Chancellor has given some instruction. You obviously have to reconcile the stability imperative around that enablement, and the whole Solvency U…”

“It takes time to consolidate.”

“It was very efficient.”

“To your points, Dave, I just acknowledge that absolutely there was a very efficient resolution and a seamless operation in 2023 on that. The received wisdom I get from people in the City and banks is that we had a system set up after the last crisis and to some extent we have not reset in the world that we now operate …”

“I acknowledge that anyone sensible can see that you cannot consolidate things overnight, but is there anything more that can be done that has not been done to accelerate this? Some of the figures are quite stark in terms of the different profile of investment in these high-growth firms, and that is material to confiden…”

“That is timely.”

“But to the bigger point I am making?”

“I hear what the Minister says, but does she not recognise that if the prevailing increase in the national living wage is 6.7% and inflation is about half that, and given the other costs mentioned by my hon. Friend the Member for Keighley and Ilkley (Robbie Moore), many employers will not be able to take on any casual e…”

“I congratulate the Secretary of State on getting the town of culture competition to happen. I was briefly Arts Minister nine years ago, and Sir Phil Redmond did an amazing job then of setting out the distinction between city of culture and town of culture. I seek the Secretary of State’s advice about Salisbury. As it i…”