Speeches by Reynolds.

“You are asking the right question about complexity. It is probably a fairly complex-looking landscape of public finance institutions in the UK for parliamentarians, let alone the public. You are asking the right question, but it is, as Spencer has said, a very different answer that you need to address that. The British…”

“It is a fascinating question. My personal view is that, in terms of how we provide young people with information on how big macroeconomic decisions will affect their lives, from getting a mortgage to interest rates, we do not do that particularly well. That is something that needs to be considered. Anyone who is foundi…”

“I absolutely share your thoughts on where Government documents sometimes do not live up to the standards that we would want. They can sometimes analyse the problem rather than offer solutions. They can sometimes be absent of the kinds of metrics that are necessary to judge success. I do not want either of those, nor do…”

“I absolutely agree that access to finance is one of the themes that comes through very strongly. There is a lot of Government activity around this. It is very important to understand that you have to be careful with the interventions you make on access to finance. It is relatively easy, as a Minister with Treasury back…”

“What is needed to get this right is a clear relationship between local leaders and central Government. Those agendas are not in competition. Actually, by definition, they are complementary. If you think about what we are trying to do in Greater Manchester around provision for young people, it is the kind of changes the…”

“Yes, it has been a busy time, but the industrial strategy is a fundamentally important piece of work to us and the Government. I am unremittingly optimistic about the UK. I am optimistic not based on sentiment or even the brilliant visits I do and the people who I get to speak to every day; I am optimistic because of w…”

“You can see that we are sitting next to each other in a very warm embrace. Let us have some humility when we approach this as parliamentarians. I would describe skills and training as one of the longest‑running public policy concerns in the UK. You can go back to this place in the 1870s, after the unification of…”

“You will have to give evidence, Chair, so we can hear how it went.”

“That is the role the Cabinet Office plays. If you take, for instance, the changes to the ZEV mandate, there was not genuine political disagreement across Government in terms of what we were trying to do. My position has always been that I care, and we have to care, not just about the transition to new technologies, suc…”

“One of the principal things any Member of Parliament will hear from businesses is a sense of frustration that different Government Departments have their own policy priorities—who is trying to address the cumulative impact of those on a business? I have always understood that. First of all, look at the reforms to the Z…”

“I would expect any company to abide by UK law, particularly regulations and corporate reporting requirements. There are sometimes reasons for that, which I will take up with Companies House. I would not want to call any company a rogue operator based on that issue alone. In relation to some of the understandably high-p…”

“I would not want to say that. The key issue here is that this unfortunately is seen as a fairly lucrative criminal activity and therefore the innovation and the threat are always growing. When I talk to CEOs about it, it is something that they are certainly taking seriously, but we cannot underestimate the threat. Chai…”

“Again, my ambition would be to meet what has been revealed in the consultation in terms of the barriers to the kind of activity we need more of in the UK.”

“I want the UK to be in the most competitive position possible. Logically, you could extrapolate from that that I want the barriers that businesses tell me about to be addressed as part of that. Colleagues will be aware that, especially when you are trying to do something as ambitious as this—addressing some of these ba…”

“I cannot pre-empt the decisions that we are making, because they are linked to the spending review, but I can tell you that it is an area of considerable Government activity.”

“That is exactly why the industrial strategy looks at some of those real barriers to business activity, business investment and growth. We have to address the barriers to that and that is why energy is a big part of the focus of the work that we are doing.”

“Thank you, Chair. First of all, it is always a pleasure to be here with you on this Committee. This is a very serious issue. It is a wake-up call for anyone who was not aware of the scale of the threat that we face. Cyber-security is not a luxury. It is a direct business issue with significant ramifications for consume…”

“I have heard that pitched and it is not, sadly, as simple as that. You will know that the reason gas plays such a role in our system is that it is the last marginal form of production, which then sets the price for the rest of the system. Of course, the contracts for difference that most of the offshore wind operates o…”

“I would say broadly that the tax position of the UK is an attractive one in terms of the story that people would be looking at. We have the lowest corporation tax in the G7. The concerns, as Poppy says, are far less in that area. They are about some of these very practical, granular issues on energy and skills. The con…”

“Our ambitions on business rates are not directly part of the industrial strategy, but you will know the prominence the Chancellor and I have given them in terms of the reform agenda that the Government have. Spencer might want to come in on some of the detail of that. Business rates have been around in the UK for a lon…”