Speeches by Kyle.

“These are things that are balanced by Government in the transition to zero, if you are manufacturing. For example, if you are an automotive manufacturer, we will have DRIVE35. We will have a £4 billion fund to help with that transition. There will be parts where, because of the increased profitability that will go with…”

“Procurements have cycles, so a lot of the procurement contracts that we will have as a Department would have been procured by the previous Government. These contracts are three to five years, very often.”

“It is not just my Department. The main Department for climate change is obviously DESNZ, which will have a whole range of other interventions in different sectors. When it is specific climate investment into transition, most of those programmes are being led out of DESNZ. For my Department and when it comes to specific…”

“You raise a really important point. I can tell you that, in my experience of less than two years, but in two Departments, I have never held on to a policy that I thought would have a more tangible, singular impact on a community or on our country’s economic wellbeing.”

“You will see it later this year. I am working very closely with MHCLG on it. There is a whole range of different areas. I accept that many of the issues that you are already raising in this session are cross-departmental. You mentioned crime, and I have been working very closely with the Home Office, or certainly givin…”

“All I can say is that I have come into office and these are conversations that I am leading on quite assertively.”

“Let me run through a few things. The first one is a foundational one. The foundational factor that every business, large and small, needs, but particularly those on the high street, which need customers with cash in their pockets, is economic growth. That is why doubling down on overall economic growth for the country …”

“I will answer the question this way. With the new Prime Minister, there are things that we can do that will be highly growth orientated and that will deliver the fairness across our economy that both he and I aspire to. Those are the sorts of conversations that I will be having. Ultimately, we live with finite resource…”

“It is domestic bills. No, of course. Already we are drifting out of DBT-held policies here and into areas that are fully owned by DESNZ. We have to do everything we can do to lower the cost of energy for our country. We are uncompetitive. It is extraordinary that we have been able to incentivise the amount of inward in…”

“No, I am trying my absolute best not to deflect on any of these and to be really honest about what it is like doing my job. Of course, if I could lower energy costs for every manufacturing business, I would do it in a heartbeat.”

“Do not forget that, earlier in this year, ahead of the Iran war situation, we had started to lower bills by up to £150 by shifting some of the burdens of regulatory and other costs.”

“You have seen that we are having to target and prioritise. You will know, because of the conversations we have had and from the scrutiny that you provided our schemes, that we are targeting the sectors that have the highest growth potential, but also those that have a highest usage of energy as part of their overall co…”

“No. We want our entire energy costs to come down.”

“I did not use tariffs or nationalisation as a first resort. These are things I am doing because we now, as a country, need to have resilience of supply of foundational materials into our supply chain, steel being critical for defence and lots of other parts of our economy. I did so because of oversupply from certain pa…”

“I can speak from only one of those Departments here in front of you today, and that is the Department for Business and Trade. I can tell you that the voice of businesses, including small businesses, hospitality and retail, is heard loud and clear around the table. You will know that, when it comes to hospitality, I hav…”

“We are engaging as much as we possibly can. Yes, we have the small business plan, but we also have the SME team in my Department, who have been out on safari in towns right around the country, having sessions with small businesses deep into communities, so that my officials are as connected to the frontline of this sec…”

“There are other sectors that face specific challenges. I am frustrated that hospitality finds itself in a position where it faces specific challenges. Every day you turn on the news in the morning and hear about another sector, whether it be defence or universities and student fees, facing issues because of the inherit…”

“As you are being such a brilliant advocate for Weston-super-Mare, I will say that, if there are singular issues that you think are impacting the economy, economic wellbeing and security or the potential for growth in your area over which I could have any agency, while you batter me over the phone fairly often anyway, y…”

“I do not have permission to think about what it would look like if I was to lower energy costs for everyone, because I am dealing with finite resources. That is the world that all of us are living in at this moment in time. I can tell you that I have never had a meeting with Cabinet colleagues who do not accept and sha…”

“All I can assure you is that we are pushing as fast as we can.”