Yesterday the opposition put forward a motion on government support for industry which the coalition amended. I gave a short speech in favour of the amendment, the text of which is below Thank you Mr Speaker. We all know that we are currently in times of deep economic hardship. But we are now heading in the right direction. I believe a key reason for this is that we have already begun to fix the wrongs and our first focus has been on balancing the books. For any in doubt that this is the right strategy, I need only point out the commendations that our Chancellor received at the G20 in South Korea for his efforts in this area. But while we have made an important start, there are of course many things that we need to do, and for me the importance of the business sector cannot be underestimated. From my experience at YouGov and when I talk to businesses in my constituency, small or large, I know that there are three main areas that they want us to focus on. Getting rid of the bureaucracy and red tape, simplifying the tax system and giving SMEs tax incentives and easier access to funding. All of these areas must be addressed and I will discuss each one in turn Mr Speaker. It is no coincidence that after 13 years of a Labour government business in this country feels bogged down by bureaucracy. I am delighted that one of the first things we have done is to introduce a ‘One in One out’ policy on regulations. This is something that will change the culture of Whitehall and help those stuck in red tape free themselves and get on with their business. Next we must focus our efforts on the need for a simpler and fairer tax. It is not in our Countries’ interest for businesses to waste time and resources on decoding the hugely complicated tax system. In a small business you are the CEO, the sales person, the receptionist and the accountant. So the more time spent on bureaucracy the less you spend on building up your business. The abolition of employer’s contributions to N.I must be commended. This is an excellent policy and already in my constituency I can see businesses such as Green Mech, DCS Europe and the brilliant Purity Beer applauding this initiative. Even Lord Digby Jones, the previous Government’s own advisor, was warning against this anti jobs policy. One of the most difficult areas to address is the funding available to business. The last Government made steps in the right direction, but it just did not work, RDA’s clearly have not worked and have wasted enormous amounts of tax payer’s money on bureaucracy. Banks only want to lend when the sun is shining. The previous administration failed to fix the roof during these times and it was SME’s that were hurt as a result. However I am very pleased that we have already pledged to ensure that there is a flow of credit to viable SME’s, both by considering a National Loans Guarantee Scheme and the use of net lending targets for banks. In the future I believe that we must continue to do more to help this area. I want now to address another area that I really think is key in the strengthening of our business sector. We must ensure that our employees of the future are equipped with the skills that can help them and their employers succeed. I for one always looked at the skill and expertise of a potential employee rather than just their University Education. That is why I am such a strong believer in apprenticeships and the skills they offer. In a previous life I did a lot of work with a fantastic charity called EDGE. And I applaud this Governments focus on apprenticeships. Making things and selling them to the world is going to be vital to our future. That is why we need to support Engineering, whether it be Mechanical, Civil or Software, Engineering needs to be seen as an aspirational qualification again. We need only look at Germany, a nation very proud of their engineers, to see what can be achieved. For me we must focus on specific areas of business in order to create our niche. If you look at Britain in relation to our Chinese and Indian counterparts we can never hope to compete with them in terms of production cost and quantity. This is why I believe that we must focus on the areas of Intellectual Property and Innovation. You only have to look at Formula One to know what talent we already have in innovation here in the UK. We need to focus our energy as politicians on the recommendations of inventors such as Sir James Dyson. Sadly however, at the moment we tend to lose our best people to other nations where innovation is better funded. For example Jonny Ives, the designer of the IPod which is such an iconic brand of our era, is British, but working for a great American company. We must learn from the USA. Silicon Valley is the home of US Tech Start Ups, precisely because of the environment created by the US Government and the support the start-ups receive there. We should learn from this and we should be creating our own opportunity zones here in the UK. Let me finish by saying that I applaud the approach taken so far by the Coalition Government. But it is important that we continue to do all we can to encourage growth in the private sector so that we can continue to create jobs that are sustainable. An important move away from the previous Government that I believe led to an unsustainable and unrealistic bloating of the public sector. Our future lies in business and for me in Innovation specifically. What we do now will affect the course of our business future, and I am confident that with the Coalition Government in place we will succeed in this. Mr Speaker let me end by saying that I support this amendment in the name of the Prime Minister.