At this moment, nearly a year on since the first lockdown was brought about, I am reminded of the words of Lord Tennyson, in Ulysses:
“Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will. To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.”
Over the last year we have all grown weak and tried by the slow passing of time as the Covid19 pandemic has brought our lives as we once knew them to a halt. The daily confirmation of lives lost and loved ones around the country in mourning. This pandemic really has taken a toll on us all.
But, now is the time, as this Budget has sought to do, to strive for a better future, seeking to improve the life chances for all, finding solutions to turbo-charge our economy, and not yielding to the cynicism and pessimism of some.
Global Britain, in a post-Covid19 world, can be a beacon around the globe as a shining example of how to transform an economy into a high-skilled, high waged, green economy, offering opportunities for many and levelling up our left behind communities.
This Budget sets us on that course.
Firstly, I would like to welcome, as the Vice-Chair for the APPG on Tourism and Hospitality, the extensions to the VAT cut to 5% until September and the business rates holiday until June. These measures have really helped the hospitality sector through this pandemic, and it is welcome they will be in place as they reopen fully this summer. However, I would have liked to have seen them extended for a further year, to really give our hospitality and tourism sectors a chance at recovery, so I hope my Right Honourable Friend, The Chancellor, will review this when the schemes are due to come to an end.
Secondly, I would also like to welcome the Levelling Up Fund and the inclusion of both Hastings and Rother local authorities in Priority Group One. This fund will really help areas that have been left behind for too long to get vital investment in local projects that matter to local people. I welcome the funding support that both of the local authorities I represent will get in putting their bids together, and I look forward to working with them on this, along with my Honourable Friend, the Member for Bexhill and Battle.
Finally, Mr Speaker, I want to raise the case of the High-Speed One rail extension from Ashford International through to Hastings, Bexhill and Eastbourne. The Treasury Bench will know that this is a project I have been waxing lyrical about since I was first elected and is a project that has been spoken about and worked on for nearly ten years. Yet we still have no firm commitments, or funding for this vital infrastructure project. Can I ask my Right Honourable and Honourable Friends in the Treasury to look again at this project and see the vital benefits it would bring to this part of the South East – improving jobs, alleviating poverty and deprivation and turbo-charging the local economy. There has been too much talk around this project, the time for action is now.
This is a good Budget, and the Chancellor has got the balance right between supporting our economy and jobs right now as we continue through the pandemic, but also laying out the necessary and proportionate measures, to pay for this support in the future.
We may have grown tired and weak by this pandemic in recent months, but now is the time “to strive, to seek, to find and not to yield,” as we move our economy into a post-Covid world as this Budget will do.