This is a matter for employers to discuss with their employees, if appropriate. This is not a matter for Government.

I chair regular retail roundtables to understand retailer’s needs and issues, including trading conditions and represent these across Government.

Last year, Government published our vision for the future of high streets in the Build Back Better High Streets strategy. This document set out the Government's long-term plan to support the evolution of high streets into thriving places to work, visit and live.

Alongside this, the Government is providing new temporary business rates relief worth almost £1.7 billion for eligible retail, hospitality, and leisure businesses.

Last year, the Government published the Build Back Better High Streets Strategy, where we committed to continue working with the retail sector, and the Retail Sector Council, to set out our long-term plan to support the evolution of high streets into thriving places to work, visit and live.

We have gone further to set out our ambition for our towns and high streets in the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill, published last month, through High Street Rental Auctions which will grant a permissive power to local authorities to tackle the problem of persistently vacant property on high streets and in town centres.

My rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State and I meet regularly with SMEs, Business Representative Organisations (BROs), Trade Associations and others from a range of sectors across the UK. The Government recognises the power of private sector partnerships and business clusters to drive innovation and investment.

The Government is investing £100m to pilot three new Innovation Accelerators in Glasgow, the West Midlands and Greater Manchester. These are intended to boost economic growth by investing in R&D strengths, boosting innovation diffusion and maximising the economic impact of existing R&D institutions. The Strength in Places Fund, managed by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), continues to support innovation-led regional growth and enhance local collaborations involving research and innovation.

Government supports all small businesses, who will benefit from the £15 billion of targeted government support to help with the rising cost of living. Government has cut fuel duty for 12 months, raised the Employment Allowance to £5,000, and is zero-rating VAT on energy-saving materials.

Additionally, Help to Grow programmes will enable eligible SMEs to mitigate the effects of rising costs by providing financial discounts on approved digital technologies up to a value of £5000.

Our network of 38 Growth Hubs across England provides SMEs access to information and advice. Additionally, advisers at the government’s Business Support Helpline (England) can provide free support and guidance about local and national business support offers.

The Government is actively supporting social enterprise through:

• £425million of dormant assets have been distributed to Big Society Capital. This has leveraged around £1.7billion in private capital from external investors. It has been used to support thousands of charities and social enterprises across the country to grow their impact and scale their operations.
• A further £60million has been allocated to The Foundation for Social Investment to make charities and social enterprises in England more financially resilient and self-reliant.
• The Government is also working to enable more social enterprises to participate through the Public Services (Social Value) Act and a new central government Social Value Model, launched in 2021.

The Government is actively supporting social enterprise through:

• £425million of dormant assets have been distributed to Big Society Capital. This has leveraged around £1.7billion in private capital from external investors. It has been used to support thousands of charities and social enterprises across the country to grow their impact and scale their operations.
• A further £60million has been allocated to The Foundation for Social Investment to make charities and social enterprises in England more financially resilient and self-reliant.
• The Government is also working to enable more social enterprises to participate through the Public Services (Social Value) Act and a new central government Social Value Model, launched in 2021.

Fiscal policy is a matter for HM Treasury.

BEIS will aim to invest 55% of its R&D budget outside the Greater South East by 2024/25. We have also given UKRI a new organisational objective to increase consideration of local growth criteria and impact in R&D fund design. These measures will help to ensure that high potential R&D clusters across the UK see the benefit from our record uplift in R&D investment to £20 billion by 2024/25.

This Government is committed to building an economy that works for everyone. The National Living Wage is part of our wider commitment to ensuring we have a labour market that works for everyone, both in terms of fair pay and fair working conditions.

A single national rate is clear and simple for employers to understand. Introducing regional rates would make the system more complex and increase the risk of non-compliance.

This Government is committed to building an economy that works for everyone. The National Living Wage is part of our wider commitment to ensuring we have a labour market that works for everyone, both in terms of fair pay and fair working conditions.

A single national rate is clear and simple for employers to understand. Introducing regional rates would make the system more complex and increase the risk of non-compliance.

Government monitors and evaluates our business support programmes to ensure that opportunities for business growth are assessed. In addition to this independent sources have found:

• Total early-stage Entrepreneurial Activity in the UK in 2021 was 12.6%, increased from 7.8% in 2020[1].
• The UK was the third largest destination in Europe for foreign direct investment in 2021, receiving $27.6bn in inward FDI[2].
• The UK is a centre of global finance and has the strongest venture capital market in Europe, more than France and Germany combined[3].
• The number of scale-ups* stand at 34,000, a rise of 8% over 5 years, and scale-ups account for around 13% of private sectors businesses with 10+ employees.

[1] Global Entrepreneurship Monitor – 2021 Global report

[2] OECD, Most recent FDI statistics for OECD and G20 countries

[3] Tech Nation (2020), UK Tech for a Changing World (https://technation.io/report2020/#11-global-investment-trends) https://technation.io/report2021/#key-statistics

* businesses with 10+ employees with either turnover or employment growth of over 20%

The Government works with mayors and local authorities to assess and promote investment opportunities in city regions across England using measures that include freeports, devolution deals and enterprise zones. For example Government is supporting York Central, a large and ambitious city centre brownfield regeneration site, with £77million in funding and Enterprise Zone status. The development is expected to create a £1.2bn boost to the local economy and around 6500 new jobs. Government is also awarding York £5.8m of UK Shared Prosperity funding and is currently negotiating a York and North Yorkshire mayoral devolution deal.

The UK has strong and deep research and innovation ties with our European partners through longstanding university and industrial partnerships both bilaterally and multilaterally. We remain committed to associating to European research programmes, but if delays to our association continue, we will introduce a comprehensive set of alternative programmes to maintain our global science superpower trajectory. We will continue to support work with European universities to maintain research and innovation excellence, collaborative networks and thought leadership.

My rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State maintains a positive relationship with a range of specialist chambers of commerce focused on business operating between the UK and European partners. In June alone he has spoken with the British-Irish Chamber of Commerce and the Spanish Chamber of Commerce to hear their perspective and to promote partnership between our respective business communities.

The Department is also working to facilitate closer links with European partners in key sectors. In the automotive sector, the German and UK trade associations are collaborating closely, while in the aerospace sector we will this month welcome delegations from across Europe to the Farnborough International Air Show.