No granite would have been mined for the construction of the Phase 2 route from Birmingham to Manchester because granite does not occur naturally in the ground along the chosen route

At the Spring Budget on 15 March 2023, the Chancellor announced 12 Investment Zones (IZs) across the UK. We have invited eight areas in England to co-develop proposals with the Government. We will keep the list of Investments Zones under review subject to the overall fiscal envelope of the programme.

Places invited to co-develop an Investment Zone proposal with government have been selected based on a transparent and robust methodology, published in full on gov.uk. Further guidance on the co-development process was published in the Technical Document in July.

Investment Zones are locally led and, recognising local leaders know their areas best, all stages of co-development has allowed flexibility and autonomy for each place to identify and select the best mix of interventions for their proposal - and where that funding is spent. Decision making regarding how and where to spend this envelope ultimately resides with the proposed East Midlands Mayoral Combined County Authority (EMMCCA).

In the 2021 Heat and Buildings Strategy, the government committed to a range of policies enabling a zero-carbon heating system in the UK. In the strategy, the government committed to investing £338 million into the Heat Network Transformation Programme over 2022/23 to 2024/25.

The Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy’s 2020 Heat Network Skills Review found, among other things that:

• Skills challenges in the energy and engineering sectors were a barrier to the uptake of heat networks.
• The heat networks sector lacks data to support workforce planning.
• Occupations particularly in demand include project delivery managers, heat network development managers, and control system specialists.
• Heat network training is often informal and completed on-the-job as continuing professional development. There are some private organisations that deliver specific training on heat networks.

Earlier this year, the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero ran the Heat Training Grant competition for education providers in England. This funding facilitates the ability to provide training on the designing, building, and maintenance of heat networks. A further round of the scheme will run for training to be delivered in academic year 2024/25.

There are existing courses funded by the department for education that provide the skills needed to build and operate heat networks. These are highlighted in the list below:

• The building services engineering craftsperson level 3 apprenticeship provides learners with the experience and training necessary to install large-scale heating systems in buildings like factories and hospitals, including those powered by sustainable energy.
• Skills Bootcamps have been delivered on a range of green heating technologies. The courses are open to adults aged 19 and over and are designed with employers to meet short to medium-term skill shortages and to boost productivity.
• The Building Services Engineering for Construction T Level supports learners to progress to a job as a heating & ventilation engineer, which can include low carbon technologies like heat networks.
• The Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education is currently developing an occupational standard for an apprenticeship at level 3, entitled district heat network maintenance technician.
• The network of 21 Institutes of Technology (IoTs) is committed to supporting the government’s targets for sustainability and net zero. With access to £300 million of capital funding to develop industry-standard facilities and equipment, IoTs are delivering higher level technical provision in key STEM subjects, such as net zero carbon energy production.
• The department has launched the Local Skills Improvement Fund to implement the training facilities needed to meet the workforce needs set out in an area’s Local Skills Improvement Plan (LSIP). £80 million of capital and revenue funding is in the process of being awarded, and a further £85 million of capital funding will be made available in 2024/25. This funding can be used for the equipment needed to deliver training on heat networks if that is designated as a local workforce need in an area’s LSIP.

The 2023-2024 Retail, Hospitality and Leisure (RHL) Business Rates Relief scheme provides eligible, occupied, retail, hospitality and leisure properties with a 75 per cent relief, up to a cash cap limit of £110,000 per business. This was an expansion from the 50 per cent rate in 2022-2023. Currently, around 230,000 properties are eligible for this relief, representing a tax cut worth over £2 billion.

Businesses may also benefit from other business rates measures, including the multiplier freeze, and the Supporting Small Business scheme, which caps bill increases at £600 per year for businesses losing some or all of their eligibility for Small Business or Rural Rate Relief due to the recent revaluation.

Any future announcements regarding business rates relief will be made at a fiscal event.

While a formal invitation to the Commonwealth Enterprise and Investment Council (CWEIC) Summit in Bangladesh has yet to be received, officials from the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) plan to attend while ministerial attendance has yet to be decided. DBT and FCDO and continue to work closely with CWEIC to further strengthen intra-Commonwealth trade and investment – particularly following the Commonwealth Trade Ministers Meeting in June, where members agreed ambitious objectives to boost support for trade digitalisation and inward investment ahead of CHOGM in 2024 in Samoa.

We are still awaiting a formal invitation for Ministerial attendance. However, on current plans officials from the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) will attend the Commonwealth Enterprise and Investment Council (CWEIC) Summit in Bangladesh.

The FCDO and DBT continue to work closely with CWEIC to further strengthen intra-Commonwealth trade and investment - particularly following the Commonwealth Trade Ministers Meeting in June, where members agreed ambitious objectives to boost support for trade digitalisation and inward investment ahead of CHOGM (Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting) in 2024 in Samoa.

High Street Rental Auctions policy will come into effect as soon as possible after Royal Assent of the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill.

I thank my hon. Friend for that question, and it is very interesting to hear about the work of Polypipe. She will be aware that those decisions are for National Highways as an arm’s length body, but she has put that point on the record in Hansard, and I would be very happy to put the question to National Highways so that it is specifically considered in detail.

All transport infrastructure projects delivered by the Department’s arm’s length bodies are required to undertake whole-life carbon assessments and set carbon reduction targets as part of their business cases. National Highways, HS2 Ltd and Network Rail have already set out ambitious plans for achieving net zero and we are supporting them in their delivery. Through the Live Labs 2 competition, we awarded £30 million of funding to seven new regional projects to boost innovation in decarbonising highways infrastructure.

The call for proposals for the £38m biomanufacturing fund and £250m LIFTS initiative are open UK-wide. Additionally, funding for skills and regulations will benefit companies across the UK and £121 million for clinical trials will support the delivery of clinical trials across England. With 66% of the sector employed outside London and South-East, these UK wide initiatives will benefit all regions. Nottingham has been awarded at least £935k for the Mental Health Mission, including activities at the Midlands Translational Research Centre of Excellence demonstrator site and under the Children and Young People’s Mental Health workstream.

The Energy Bills Discount Scheme (EBDS) provides a baseline discount to all eligible businesses and non-domestic customers. The discount is subject to a wholesale price threshold of £107/MWh for gas and £302/MWh for electricity. Businesses experiencing energy costs below this level will not receive support. The EBDS discount is comparably lower than the Energy Bill Relief Scheme discount and reflects the significant fall in energy prices since last September whilst striking the right balance by supporting businesses over the next year, ensuring fiscal responsibility and limiting the taxpayer’s exposure to volatile energy markets.

The Government has extended support comparable to the EBDS to non-domestic energy customers who receive gas or electricity delivered over public networks from non-licensed providers.

We recognise the challenges facing the dairy sector. The Prime Minister set out new support for farmers to strengthen food security and grow the economy at the Farm to Fork Food Summit on 16 May 2023. This includes the creation of a £1 million programme to help dairy businesses, particularly SMEs, to seize export opportunities.

In addition, the Government has acted to support the agricultural sector, including dairy farmers, in a number of ways.

• The Farming Investment Fund offers opportunities for dairy farmers (and others) to apply for grants towards the purchase of equipment and technology, and to help fund transformational infrastructure projects, that increase productivity, boost environmental sustainability and improve animal health and welfare. Eligible investments include slurry infrastructure and robotic milking systems for example.

• Furthermore, in May 2023, the Government more than doubled the funding available in the first round of Slurry Infrastructure grant, with further rounds to follow. The scheme will support a large number of dairy farmers to upgrade their slurry systems, to improve organic nutrient use, reduce pollution and improve farm productivity.

• The Government made changes in 2022 to guidance on farmers using manures and steps aimed at bringing about more sustainable fertiliser technologies through the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI).

• 2022 also saw increased grants for farmers and growers and boosting research and development through the Farming Innovation Programme.

• In 2022, the Basic Payment Scheme payment was amended so that payments are made in two instalments to give farmers greater financial fluidity for the remainder of the agricultural transition period.

• In January 2023, I set out in the Environmental Land Management Update details of new SFI actions that will be available in 2023. In 2024 we will be adding new actions to those currently available in SFI and Countryside Stewardship and improving a number of existing Countryside Stewardship options, which will provide more support to the industry and drive uptake at a time of rising costs for farmers as a result of global challenges.

There has been a significant increase in applications for the Access to Work grant scheme over the last year, leading to longer processing times.

Processing times are continually assessed, and the department has reviewed processes to support applications being processed in a timely manner. To deal with the increased demand, we have recruited additional staff and have plans for further recruitment. We are also modernising the Access to Work service through increased digitalisation; this will make the service more efficient, make the application process easier, and improve the time taken from application through to decision.

Customers making a new application for Access to Work and are starting work within the next 4 weeks, or have a current grant award coming to an end requiring a renewal application, are prioritised to ensure they are able to enter and remain in the labour market.

The New Hospital Programme continues to work closely with the Trust on the development of their plans in alignment with our national approach to standardisation for the new hospitals we have committed to build. This ensures value for money is realised in delivering new, cutting-edge facilities for staff and patients. We continue to collaborate with all trusts in the Programme to ensure the funding they receive is reflective of an ongoing assessment of costs.

Up to the end of 2022/23 University Hospitals Leicester NHS Trust scheme received £7.46 million in funding for their new hospital scheme, which includes funding for work to prepare the site for construction of the new hospital. The funding for the full scheme will only be confirmed once its full business case has been reviewed and agreed, including by HM Treasury.

The Government takes the issue of authorised push payment (APP) fraud, of which romance fraud is one form, very seriously, and is dedicated to protecting the public from this devastating crime. Working alongside the regulators, law enforcement, and industry, the Government continues to support numerous fraud-prevention initiatives, including the Payments Systems Regulator’s work to enhance information sharing between payment providers.

Information sharing between firms plays a key role in identifying scammers and preventing scams. As noted in the Home Office’s recent Fraud Strategy, the Government, regulators and industry are working together to identify opportunities for greater information sharing to better tackle fraud ‘up stream’. The PSR has set up an industry working group, including Pay.UK and UK Finance, to agree what data could be shared.

In order to prevent APP fraud, HM Treasury is investigating amending legislation to enable payment service providers such as banks to delay payments beyond the existing legislative timescales in limited, high-risk fraud scenarios. This will allow enhanced customer engagement to take place. This could enable firms to take more of a ‘risk-based’ approach to payments processing.

Until 2006, compensation for TB affected cattle in England was determined using individual valuations. There was however significant evidence of overcompensation so, following a public consultation in 2004, Defra moved to a table-based valuation system. Almost all cases of TB compensation in England are now determined using table valuations. Table valuations are objective and based on real market data. There are no plans to alter this approach.

Delivery of new hospital infrastructure and prioritisation within health budgets is a matter for the Department of Health and Social Care, but I know from frequent conversations with the Secretary of State that he is working tirelessly to ensure as many new hospitals as possible, and that wider improvements to the health estate can occur. I shall make representations to him after these questions.

The transitional Community Accommodation Service-Tier 3 (CAS3) was launched in 2021, initially in five probation regions, providing up to 12 weeks' accommodation on release, with support to move on to settled accommodation. Between 1 July 2021 and 17 June 2022, over 2,300 individuals, who would have otherwise been homeless, were accepted on to CAS3.

We expanded the service to cover Wales in June 2022, and are now in the process of extending it to the remaining six probation regions in England, to support the thousands of offenders who leave prison homeless.