Last week, it was a huge honour to be re-elected chair of the House of Commons Business and Trade Committee by MPs – and it didn’t take long to receive a reminder of why we need look no further than Solihull for some of the nation’s finest firms.
On Friday night, I joined Solihull Chamber of Commerce and hundreds of guests at the Hilton Birmingham Metropole to celebrate the best of the borough’s business – and it’s now my job to help Parliament ensure these firms have a government that is on their side.
Select Committees are the unsung parts of Parliament. It’s not glamorous; it’s patient slog, week in, week out, taking evidence, questioning ministers and, if necessary, hauling people in for a grilling to get to the bottom of something going wrong.
Many people I’ve met around the borough watched live as I gave Sir Alan Bates a stage in January to tell us what was wrong at the Post Office. Our committee forced IT giant Fujitsu, who built the Post Office’s malfunctioning computer system, to cough up compensation. And I’ve pulled in bosses of firms such as P&O and McDonalds caught up in treating workers badly. Not for the sake of it. But to find out what went wrong so we can improve the law for the future.
But Select Committees are not just about giving ministers or company bosses a hard time. They help ensure Parliament hears from firms about what they need to thrive in the years to come – what they need if they’re to create profits, hire workers, pay dividends into our pension funds and improve our lives and livelihoods.
That’s why, inspired by the Solihull Chamber of Commerce and its brilliant president, Eileen Schofield, I’ll be asking business organisations around the country what they would like the new committee to look at first.
Last Friday night saw a galaxy of awards. Solihull firm, Mann Commercial Protection stole the honours as Solihull Business of the Year with its impressive track record diversifying sales in a tough market while Runyourfleet bagged the prestigious President’s Award for its industry-leading innovation and growth.
But what do such firms need government to do to help them prosper? Sometimes, the answer is simple: get out of the way. But often the answer is more nuanced: ‘sort out our transportation system’; ‘fix the broken apprenticeship system’; ‘make it easier to sell to Europe’; and, my personal favourite, ‘can we have fairer business rates so we can actually compete with the online giants’.
I believe that the West Midlands can teach the country most things about how to build a business. After all, it was right here, that great pioneers like Matthew Boulton, James Watt and the Cadbury Brothers led the Industrial Revolution and invented ethical enterprise. Now it’s time for us to lead again. And with great champions like the Solihull Chamber, we’ve got great allies to bang the drum for what we’ve done – and what we need now.
