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Competitiveness

Volume 408: debated on Wednesday 9 July 2003

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To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the Government have done (a) to improve competition, (b) to promote enterprise, (c) to support science and innovation, (d) to raise UK skills and (e) to encourage investment in the last five years. [124208]

The Government's approach to raising productivity centres on tackling historic microeconomic weaknesses in five areas that can drive productivity growth: competition, enterprise, science and innovation, skills, and investment.It is precisely to address these areas that the Government have:

Introduced the Enterprise Act 2002 to strengthen competition in the economy, creating a new proactive role for the Office of Fair Trading;
Reduced corporation tax rates and made major reforms to capital gains tax to enhance the UK as an internationally competitive location for business;
Introduced the R&D tax credit for small and large firms, as well as provide the largest sustained increase in the Science Budget for more than a decade;
Launched six new Employer Training Pilots and made improvements to the UK Migration system to make it better address the needs of the economy;
Made new proposals to promote greater flexibility in the housing market, and to streamline and simplify the planning regime.

This Government's strategy for raising UK productivity growth was set out in "Productivity in the UK: the evidence and the Government's approach" (November 2000). A progress report was given in "Productivity in the UK: progress towards a productive economy" (March 2001), and "Enterprise and the productivity challenge" (June 2001) set out further steps Government are taking to improve the UK's productivity performance. Further steps were announced in subsequent Budgets.

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what recent steps have been taken by the Government to remove obstacles to, and raise the levels of, enterprise and investment in the UK's most disadvantaged areas. [124218]

The Government's approach to raising levels of enterprise throughout the UK, and specifically in disadvantaged areas, is described in detail in "Enterprise Britain: a modern approach to meeting the enterprise challenge", published alongside the 2002 pre-Budget report, and in the appendix to the recently published "Productivity in the UK 4: the local dimension".A range of specific measures are now being focused on approximately 2,000 enterprise areas—the most deprived communities across the UK.Specific measures that will help to raise levels of enterprise and investment in these areas include: an exemption from stamp duty for all non-residential property transactions, and for residential property transactions of up to £150,000; the provision of £16 million over two years to fund Enterprise Advisers in around 1,000 secondary schools in deprived areas; community investment tax relief, enabling accredited community development finance institutions to raise new capital for investment in disadvantaged areas; and the £40 million Bridges Community Development Venture Fund, backed by a £20 million Government investment.