- Minsters to visit the West of England, Midlands and Wales to hear from communities and businesses on how new bills will help them prosper
- Comes as government sets out landmark legislative agenda to drive economic growth and level up opportunities across the country
- The Prime Minister and cabinet ministers will today meet with communities, businesses and organisations across the West of England, Midlands and Wales which will benefit from the new legislative agenda.
In a meeting of Cabinet, ministers will discuss how the Queen's Speech will deliver for people by boosting our economic growth and recovery, improve living standards and level up opportunities across the country - with Stoke-on-Trent being a prime example of levelling up in action. They will also discuss the upcoming major events for this year, including the Queen's Platinum Jubilee and Commonwealth games which will provide a tremendous opportunity to boost pride in Britishness and serve an important role in the economic renewal and recovery in this country.
The Queen's Speech has been designed to deliver direct benefits for communities like Stoke, for example, with a new bill that will improve the planning system to give residents a louder voice, making sure developments are beautiful, green and accompanied by new infrastructure and affordable housing. The Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill will help spread opportunities by creating more of the jobs, homes and high streets that people want, as well as empower local leaders to regenerate their areas and ensure everyone can share in the United Kingdom's success.
The Government will also continue to deliver improvements to transport networks across the UK through our Transport Bill, providing for reliable services, reducing journey times and spreading economic growth to all regions. And the Handsacre Link which will connect HS2 to the West Coast will allow compatible trains to stop at Stoke-on-Trent helping to relieve congestion, improve reliability and speed up journey time.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said:
I'm delighted to bring Cabinet to Stoke-on-Trent today - a city which is the beating heart of the ceramics industry and an example of the high skilled jobs that investment can bring to communities.
This government is getting on with delivering the people's priorities and tackling the issues that matter most to the public.
This week we've set out how we'll use new landmark legislation to grow our economy to address the cost of living, and level up opportunities for communities across the country.
The Government has injected £56 million into Stoke-on-Trent from the first round of the Levelling up Fund which will go towards boosting the supply of quality housing in the city, as well as attracting visitors to the new arena in the City Centre Regeneration Area and putting heritage assets to good use for now and the future.
Stoke-on-Trent also received six successful Community Renewal Fund bids totalling over £3.5 million for projects supporting education, jobs and boosting skills. This includes Discover: Boosting Digital Inclusion in Stoke-on-Trent (£616,520), SHARP - Sector Hub Action Research Project (£516,787) and Stoke-on-Trent Digital Innovation and Education Hub.
The Prime Minister has called on cabinet colleagues and departments to double down on exploring innovative ways to ease pressures on household finances, promoting the support that is available but not widely taken up, and helping people into high-quality, well-paid jobs across the UK.
Over the coming months we will continue examining what more we can do to ease the pressures on hard-working people and families on top of the existing £22 billion package, which includes boosting the incomes of the lowest paid through a rise in the National Living Wage, saving a typical employee over £330 a year by increasing National Insurance thresholds, and providing millions of households with up to £350 to help with rising energy bills.
