George Freeman speaks in the Budget debate and highlights the particular problems facing rural areas where the cost of living crisis caused by the pandemic and the Ukraine war has hit particularly hard. He especially welcomes measures to support innovation-led growth which drives up productivity, creates new industries and drives global inward investment.
In a brief intervention in the Budget debate, George Freeman welcomes the allocation of £270 million towards advanced manufacturing in clean aviation and clean vehicles, as well as £120 million for clean tech manufacturing.
George Freeman highlights the dentistry crisis in rural Norfolk and, whilst supportive of the dental recovery plan as a long-term solution, calls on the Government to work with the NHS Norfolk and Waveney integrated care board to find a way to get more money to help dentistry in Norfolk now.
In a wide-ranging speech, George Freeman urges the Government to avoid creating a jungle of well-intended green tape and allow the farming industry to grasp the opportunities presented by Brexit for a new agricultural revolution in which the UK leads the world on delivering high-quality, safe, highly productive, low-input agriculture based on innovation with science, data and metrics.
George Freeman raises concerns at the impact on horseracing if the affordability checks designed to tackle addictive online gambling go ahead as proposed and urges the Government to find an alternative that will both protect racing’s finances and take the opportunity for this country to lead in harnessing technology and smart regulation to tackle gambling addiction.
George Freeman highlights the huge potential of the innovation economy in creating hundreds of thousands of new tech jobs, in clusters all around the country, and calls on the Department for Education to work with the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology to ensure job creation plans are built into local skills improvement plans on the ground.
George Freeman intervenes in a debate on children's mental health to call for more research on the underlying causes driving the epidemic in mental ill health in children and highlights that poverty is not the only driver.