Richard Holden MP today hosted the Secretary of State for Business, the Rt Hon. Kwasi Kwarteng MP, at Consett Ale Works in his constituency.
Touring the Nissan factory in Sunderland this month with the Prime Minister and the Business Secretary (read about it here) Richard Holden MP invited the Business Secretary to visit North West Durham, as part of Mr Kwarteng's tour of the North East.
Mr Holden took the Business Secretary to the Consett Ale Works, an award winning local brewery whose tap house The Grey Horse is the oldest pub in Consett and one of the oldest pubs in North West Durham.
This visit is a show of confidence not only for local businesses but for the part the North East has been promised to play as we build back better. You can read about in the Northern Echo and the Newcastle Chronicle.
Commenting Richard Holden, MP for North West Durham said:
“Always good to welcome ministers to North West Durham.
"Today, the Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng came to the The Grey Horse and Consett Ale Works as hospitality businesses in our towns and villages look to the summer and fully open-up.
"Kwasi’s been a superb champion of businesses in the region from investment in Teesside to the recent news from Nissan and he gets the opportunities and challenges we face.
"Managed to get a bit of lobbying for levelling up funding in too as well as for my campaign for lower beer duty for draught beer too!”
Commenting, the Rt Hon Kwasi Kwarteng MP, said:
"I’ve been extremely impressed with everything here. I think it’s s great example of a strong local business with huge character.
“I think it’s got a unique offer and I think that’s why I can imagine people coming here specifically to come to the this pub.
“It seems like a destination point – great character, great history and very friendly staff.
“I think it’s vitally important coming out of Covid a business like this does well, because it’s all about confidence. It's about people coming together, being able to socialise and get back to a sort of normal life.
“And I think, absolutely at the centre of any recovery, is a strong good local pub.”
On the Government’s levelling up he said:
“I think that the opportunity here in the North-East generally and bits of the North-West is generational. We have landed investment GE Renewable Energy, we’ve landed Smulders, who have invested in Newcastle, Nissan in Sunderland – and that is just in the last three months. So literally thousands of jobs have been created, because they can see there is a real spread of enterprise here. And there is a very mobilised, motivated and talented workforce and lots of strong local pride.
“I think all we needed really was belief and obviously the capital and investment can flow into an area, where there is somebody the Government is leading into.
“I think Richard is doing great job representing North West Durham in parliament and I think working together with local leaders like Ben (Houchen, Mayor of Tees Valley) and Richard, the Government can really drive a very strong agenda.”
“It seems to me the opportunity we have post-Covid, with the net zero agenda and with the levelling up agenda, is one of the most exciting economic opportunities for Britain in 50 to 60 years – and we have got to get it right. We’ve got to keep focused on that and believe in ourselves. Everywhere I go in the North East I see a spread of enterprise trying to make things happen. It’s really encouraging.”
