Money Talks with Liam Halligan: Andy Street defends levelling up scheme and the importance of enterprise zones

Money Talks with Liam Halligan

Welcome to Money Talks – a series of interviews with Liam Halligan, Economics and Business Editor of GB News.

In this episode Liam speaks to Andy Street, Mayor of the West Midlands since 2017, representing the Conservatives.

Raised in Birmingham, Street started his career as a John Lewis trainee in 1985, rising through the ranks to become Managing Director in 2007.

Under his leadership, the iconic chain saw a 50 per cent increase in sales, a doubling in the number of stores and the growth of the company's online sales department.

In this interview, Street defends the government’s “levelling-up” policies, highlighting the importance of the enterprise zones outlined in Jeremy Hunt’s March 2023 budget.

But Street also urges Hunt to “think again” about the removal of assistance for businesses with “sky-high energy bills”. He says some manufacturers and hospitality companies have been “locked-in to contracts with artificially high prices” – and calls on the government to “force” energy providers to renegotiate such agreements in light of recent falls in wholesale energy prices.

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