LM153 - National Investment Motion

This House acknowledges that:

(1) There are numerous ongoing multi-billion pound projects across the UK, which in and of themselves have huge intrinsic value for the United Kingdom, but that we could do without in the short-term.

(2) There exists an exponentially growing cost of living crisis which threatens to push thousands of British people below the poverty line, onto food banks, and into debt.

(3) It is questionable exactly what the effect and value that these projects will have on alleviating poverty and providing meaningful employment to these people in question - particularly in the short-term - compared to lower taxation, job creation, and investment in education.

This house therefore:

(1) Calls on the Government to re-evaluate how these projects will be of net benefit to the working class and lower middle class British people in this Country, in the short-term life particularly of this Parliament.

(2) Calls on the Government to not rule out cancelling certain projects, as deemed appropriate by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if they are deemed to not be beneficial to the mission statement of this Motion - as defined above.

This motion was submitted by The Rt. Hon Sir /u/Scubaguy194 CT KG MVO PC, Earl de la Warr, and The Rt. Hon Sir /u/Sephronar, the 1st Marquess of St Ives, 1st Earl of St Erth, KBE CT MVO PC as a Private Members Motion.

Opening Speeches

The Earl de la Warr

My Lords,

This country has a proud tradition of huge projects which ended up being beneficial to both the Country as a whole, and it's prestige. We were the birthplace of the railways, and our engineering and technical prowess brought us Concorde, the jet engine, and the steam turbine. But let us not forget the huge and ambitious project that is the NHS, something that has saved an incalculable number of lives.

All of these required huge public investment. It is clear that the money was worth it in the cases I have mentioned - survivorship bias has ensured that we know about them. But how much has been spent on dead end projects that spent billions and brought little benefit? It is without question that piecing together, sometimes decades ahead of a project coming to fruition, what value a project will have is extremely difficult. With this in mind, I call on the Government to consider extremely carefully which projects they choose to continue with, and I further implore the Chancellor, my personal friend and colleague, to consider no project too big to fail.

My Lords, thank you.

The Marquess of St Ives

There is nothing more pressing to the working and lower-middle class people of this Country, our United Kingdom, than investing in them. We can discuss as much as we want about how the numerous multi-billion pound projects such as HS2 and HS3 will improve economic productivity for their future - how it will make their lives better, one day, but My Lords - what about today?

Last year, approximately 2.5 million people used a food bank in the United Kingdom - The Low Pay Commission estimates that there were 2 million workers paid at or below the minimum wage in April 2019, around 7% of all UK workers. This is a national disgrace, and can only be put down to a lack of investment - not in infrastructure, My Lords, but in people.

This Motion aims to correct that, and calls on the Government to redirect some of the hundreds of billions to be spent on things such as roads and infrastructure over the next ten years into people instead.

Britain can do better than this, it just needs a bit of willpower and some courage from us as politicians to make a difference - I believe that we can do better, now let’s do it.

Vote on the motion by 12th May 2022 at 10pm BST.