As we enter the winter months, the IPT Fellowship Programme continued in full swing with visits focusing on manufacturing, energy, retail, and nightlife. We would like to thank all the businesses for hosting and to the parliamentarians for their continued support on their Fellowships.
The month in Fellowships began with Derek Thomas MP completing his Fellowship focusing on the construction skills gap with a visit to SJ Quick and Sons who specalise in historic building restorations in his West Cornwall constituency, visiting a site and meeting an apprentice.
The following week on 8 November, Baroness Merron of Lincoln met with UK Music in the House of Lords to discuss the ‘Here, There and Everywhere’ report about the revival of live music in the UK post-covid and the billions of pounds its contributing to the UK economy.
On 13 November, Rupa Huq MP continued her Fellowship focusing on the cultural and creative industries with a visit to the Ministry of Sound to learn more about post-covid footfall challenges for social venues including nightclubs. Rupa met with the Ministry of Sound’s Chair and received a tour of the venue to see its co-working friendly spaces and gym. Meanwhile, Matt Vickers MP continued his Fellowship on the future of retail with a visit to Domino’s Pizza in West London at their first low carbon store. In addition to touring the kitchen and trying his hand at pizza making, the visit focused on some key policy issues including supply chains, extended producer responsibility and food labelling requirements.
On 15 November, Baroness Bloomfield of Hinton Waldrist visited Urenco in Capenhurst, Chester. They work within the nuclear industry to create innovative solutions and to help create sustainable energy sources. The Baroness heard about their expansion programme and advanced nuclear fuels. The visit concluded with a tour of their E23 plant, which is a nuclear enrichment plant.
Then on 17 November, Chris Clarkson MP visited Airbus UK in Stevenage as part of his IPT Fellowship in Aerospace and Green Energy. The tour of the site covered their Space Operations through the Robotics Lab and a visit to their Mars Yard where he got to control the Mars Rover!
On 20 November, Gary Sambrook MP continued his manufacturing Fellowship with a visit to Coca Cola’s Sidcup factory, learning about the multi-million-pound investment that that has gone into the site in recent years and the ambitious measures it’s taking in energy saving and sustainability. Gary followed this up a week later with a visit to British luxury vehicle manufacturer Jaguar Land Rover in Gaydon, Warwickshire.
On 22 November, Liz Twist MP completed her Fellowship on Mental Health in the Construction Sector by meeting with the Construction Industry Training Board to learn about their wide-ranging support work across their teams and workstreams. We also saw Harriett Baldwin MP complete her IPT Fellowship in Renewable Energy and Net Zero through a visit with UK Power Networks. The visit began at their offices where they discussed vehicle electrification, they then went to visit Waterloo bus garage to see EV buses in action and hear about the challenges they are facing.
November saw our final Industry Visit of 2023 with a trip to McLaren’s MCTC in Sheffield on 23 November. The visit was attended by Alex Sobel MP and Jackie Doyle-Price MP, we began with a presentation about the history of the site, its operations, and the reasons for it being located there. We then went on a tour of the facility, witnessing the innovative processes they have in their carbon fibre production process which they do to make their car chassis. From here they got taken to their Woking site for assembly.