Can enterprise zones reboot the economy?

BORIS JOHNSON plans to create an economic boom in former Labour red wall seats by setting up enterprise zones with tax breaks to kickstart new businesses.

The creation of the zones is a key demand of the Blue Collar Conservatives to ensure that his ambitions to “level up” the economy become a reality.

The movement, led by former cabinet minister Esther Mcvey, has produced a list of demands for Wednesday’s Budget, topped off with no new tax rises, scrapping business rates, reducing beer duty, freezing fuel duty and getting rid of stamp duty on homes below £500,000.

But the Sunday Express has learned that in meetings with the Prime Minister, senior Tory backbenchers have already won a private commitment to enterprise zones.

Bishop Auckland Conservative MP Dehenna Davison said: “This is a private sector-led way of delivering the levelling-up agenda that we promised.

“Enterprise zones are places with tax breaks to set up new business and create jobs, and have proven to be highly successful in kickstarting the economy before.”

Senior Conservatives are also leading calls for Mr Sunak not to increase taxes.

Former Brexit Secretary David Davis said: “The worst thing that could happen now would be to raise taxes. We need to allow the economy to get back on its feet, create new jobs.

“Everything has to be about jobs. If we raise taxes that will make it much more difficult for businesses which are already short of money. The Government has to accept that we will need to pay off this debt from the pandemic over time and not try to do the equivalent of paying off a mortgage in one year.”

Former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith, pictured, also warned against a tax rise, saying: “We should resist the siren voices calling for a lurch into increased taxes and cutting our way out of the crater in the nation’s finances left by Covid.”

Lee Anderson, the Conservative MP for Ashfield, wants business rates scrapped to revive high streets.

“We need to get people back on the high street because if we don’t we’re going to end up as a society that does everything online,” he said.

Peterborough MP Paul Bristow, a fellow Blue Collar Conservative, is pushing to keep fuel duty frozen.

He said: “Fuel duty hits the lower paid and workers outside of London the most. Fuel is one of an ordinary family’s biggest expenses.”

Slashing beer duty is a priority for North West Durhamtory MP Richard Holden.

He said: “We just want to encourage people to use pubs again and get used to going our again when they can.”