COLUMN: English Tourism Week is the perfect time to give Universal the go-ahead

A £50 billion boost to the economy. 20,000 new jobs. 12 million more visitors every year. Those are just some of the incredible benefits the proposed new Universal Studios resort and theme park, in my Mid Bedfordshire constituency, could bring to our area. I’ve been banging the drum for Universal Studios ever since my election in July last year, and even before that, and on English Tourism Week now is the time for the Government to finally give the project the thumbs up. It will not just be a game changer for Bedfordshire, but a game changer for the whole of the UK.

For too long, Bedfordshire has been a place people travel through, rather than stop to enjoy everything our county has to offer. And we do have lots to offer. We have Woburn Safari Park and Woburn Deer Park, the Barton Hills, the Greensand Ridge, the Forest of Marston Vale Centre and much more. I’ve made sure to visit as many of these different attractions as possible to see how each of them may benefit from the arrival of thousands of people heading to Universal in Bedfordshire. And the opportunities are fantastic. If we can bring people to Bedfordshire to spend their money at our attractions, in our restaurants, cafes and pubs, and other small businesses, it will bring huge benefits to our local economy.

But it is concerns me that Bedfordshire is one of the last counties in England without a Local Visitor Economy Partnership. That’s why I have met VisitEngland, UKHospitality, Experience Bedfordshire, local businesses and other local stakeholders to understand what we need to do to sort that out to grow our local tourism, hospitality and leisure economy. And although there are differing views on exactly what the right solution to promote our local tourism industry looks like, the consensus is clear that we need to do more to promote it.

The attention around Universal Studios has done quite a bit to promote our county already but there’s still plenty more to do. That’s why I’ve secured two Westminster Hall debates on tourism since my election, with the latest coming later this week on English Tourism Week.

But to ensure we can benefit, and our fantastic tourism attractions can benefit, we need top quality infrastructure and services. For too long we have put up with poor performing train services through Bedfordshire. I raised this with the Government during a debate I held on Thameslink’s performance, and it’s something we need to get right. In the long-term we need to boost capacity on these lines to cope with the extra demand in the future, but right now we need better reliability and fewer delays and cancellations.

And to help our tourism sector thrive we need the Government to re-think some of its policy decisions so far. The crippling National Insurance increase makes the cost of employing people so much more expensive. This is a hike that will make it nearly three times more expensive in taxes alone to employ a full-time worker on minimum wage. Where is the incentive to invest in people? Where is the incentive to invest at all? If we’re not careful, under this Government all we will see is stagnation. But if we get this right, there is a fantastic opportunity to deliver a huge boost to Bedfordshire and the UK as a whole. And this will bring wide-ranging economic benefits from jobs, to skills, to greater footfall for our small businesses. Let’s take advantage of this opportunity and welcome Universal Studios to Bedfordshire.

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