NORM

This month’s interview with...
Duncan Hames MP
AFTN recently met with Duncan Hames MP in the Houses of Parliament
to discuss his constituency’s exciting future. We thank him for his time
and provide an overview of our conversation.
Alex Williams reports
Your constituency is about to undergo
significant development, how do you see
this creating employment opportunities for
the area?
One of the most significant recent events is that the ‘Wiltshire Core
Strategy’ has been formally adopted by the council, giving locally
elected people a much stronger say in how development takes
place in our area. Until this point, we have been subject to all sorts
of speculative development proposals on sites which hadn’t been
planned for at all. This now means we can move forward in creating
residential and employment opportunities in a way which responds
to the needs of the local people and which is, ultimately,
democratically accountable for.
What do you see are the main challenges in
promoting your constituency?
It astonishes me, here in parliament; how often people presume that
Wiltshire is based around an agrarian society. We have a beautiful
countryside, but overwhelmingly the economy is focused away from
agriculture and towards advanced engineering and high quality services.
Whenever I get the opportunity to bring senior government figures to my
constituency I try to showcase great examples of cutting edge
technology and the advanced business that we have here. Last Spring I
showed Danny Alexander to ‘Anthony Best Dynamics’ in Bradford-on-
Avon, where they are working on very sophisticated testing equipment
for automotive systems and before Christmas I brought together a group
of businesses in Chippenham to show the deputy prime minister how the
digital economy is already having a major impact. On the environmental
side we also have a rapidly growing electricity company, Good Energy,
with their headquarters based in Chippenham. I am very proud to have
them in my constituency, promoting cleaner energy and breaking down
the stranglehold of the ‘big six’.
What do you see your role being, in terms of
bring business to the area?
Right across my constituency, I do my best to create an
environment which is attractive for local businesses that want to
expand, whether that is supporting their bid for government
initiatives or working through the ‘Local Growth Deal’ to get major
commitments from the government to invest in the infrastructure we
need to make Wiltshire a great place to do business.
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