Money Talks with Liam Halligan

Welcome to Money Talks – a series of interviews with Liam Halligan, Economics and Business Editor of GB News.  

In this episode, Liam talks to Ian Ward, the Labour leader of Birmingham City Council. 

Having entered local government in the mid-1990s, Ward has led Birmingham City Council since 2017. Keen to promote Birmingham’s both nationally and overseas, he spearheaded the successful 2022 Commonwealth Games bid, having already helped bring a number of high-profile international sporting events to Birmingham. 

In this interview, conducted in Birmingham Council Headquarters, Ward discusses the importance of “levelling up” the UK economy, particularly the Midlands – and argues that the government’s recent Budget measures will do little to bring about a more regionally-balanced economy.

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Welcome to Money Talks – a series of interviews with Liam Halligan, Economics and Business Editor of GB News.

In this episode Liam speaks to Andy Street, Mayor of the West Midlands since 2017, representing the Conservatives.

Raised in Birmingham, Street started his career as a John Lewis trainee in 1985, rising through the ranks to become Managing Director in 2007.

Under his leadership, the iconic chain saw a 50 per cent increase in sales, a doubling in the number of stores and the growth of the company's online sales department.

In this interview, Street defends the government’s “levelling-up” policies, highlighting the importance of the enterprise zones outlined in Jeremy Hunt’s March 2023 budget.

But Street also urges Hunt to “think again” about the removal of assistance for businesses with “sky-high energy bills”. He says some manufacturers and hospitality companies have been “locked-in to contracts with artificially high prices” – and calls on the government to “force” energy providers to renegotiate such agreements in light of recent falls in wholesale energy prices.

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Welcome to Money Talks – a series of interviews with Liam Halligan, Economics and Business Editor of GB News.  

In this episode, Liam talks to Lorraine Bliss, who runs St Edmunds, in Norwich. 

An award-winning charity, St Eds – as it’s known – provides vocational training to some 250 teenagers from across East Anglia – some of regular school age, others who are 16-plus. 

There are over a million young people in the UK not in education, employment or training for work - so-called NEETS. Their numbers have soared since Covid lockdown.

Students at St Ed’s have often been excluded from school, leaving with no qualifications.

But despite receiving no direct government funding, and relying heavily on contributions from local business, Lorraine and her staff teach teenagers hands-on skills – from bricklaying to hair and beauty, from motor-mechanics to carpentry – that can help them earn a decent living.

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Welcome to Money Talks – a series of interviews with Liam Halligan, Economics and Business Editor of GB News.  

In this episode, Liam talks to Asher Bennett, Founder and CEO of Tevva – a company based in Tilbury, Essex, that makes dual-fuel hydrogen/battery trucks. 

Tevva opened its Tilbury factory in January 2022, and already employs 300 workers. Its dual-fuel trucks, which combine both a lithium-ion battery and a hydrogen fuel cell, have a range of hundreds of miles and can be refuelled with hydrogen in just 10 minutes, making carbon-free truck fleets commercially viable.

With around a fifth of all carbon-emissions worldwide caused by the road haulage industry, Bennett says that the use of dual-fuel hydrogen/battery eco-trucks could make a major contribution to meeting “net zero” targets.

He also explains why, in his view, “the UK is an amazing place to do business”.

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In this episode, Liam talks to John Penrose, the government’s competition Tsar. 

Penrose has been the Conservative MP for Weston-super-Mare since 2005, having previously worked for JP Morgan and McKinsey. He has also served as a minister in several government departments, including the Northern Ireland Office. 

In 2021, John wrote the “Power to the People”, a government-commissioned independent report on competition policy, designed to shape new laws to “make capitalism work for all” as the British economy develops outside the European Union. 

In this detailed interview, and ahead of the publication of an updated Penrose report later this year, John discusses his views on the Autumn statement, ways to improve consumer protection and the need to “reclaim supply-side economics”. 

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Welcome to Money Talks – a series of interviews with Liam Halligan, Economics and Business Editor of GB News.    

In this episode, Liam talks to Michael Stewart, founder of a new British social media platform called Uzube. Aimed at generation Z, those born from the early 1990s onwards, Uzube is designed to allow millions of creative people to showcase their work – be it music, photography or other art forms - meet like-minded people and raise donations to support their work. 

An accomplished actor and singer, Stewart has built a platform which distinguishes between adults, teens and kids, allowing users to focus on their age-related content and with parental control to protect children entering the world of social media. Michael Stewart believes that for too long, UK and European tech entrepreneurs have lagged behind US tech giants – which he believes should and will ultimately be subjected to wide-ranging anti-trust legislation. 

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In this interview, Liam talks to Alan Miller – a well-known hospitality entrepreneur, who set up the Night Time Industries Association in 2015, serving as its first Chairman. 

A proud Londoner, Alan has a long track-record in business, having founded the Old Truman Brewery in Brick Lane, in the heart of the capital’s East End, in the early 1990s. His drive and creativity helped to attract a range of tenants to the 10-acre site, transform the locality. Prior to that, Alan ran a promotions company in Soho’s Denmark Street and Club events across the UK, which also branched into live music and fashion. 

Highly respected for his night-time industries expertise, Alan has worked with local councils and advised mayors in various cities in the UK and abroad. 

Alan is now working full time with the Together Association, which he cofounded in response to what he has described as the government’s draconian lockdown policies.

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In this episode, Liam talks to Linas Pozerskis - Co-founder and CEO of WAU - a company selling long range electric bikes. Headquartered in Birmingham, WAU was set up in 2018 after Linas and his team conducted extensive market research amongst avid cyclists - to find out what makes the perfect electric bike.

Today’s WAU bikes, the company says, combine effortless repair with a 100-mile range between charges. WAU keeps prices down by avoiding high street mark-up, going direct to consumers. 

Starting from a garage in Nottingham, Linas now runs from a sizeable manufacturing plant, but the journey has been challenging. To get the business up and running, he and other founders invested their savings, worked 100-hour weeks and slept on the factory floor. 

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In this episode, Liam talks to the Secretary of State for Levelling-Up, Housing and Communities Michael Gove. Having entered the House of Commons in 2005, the MP for Surrey Heath has emerged as one of the UK’s most influential politicians. Having previously run the Departments for Education, Justice and Food and Agriculture, Gove has developed a reputation as a courageous reformer, who gets things done.

After taking a prominent pro-Brexit role in the 2016 EU referendum, he then led Boris Johnson’s leadership campaign, before changing this mind, allowing Theresa May to become Prime Minister.

Now a Johnson loyalist, Gove says he is determined to see more homes built in the UK, not least social housing for low income and otherwise vulnerable families.

In this wide-ranging, exclusive interview, Michael Gove criticises over-dominant large house builders and discusses the need for greater UK energy security.

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In this episode, Liam talks to serial entrepreneur and thought-leader Piers Linney. 

Born in Stoke-on-Trent, Piers grew up in Lancashire – the son of a mother from Barbados and a father from Manchester. With a professional background in law and banking, Piers has appeared as an investor on the BBC’s Dragon’s Den and the Channel 4 series “Secret Millionaire”.

He is also a non-Executive Director of the British Business Bank and a trustee of the innovation foundation Nesta. 

In 2021, Piers founded Moblok – a tech platform and consultancy service for small businesses, with a mission “to support small business owners to make better informed technology purchasing decisions”. 

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