It’s a great pleasure to be invited to join you today for this important annual space conference. Can I thank Richard Holdaway for the invitation to join you and offer you my own perspectives on your sector. I must also apologise in advance for leaving promptly after my speech – it was my intention to stay for the day, but the whips disagree and I find I must race back to London for a vote on tuition fees at 11:30. Thank you Richard for being so accommodating and flexible in your agenda. I stand before you as someone who at the personal level, like you, shares a strong and lifelong interest in space, and at the professional level, as a new Member of Parliament, as a Conservative backbencher with a major space employer in my constituency, and for whom space will play a major part in my working life as MP for Stevenage. So my main reason for accepting Richard’s invitation today, was really to introduce myself as a friend of space in Parliament, to offer you a glimpse of why space matters to me, to my constituency, but also at the national level, why it matters to the UK. I also want to offer you an insight into how space is perceived more broadly, in these unusual political times, in these times of austerity and Coalition, as we try to balance the need to promote growth and ease the burden of debt. Before I get stuck in, I want to congratulate all of you for what you have already achieved. In an age of austerity, where MPs are looking for sectors like yours to help rebalance our economy, it is impressive that here is a sector that has not only grown in the good times, but has continued to grow throughout the recession. When the Government considers how to keep up with China, it seems logical to start by looking at those sectors that have kept up with China – and here in the UK space sector we have a sector that has grown by 10% per year for the last ten years, broadly on a par with the pace of growth in the Chinese economy. We have in this room some of the best scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs in the UK today. I shan’t bore you with your own figures, but suffice to say, that as an exporting industry, employing a highly skilled workforce, working hand in glove with the science community, and posting record growth rates year on year, you are ticking the right boxes. We all have our own stories about how we first became acquainted with the space sector. Of course, like all MPs, the answer lies in my own constituency, and as you all know, space is in Stevenage’s DNA, with many local companies involved in the sector. Astrium, is the largest and employs 1,500 people in my constituency and has helped keep Stevenage at the heart of Europe’s space industry, in a company that is third in the world in the space business after Boeing and Lockheed Martin. I am proud to say that a quarter of all the communications satellites won in open competition last year are being built in my constituency. These are impressive statistics built on solid local heritage of space, aerospace and defence. In fact, while Stevenage was still a glint in the town planner’s eyes, a certain company called de Havilland Propellers turned the first sod of earth in the fields of Hertfordshire to build what today we call Astrium. Back then, they were building propellers for their fleet of aircraft and for the Hovercraft, and later located some of their missile manufacturing in Stevenage, including Blue Streak. And while Astrium no longer builds Blue Streak, across the road in MBDA, missiles remain as a major part of my local economy. My local space economy is helping to rebalance the national economy – Astrium exports 70%, and as Vice Chair of the Parliamentary Space Committee for Telecommunications, I know the importance of the satellite telecoms sector as a vital engine for growth in the space economy. In fact when I first visited Astrium a year ago, I was struck by the enthusiasm of the workforce, some of whom I imagine are here today. I am told that the company has one of the lowest turnovers of staff of any company in the country – 4% a year in fact. I am not surprised. On my next visit, my fifth if I am counting correctly, I plan to bring a number of my parliamentary colleagues with me on the 17th January, when the Parliamentary Space Committee pays a visit to the site, where we will be joining Astrium’s 55 apprentices in their annual awards ceremony, and we will be opening the Andromeda Clean Room, which has been refurbished to accommodate 50% more satellites, so that we can keep up with China! This brings me to a key issue for my constituency and for the country – raising aspirations amongst young people in our towns and cities, and building the right skills base for our future economic needs. When I first visited Astrium, I asked the question, how can you help raise levels of aspiration amongst young people in my constituency? I was very struck by Astrium’s apprentices, by their evident love of what they do, by the company’s guarantee of a job to each of them on completion of their apprenticeship. As Parliament debates the future of higher education, it is worth bearing in mind that in our mixed economy, we need a properly balanced skills base for our future economic needs, and you have your role to play. But the educational impact of space is far broader than simply those young people who are directly employed by the industry. Space inspires young people into STEM subjects across the UK, inspiring the next generation of engineers and scientists. I know that Adam Afriyie, as chair of the Parliamentary Space Committee, is keen to conduct some research into the impact of inspiration such as space on the education and career choices of young people. We all know that space inspires young people. I notice that David Willetts, in his first keynote speech as Science Minister at the Royal Institution, made the headlines with “minister backs space and dinosaurs”. The Parliamentary Space Committee has always been there to provide a parliamentary platform for young people. I’m delighted to hear that this year’s House of Commons Children’s Christmas Party last night included Richard Garriott, a UK born astronaut well known to many of you. But as well as the constituency link, space has impacted my life personally too. Like everyone else in this room, space touches my daily life. And incidentally, although this may seem like motherhood to us here, it is a point we should never bore from repeating – that satellite based services and applications enable our way of life, satellites tell us the time, they locate us, they guide us, satellites tell me the weather, they entertain us, they connect us. We should not cease from saying this, because most people still don’t know this. But I wanted to reveal to you how space touches my life. I am an asthmatic, and chair of the Asthma All-Party Parliamentary group. Asthma is a growing issue not only for my constituents but across the country. I was most interested then to learn that a company called Airtext in London is providing street-level air quality forecasts direct to the mobiles of Londoners with breathing difficulties, using information on air quality from satellites. This is the kind of benefit that I can relate to, and that my constituents can relate to. As a community, you need to get this kind of message out more. We all know in this room that we can’t live without space, and neither can the Government, but it is this Government that has come closest to publicly agreeing with you. In the recent National Security Strategy, the Government highlighted the risks to our broader economy of any disruption to our satellite communications infrastructure. This is a message that is being increasingly well understood in Government, just as satellites protect and connect many other parts of our critical national infrastructure such as Transco’s national gas network and even the National Lottery. The recent leak by Wikileaks of a list of critical worldwide installations is a reminder of the vulnerability of our infrastructure, and the growing role of satellites in underpinning their security. I am delighted therefore that my Government has committed to writing Britain’s first ever National Space Security Policy, a policy which no doubt will form another milestone in the growing profile of your sector amongst policy makers. Which brings me to the subject of where space sits in this new Coalition Government. As you know, my party is committed to supporting a rebalancing of the economy, and I am very pleased to note that alongside overseas aid and the NHS, science spending has also been ringfenced. I hope like you that this augurs well for the space sector in the current Spending Review, and I will be taking the case for maintaining the level of investment in space into my Government, both as a local MP and within the Parliamentary Space Committee. But in this age of austerity, we have to do more with less. In the case of space, you can help – this is both an opportunity and a threat. The Science Minister is a strong supporter of space as you know, and I share his interest in the lessons that we can learn from your sector about how to procure as a Government more leanly and more smartly.