Held at the Ramada Encore and organised by Milton Keynes & North Bucks Chamber of Commerce, the lunch brought together more than 50 Chamber members, Milton Keynes North MP Mark Lancaster and the newly elected Milton Keynes South MP Iain Stewart for an informal question and answer session.
Mr Stewart began the proceedings by giving an overview of his first few months in Parliament including his recent election as a member of the Transport Select Committee.
Mr Lancaster highlighted the localism agenda issue by emphasising his continued call for “infrastructure before expansion”.
There was, he said, new opportunity to work more closely with the city’s neighbours in South Northamptonshire and Central Bedfordshire on the expansion and development opportunities available to the region now that the regional structure had been relaxed with the demise of the regional development agencies.
Business was keen to quiz the MPs on a variety of topics, including public sector spending cuts, renewable energy sources, voluntary sector investment, transport links for the city, the prospect of a local income tax and the localism agenda and how that could impact on economic investment and development within Milton Keynes.
Chamber chief executive Rita Spada said: “These types of events are crucial to enable the business community to have direct access to their local MPs.
"The business community has a vital role to play in the expansion and future prosperity of our city over the next ten years and beyond, and getting their views across to the MPs enables the community’s insightful and important views to be heard and, hopefully, acted upon.”
Pictured: Rita Spada with Mark Lancaster (left) and Iain Stewart.
