West Midlands

Debate between Baroness Burt of Solihull and Richard Burden

Tuesday 7th September 2010 Westminster Hall

[Richard Burden]

My hon. Friend makes an important point. I just have an inkling that, perhaps a little later on, my hon. Friend the Member for Stoke-on-Trent North may well have some particular things to say, not only about Stoke-on-Trent itself but about north Staffordshire. Earlier I said that our region is one that is in transition and that is diverse. However, the particular problems affecting north Staffordshire are very large and very acute, and targeted help, support and attention are required to tackle them.

Talking about north Staffordshire raises another point. If regional institutions such as AWM are going to be scrapped and if there are going to be these local economic partnerships springing up all over the place, it is understandable—absolutely understandable—that different local economic partnerships in different areas are likely to come up with different priorities and different solutions that affect their own particular area. It is absolutely understandable that they will reflect local aspirations and local circumstances. However, the question will arise in the future—who will be the arbiter of those competing aspirations? In the future, will it actually be the case that, for all the talk about decentralisation, central Government will be the arbiter of those competing priorities, rather than partnership bodies in the region itself? Those regional bodies were too unaccountable, but it is not a case of making them more accountable. It is actually a case of taking that power from the region altogether and giving it to central Government.

[Lorely Burt (Solihull) (LD)]

I congratulate the hon. Gentleman on securing this important debate. He says that the fact that we have lost our regional development agency will make Government more accountable. The whole purpose of the local enterprise partnerships is to prevent Government from dictating the programmes for each region. The region’s businesses and its elected representatives will make the decisions that affect them directly. I believe that the situation is the opposite of what he is suggesting.

[Richard Burden]

I very much hope that the hon. Lady is right, but I do not see the evidence for it. Perhaps the Minister will enlighten us about whether she is right.

If different local economic partnerships come up with different priorities and aspirations, who will decide who gets what? Central Government. If I am wrong about that, what body will decide? If another body is created—perhaps it will bring together regional stakeholders and players from the different sub-regions—it will need a staff and some presence in the region if it is to work, will it not? It will need the ability and the reach to work out what needs to happen in the region. I guess that we could give a body like that a name, could we not? Because it would be involved in developing the region, we could call it a regional development agency.

The RDAs were not wrong; the problem was that they were not sufficiently accountable. However, my difference with the present Government—I look forward to the Minister’s speech, because I may have this wrong—is that they appear not to be improving accountability. All the accountability mechanisms are as vague as ever—arguably more so. The Government are undermining the institutions that need to be held accountable, their budgets, their reach and their strategic relevance to the region. That is the problem.

These matters are not of academic importance; they involve how the west midlands can address the big challenges that it faces in the coming months and years. Inevitably, there will be and are political differences in this place about what economic strategies we think are right for the country or for our region. Understandably, views will differ about the scale, pace and timing of deficit reduction. We will differ politically about when, in order to prevent double-dip decisions and secure recovery, we may need to maintain spending and, in some cases, even expand it. Those differences are absolutely understandable.

However, the point of this debate is not just to touch on those issues; it is to return to the issue of choice. Who will decide? Who will be the voice of people, businesses, the third sector and communities in the west midlands? Will it be local councils? As I said, Birmingham city council is scaling back devolution internally. Will regional players make strategic decisions for different businesses and industries? Who will decide, and by what mechanisms?

It is time for the Government to come clean, not because I as a Labour MP from the west midlands say so, not because I have taken umbrage because they scrapped the Select Committee that I chaired but because this is the voice of the west midlands. They should look at what business organisations and the third sector in the west midlands are saying, and what local authorities themselves are saying in their more reflective moments, and act on it. We need more clarity so that we can meet the challenges in the west midlands and secure for our people the recovery and the future that the region deserves.