Autumn Statement: Economy

Lord Jones Excerpts

Tuesday 29th November 2016 Lords Chamber

[Lord Jones (Lab)]

My Lords, I very much appreciated my noble friend Lord Livermore’s surgical consideration of government policy and I recollect the monumental presence of the noble Lord, Lord Young of Cookham, in the other place. He always obtained his legislation. I recollect countless squash matches with the noble Lord, Lord Horam, and one or two with the noble Lord, Lord Young. But my remarks are made in the context of what is now known as the northern powerhouse. The Economist of 3 September carried a headline “Ropy Roads, Rail and Runways”. The lesser headline was that “Britain needs to hurry up with transport projects—both large and small”. I seek positive action for a host of relatively small projects: for clogged roads and inadequate railways in an economically active region. That is, relatively speaking, golden crumbs from the laden table of the northern powerhouse. As the Economist said, in its hymn for investment in infrastructure,

“the tiddlers are just as important”.

Shovel-ready projects addressing congestion hotspots can make immediate differences. There are plenty of these hotspots in north-east Wales, Chester and Cheshire. I declare my interest as president of the Mersey Dee Alliance, a cross-border grouping of local government authorities of north-east Wales, Chester and Cheshire, West and Wirral and others. I also declare my interest as president of the North Wales Exporters’ Council, Deeside Business Forum, Flintshire BusinessWeek and Wrexham Bidston Rail Users’ Association.

Concerning four deputations this year that I accompanied, I thank the chairman commissioner of the National Infrastructure Commission and the then Chancellor of the Exchequer. I also thank the then Minister for the Northern Powerhouse, the noble Lord, Lord O’Neill of Gatley, for his courtesy and informed interest. He was right on devolution and the governance challenges. I also thank the current Minister for the Northern Powerhouse, Mr Andrew Percy, who received us most warmly and accepted immediately my invitation to visit our area. Indeed, he arrived in the area within a week and brought with him my compatriot, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Wales, Mr Guto Bebb. The chair of the newly formed All-Party Group on Mersey Dee North Wales, Mr Ian Lucas, the MP for Wrexham, has lobbied hard, and the Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Infrastructure, in the Wales Assembly, Mr Kenneth Skates AM, recently met the all-party group in the most positive and constructive manner. I think that he means business.

The Mersey Dee Alliance represents Britain’s only cross-border economy—an economy with a strong manufacturing base. Indeed, Flintshire’s workforce has more than 30% in manufacturing work. This month, at the mighty 6,000-strong, highly skilled Airbus factory in Flintshire, the Airbus plant manager, Mr Paul McKinlay, alongside the Wales Assembly Government Secretary for the Economy, Mr Skates, and the chair of the Deeside Enterprise Zone, Mr David Jones—a distinguished troika—announced the setting up of an institute for advanced manufacturing. This is truly a game changer. It is a huge boost to the morale of the business community. It is a vote of confidence in local government, on both sides of the border. It shows that collaboration—on both sides of the England/Wales border in this case—leads to the most positive self-help in manufacturing.

As a cross-border collaborative alliance, we need better rail and road connectivity to make the best of our successes. That includes better links with Manchester and Liverpool airports. In north-east Wales and the north-west, we have made successes: to make more successes we seek those golden crumbs from the laden northern powerhouse table. What is wrong with smaller local projects for the north? Let us not just concentrate on the prosperous south. If the south gets many billions of pounds of infrastructure investment, give our area the cash for its proven practical projects, especially those shovel-ready projects that are ready to go.

Since this is a Parliament, here is my shopping list for the next decade for my homeland. We need to dual the A550 to connect two great industrial parks at Deeside and Wrexham. We must enhance the A483/A525 to improve access to the technology park. We must endow park-and-ride facilities at Hope and Pennyffordd. We must improve the Crewe to Holyhead mainline railway and plan its ultimate electrification. This is our big ask. Give us improved and more frequent twice-hourly rail services on the Wrexham to Bidston rail line. We need to go forward with the cross-border Growth Track 360, as backed by the Mersey Dee Alliance, the North Wales Economic Ambition Board and the rail users’ association. The 9,000-strong Deeside Industrial Park needs better access to the railway. It needs a rail spur with a Deeside parkway station. This industrial park is as good as any in western Europe. It deserve better rail access. Merseytravel and the Welsh Government have fine plans for robust and practical rail services. They deserve praise and backing. Both the rail stations at Wrexham and Chester should be enhanced and modernised.

The most positive feature in the campaigning by the Mersey Dee Alliance is the input and co-operation of the great Wrexham Glyndŵr University, the go-getting University of Chester and the outstanding FE centres of West Cheshire College and Coleg Cambria. The Mersey Dee Alliance has a small and brilliant staff led by Emma Wynne. The input of the Welsh Local Government Association is superb. The chair of the Wrexham Bidston Rail Users’ Association, John Allcock, has transformed that association, and the MDA chair, Councillor Butler is a highly experienced and constant councillor. Their campaigning has been an exemplar of civic duty.

Most seriously, will the Minister in this context tell us what is happening in the Cheshire & Warrington LEP, concerning the northern powerhouse? What projects do the various departments of state provide money for? How soon shall we know? Will the departments tell us that they will support the short-term priorities of Growth Track 360 rail? Will the Government tell us that they will continue discussions on the growth deal between north Wales, Cheshire and Chester? As the great Sir Winston Churchill said,

“Give us the tools, and we will finish the job”.

We have made an exceptional unique cross-border economy, but investment in our infrastructure is now urgent, vital and well merited.