Alexandra Hospital, Redditch

Debate between Mark Garnier and Karen Lumley

Tuesday 12th February 2013 Westminster Hall

[Karen Lumley (Redditch) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Hollobone. I thank the Minister for being here to listen and, I hope, to answer some of my questions about the Alexandra hospital. I pay tribute to the staff who work at the Alex. As you mentioned and as you can see, Mr Hollobone, I visited the accident and emergency department at the Alexandra hospital during the past couple of weeks. I had a good experience and was looked after well, and I did not spend too much time there. I want my constituents to receive what I received, and I hope to outline the need for a vibrant hospital in Redditch that serves not only my constituents but those in surrounding areas such as Bromsgrove, Mid Worcestershire, Stratford-on-Avon and Kidderminster.

A quick history of the hospital is vital to understand the context in which I speak, because, sadly, we have been here several times before. I will be brief, but it is important to understand how many times this hospital has been under threat, and how unsettling that is for patients and staff alike. Three attempts have been made during the past 15 years to downgrade the accident and emergency ward and the maternity wards at the Alex. On each occasion, the argument has been made that the downgrades were crucial for sustaining a high-quality, properly staffed service, and that it would better for residents if some services were concentrated in Worcester. At each attempt, the people of Redditch have fought to save their hospital, and once again they have joined together in a cross-party campaign to do so.

[Mark Garnier (Wyre Forest) (Con)]

I congratulate my hon. Friend on securing the debate, which affects my constituents as well as hers. She will be aware that a number of years ago, the same fear was in prospect for my constituents when the A and E department at Kidderminster hospital was closed. The outcome was truly tremendous, with an enormous campaign to save the hospital and the election of an MP dedicated to trying to do so. Sadly, he did not succeed, but those events reinforce the point that people feel very strongly about their local services and should be listened to.

[Karen Lumley]

My hon. Friend makes a valid point, which I will return to. I want to be here after the next election, however; I do not want to be replaced by an MP dedicated to looking after the Alexandra hospital.

I pay tribute to Neal Stote, the chairman of the “save the Alex” campaign, Ian Dipple, the editor of the Redditch Standard, and the leaders of my local councils, Bill Hartnett, Roger Hollingworth and Chris Saint, who have all worked tirelessly together with me to save the Alex. The Minister will remember his visit from members of the “save the Alex” campaign before Christmas, when he listened to the justification for retaining services at our hospital. A petition to save the hospital has received more than 50,000 signatures and there was a major rally in Redditch town centre, all of which goes to show that the residents of Redditch are united in trying to secure services at our hospital.

I want to look now at the current and historical financial position of the Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust. In 2002, the trust posted large deficits, which rose to more than £14 million in 2003-04. The trust came back into surplus, however, and since then it has posted alternate deficits and surpluses, including in each of the past three years. The trust had a cumulative legacy debt of £18.4 million from 2000 to 2007. The Government provided a £12 million emergency loan in December 2012 to deal with the problem, but it is obvious that the situation cannot continue. For too long, the easiest course of action has been to kick the can further down the road without addressing the root causes. The current situation is a ticking time bomb. A £1.9 million deficit has to be met by April of this year. Many operations are being cancelled because of the terrible norovirus in our wards, and times will be tough for the trust.

Part of the problem is that we have an expensive private finance initiative hospital that was built in the wrong place fully to service all of the residents of Worcestershire. The Worcestershire royal hospital opened in March 2002 under a PFI deal that costs the trust £13.6 million a year at the best estimate. Indeed, Patricia Hewitt, the former Health Secretary, described the PFI deal as a disaster in 2006. The deal will, however, run until 2032, by which time it will have cost the taxpayer more than £700 million. The Alexandra hospital is not a PFI hospital; it is owned by the NHS.

I understand that the trust needs to save money, and that certain services in our country must be centralised to provide centres of excellence. I also understand the difficulties of recruiting specialist consultants, and I realise that as a result of an ageing population and changing lifestyles, patients have more complex needs. We must recognise, however, that the trust employs more than 5,600 staff across the county and has approximately 940 beds with 140,000 A and E attendances —of which I was one—and about 500,000 out-patient appointments. The people of Redditch deserve a sustainable future for their health service. They are realistic, but they need to know what is going to happen. One of the reasons for the difficulty I have just mentioned of recruiting specialist consultants, which is a major problem facing the trust, is that the hospital cannot provide the job security that specialist consultants need because it is constantly under threat.

As I have said, this is the third time we have been in this situation, and if we do not find a solution, I have no doubt that in a few years we will be here again. Repeatedly experiencing such circumstances is damaging to the public, staff and patients, and we need a lasting solution. I welcome our Government’s introduction of clinical commissioning groups. I recognise that without them we would be in a very different place and I certainly would not be standing here asking the Minister to look at the future of my hospital. I have been working closely with the local commissioning group for Redditch and Bromsgrove, and would like to place on record its hard work on the future of the Alex, especially its support on the joint services review; it has continually stood up for Redditch in circumstances that have often been difficult.

Last week, I listened to the Prime Minister talking about the terrible situation at Stafford hospital, and especially the roles of Members of Parliament. He said:

“Like others in the community, we love our local hospitals and we always want to stand up for them, but we have to be careful to look at the results in our local hospitals and work out whether we should not sometimes give voice to some of the concerns rather than go along with a culture that says everything is all right all of the time—sometimes it is not.”—[Official Report, 6 February 2013; Vol. 558, c. 286.]

I took that to heart, as I know many of my colleagues did. I know that the NHS must change and we cannot always have everything we want where we want it. I hope I am being realistic about what we can provide for the people of Redditch.

That brings me to some good news about innovative thinking that is going on in our town. Redditch is situated in the north of our county and the majority of my constituents look to Birmingham rather than Worcester. The Minister cannot be expected to know about transport links in our county, but the links between Redditch and Worcester are fairly dreadful. If someone has to go to Worcester by train, they get on a train to Birmingham, get off at the university stop—where the university hospital of Birmingham is—and double back to Worcester. Buses are also a nightmare and often involve two or three changes. I was delighted to meet Dame Julie Moore, the chief executive of the University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, before Christmas to talk about the trust providing some services at the Alex. I look forward to meeting her again next week, and to meeting Penny Venables, the chief executive of the Worcestershire trust.

Petrol Prices (Wyre Forest)

Debate between Mark Garnier and Karen Lumley

Wednesday 12th September 2012 Westminster Hall

[Mark Garnier (Wyre Forest) (Con)]

I am pleased to see the new Under-Secretary of State for Transport, my hon. Friend the Member for Wimbledon (Stephen Hammond) in his place. He has long been a friend of Wyre Forest. Four or five years ago, when he was a shadow Transport Minister, he visited Wyre Forest to inaugurate a campaign to save a local driving test centre in the face of swingeing cuts in the number of centres under the previous Government. I am delighted that his predecessor, my hon. Friend the Member for Hemel Hempstead (Mike Penning) was instrumental in resolving that inequity, and that we will have a driving test centre as a result of the Department for Transport’s sterling work.

This debate is specifically about fuel prices in Wyre Forest, but the issue affects every rural and even semi-rural community throughout the country. The Backbench Business Committee has secured a debate on the matter in the Chamber later this week, and it could be argued that I might have done better to save this speech for that debate. I am sure that there will be a huge amount of interest in Thursday’s debate, and I am eager to use the opportunity today to put on the record my experience in trying to resolve the problems facing my constituents, and the apparent stonewalling by the fuel retailers, particularly the big chains.

The debate is about the inequity facing Wyre Forest and other rural communities. It is about how my constituents have been charged more at the pumps in Kidderminster, Stourport and Bewdley than those of hon. Members in larger urban and suburban centres. Let me put the matter into context. Since I was elected, I have been contacted regularly by constituents who have noticed that they can buy fuel at up to 6p per litre cheaper in nearby Wolverhampton, Dudley and even Bromsgrove than they can locally.

Around a year ago, I contacted the retailers asking for an explanation. I wanted to know why they saw fit to overcharge my constituents. Their reply, after cutting through the various explanations of Nectar points and price reductions depending on the contents of a shopping bag, was that prices are set locally and that that is how retailers best compete with each other. I thought that that was fair enough, but as I was eager to understand their pricing models further, I contacted local retail managers and asked to meet them to talk about fuel prices. They said, “Ah. We just collect local data and send it to regional price setters who are responsible for determining the price.” I then asked to see the regional price setters, at which point I was met with stony silence. It seems that fuel retailers are reluctant to talk about the prices they charge locally.

However—credit where credit is due—Tesco agreed to meet me, and Emma Reynolds, its Government relations guru came to see me recently to explain its strategy. She told me a great deal about the special offer on fuel prices that it has introduced, and many retailers certainly provide special fuel price offers to customers. A 50% reduction is available on Tesco fuel for those who buy a specific range of items, and all retailers have a form of offer. She also told me that the general pricing strategy of the fuel retailers—Tesco, ASDA, Sainsbury, Texaco and so on—is to compete with the lowest price within a specific radius of the petrol station concerned, and for Tesco that is 3 miles.

At this point in my speech I intended to make a few lame jokes at the expense of the petrol retailers, and to jest that perhaps “every little helps”, but the only people who are really helped are Tesco’s shareholders. However, I updated my research yesterday, and to my utter delight it seems that the pressure that I have been putting on petrol retailers locally has been heeded. As of yesterday, instead of a 6p premium in Wyre Forest by petrol retailers within a 25 mile radius, which was the situation I faced a year ago, the substantive premium is now just 1p, although there is a rogue cheap supplier at ASDA in Dudley which charges 2p less than in Wyre Forest.

[Karen Lumley (Redditch) (Con)]

I congratulate my hon. Friend on securing this important debate. He says that there is a 1p price range in our region, but will he comment on the fact that in Cardiff this morning, petrol was 3p cheaper than in Redditch?

[Mark Garnier]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend and neighbour, who is also a member of the Welsh Affairs Committee, and takes a keen interest in what happens in Wales. I will come to that anomaly between cities and smaller rural towns and semi-rural areas, which is a great problem.

School Funding

Debate between Mark Garnier and Karen Lumley

Tuesday 24th April 2012 Westminster Hall

[Karen Lumley (Redditch) (Con)]

It is a great pleasure, Mr Gray, to serve under your chairmanship. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Gloucester (Richard Graham) on securing this important debate. It is not the first we have had in Westminster Hall on this matter. We have had a debate on Worcestershire, and the Minister is well aware of my views, so I will not speak at length.

A good education is the right of every child in this country. I was educated in the state system, as were both my children. Every child deserves the best education we can provide, and the state should provide it. Imagine my shock when I moved to Redditch 12 years ago to find that my children were in a postcode lottery for education funding. We had arrived from Wales where funding per head was far more than in Redditch. I have campaigned for those 12 years to rectify the situation, and I thought that when we finally got the Conservative-led coalition we would see the end of that disgraceful situation. I am disappointed that again the children of Redditch will have to wait at least three years before they get a fair deal.

Will the Minister explain directly to all the children, teachers and parents in Redditch just why they are worth less than those who live 7 miles up the road in Birmingham? As my hon. Friend the Member for Gloucester (Richard Graham) said, funding per child in Redditch is £1,000 less than in Birmingham.

[Mark Garnier]

In neighbouring Wyre Forest I share the same problem as my hon. Friend. Does she accept that it is a tribute to the teachers in our constituencies of Redditch and Wyre Forest in Worcestershire that they choose to work in those financially constrained conditions when they could take the easy option and move 8 miles up the road to Birmingham where they would received 45% more money? They choose to look after our students and pupils, and we should pay tribute to them for that.

[Karen Lumley]

I certainly pay tribute to those teachers, and I will come to that. I used to be chair of the governors of a first school in Redditch, and if it had received the same funding as Birmingham, it would have had £400,000 more. One of my first jobs then was to appoint a new head at Vaynor first school. She came from a school in Birmingham, and was shocked at the funding level. She did not stay long.

I know that fairer funding is on the agenda, and I am grateful for that. I acknowledge that we have inherited the worst deficit from the previous Government, but that should motivate the present Government to address the structural deficiencies in the system now, and not continue to the next Parliament with an unjust system that jeopardises the future of young people in Redditch. I look forward very much to hearing the Minister’s response.

Self-Employment

Debate between Mark Garnier and Karen Lumley

Tuesday 24th January 2012 Westminster Hall

[Mark Garnier]

I am sorry; the hon. Gentleman is talking about extending it to micro-businesses. Yes, all this has to be put into the mix of things that we need to look at. It is important to consider any way that we can help more micro-businesses.

FSB members say that our tax system is detrimental to their ability to make capital investments in their business, which again is another reason why people are being held back.

On a wider social point—sticking with tax complexity—it is worth noting that a complex tax system allows a huge range of opportunities for tax avoidance and tax evasion, which makes it extraordinarily complex for Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs to collect tax and ensure that we avoid the tax gap, which is estimated at anything between £40 billion and more than £100 billion a year. The rest of us have to pay for that tax gap and lack of revenue through increased taxes.

Half of small businesses spend at least two hours every week complying with their tax responsibilities alone and for 10% of businesses, particularly small micro-businesses, that can take up to six hours per week—six hours when those businesses should be capturing new customers, developing new products and investing in their future.

Two thirds of businesses feel that they need professional help to complete their tax returns, which costs them on average an extra £3,000 a year. One third of them find that national insurance in its various forms is difficult to understand. Half of businesses find allowances difficult to get to grips with. Frankly, it is all far too complicated and too expensive in man hours and financial resource to administer.

Regulation is the second area of extreme unrest for micro-businesses. According to the World Economic Forum’s global competitiveness report, the UK is ranked 89th out of 139 for the burden that regulation places on businesses. Aside from the obvious problem of possibly deterring inward investment, the overburden of regulation, especially in the realm of employment law, is cited by businesses as a reason not to expand.

In a business survey in 2008—that was some time ago, but it gives a good idea of trends—a third of businesses thinking about expanding cited fear of regulation as a significant headwind to be faced in expansion and therefore a key factor in their decision. The same survey revealed that half of businesses planning to downsize or close rated regulatory burden as important in their decision to do so. The 2008 survey was undertaken in difficult trading conditions, but regulatory burden should not be a significant factor when businesses are struggling to stay alive in a difficult environment.

Possibly more worrying is the fact that in the 2009 business survey 34% of businesses that were no longer employers cited complying with legislation as a reason for no longer employing staff. This is madness.

[Karen Lumley (Redditch) (Con)]

In my constituency, I have been working closely with small businesses. Does my hon. Friend agree that they feel isolated, with a perceived lack of business support around them?

[Mark Garnier]

Yes. Being a small business man is quite an isolating experience, as many hon. Members will know. People are out there on the front line, struggling to get more business in. They can join network groups and all the rest of it, but they feel like they are in a foxhole, with letters in brown envelopes coming at them from HMRC and all sorts of regulators. That is not necessarily a particularly enthralling experience. My hon. Friend is right.

In addition to accountants and tax specialists to handle tax compliance, a plethora of organisations offer advice on human resources, fire and emergency, health and safety and other things. All that is welcome and they provide an excellent service, but the fact that they are needed and that a sub-class of business advice has been created shows the amount of regulation that we have to face.

The Government have made some progress on access to finance and cash flow. I do not want to be an apologist for the banking crisis. I have to declare an interest here. I was an investment banker and one or two other hon. Members here were, too. It is important to understand that banks have an aversion to risk. Part of the problem faced by the banks is that the Basel III and the Vickers’ recommendations, and so on, are trying to deal with the problem of not wanting the banks to fail. On one hand the banks are being asked to tighten their balance sheet, and on the other they are, rightly, being asked to lend more money. For the banks, those are opposing requests. We need to take great consideration of that as we go through the process of implementing the recommendations of the Independent Commission on Banking, because we cannot ask the banks to take on more risk and expect them not to go bust. That is a contradiction.

Kidderminster Enterprise Zone

Debate between Mark Garnier and Karen Lumley

Wednesday 15th June 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mark Garnier (Wyre Forest) (Con)]

I thank the Minister for his time this evening to hear the case for the Kidderminster enterprise zone bid. I am pleased to be able to hold this debate because I am passionate about the future of the local economy, not just in Kidderminster or even in Wyre Forest but in the whole of Worcestershire.

What we are debating this evening is more than just Kidderminster’s enterprise zone bid. It is about how the Worcestershire local enterprise partnership has come together with enthusiasm and considered the many submissions from across the county, and how the business community has worked through the options and come up with what it believes is the best possible enterprise zone bid for the whole county. I am delighted to see so many Members present, and members of the business community in Worcestershire have come down this evening to show their support for this incredibly important bid.

Before I speak more specifically about Kidderminster, I want to speak about Worcestershire as a whole. I do this because it is important to remember that it is the Worcestershire LEP that has looked carefully at the county and decided that the best option for the county—not just for Wyre Forest—is the Kidderminster business enterprise zone. It is important that it becomes an enterprise zone because it is a strong and early bidder for a county-wide enterprise partnership that will bring together business, civic and third sector leaders as an effective advocate for the whole county.

Worcestershire has around 560,000 residents, and across the county there are a number of strong but localised industrial specialisms. We have agriculture and food processing in Wychavon and the Malvern hills, research and development in Malvern and automotive-related industries in Bromsgrove and Redditch.

[Karen Lumley (Redditch) (Con)]

Does my hon. Friend agree that although the bid from Kidderminster is great, we must all work together with the Worcestershire LEP to ensure that in future years other areas have successful bids, including my constituency?

[Mark Garnier]

My hon. Friend makes a good point; this is about the whole of Worcestershire and it is incredibly important that we work together for this important opportunity.

Concessionary Travel

Debate between Mark Garnier and Karen Lumley

Wednesday 24th November 2010 Westminster Hall

[Karen Lumley]

That is the point that I am making. The proposal could be devastating for district councils, as they stand to lose significantly more than they spend. The system has been described as a mess by the District Councils Network. Changes to the formula need to be clear, transparent and accurately carried out, but many councils are concerned that the implications have not been properly thought through.

[Mark Garnier (Wyre Forest) (Con)]

I congratulate my hon. Friend on securing this incredibly important debate. To give substance to her argument, I should say that the leader of Wyre Forest district council told me only this afternoon that the potential cost to that one council would be £1 million if the worst option is selected. That is £1 million a year on top of the expected cuts resulting from the comprehensive spending review.

[Karen Lumley]

I thank my hon. Friend for that. I know that Redditch is looking at similar figures.

It is most likely that the transfer will result in neither a fair nor a transparent funding deal, some councils being hit harder than others through losing a disproportionate amount of grant funding.