Urban Regeneration (England)

Alison McGovern Excerpts

Tuesday 8th September 2015 Westminster Hall

[Alison McGovern (Wirral South) (Lab)]

I beg to move,

That this House has considered regeneration of towns and cities in England.

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mrs Main.

I will use the time allotted to consider some of the issues to do with the regeneration of towns and cities in England. The matter is most vexing for my constituents—and, I suspect from the number of colleagues present, for many others. I will reflect on issues specific to New Ferry, a small town that I represent, but I intend to use the example of New Ferry to discuss wider issues in England.

By way of a caveat, and to help the Minister, I should say that we had a good debate in Westminster Hall in February, before the election; we covered a wide range of town centre issues—parking, business rates, shopping locally and that sort of thing. I do not intend to go over the same ground, with the exception of out-of-town shopping centres. I want to talk about proper regeneration and what happens when a place is deprived and the market fails. I am talking not about making a small shopping centre or retail market work, but about what we do and how we respond when a market has failed and about whether the Government care. Specifically, I want to talk about two things: Government policy on planning and access to capital; and the views of my constituents. I want the Minister to hear how their situation makes them feel.

First is Government policy. Having read through the transcript of the February debate and looked at the evidence, I can only conclude that the national planning policy framework has failed. The “town centre first” approach is not working. An Association of Convenience Stores report tells us that 76% of new retail space is out of town. Did anyone in our country intend that the wonderful town centres that we have all known and grown up with should be gradually shut down in favour of out-of-town retail spaces?

By and large, people have to drive to out-of-town places, which is less healthy and causes more pollution; those people who do not drive or do not have access to a car for whatever reason cannot get there. Did anyone in our country intend for that to happen? I argue that the answer is no. I argue that no one in England thought that it was a good idea for us to sacrifice historic town centres for out-of-town retail. Such retail can be a good thing and work well, but planning policy should ensure that it happens alongside and not instead of town centres. How will the Minister reshape Government policy to change our country’s aspiration, which I honestly think is probably a cross-party one? How will he make that aspiration real and not only words on a piece of paper? As we know from the ACS report, so far that aspiration has failed.

The second part of Government policy that I am extraordinarily concerned about is access to capital. We need to think not only about our successful city and town centres. I am proud to be from Merseyside. Those who are familiar with Liverpool and have visited it down the years know that, some years ago, when I was growing up there, it was possible to wander around and to see many sites left derelict since the second world war. The beautiful buildings were the exception rather than the rule. Thanks to the efforts of the previous Government, that has changed a great deal. There are still gaps and spaces, but things have changed and the city is doing well now. Its population is growing for the first time in my lifetime—more people are now coming to live in Liverpool than are leaving, which is a great success.

What, however, is happening to the peripheral town centres? What is going on outside, in places where businesses cannot make a good argument to invest? Those places are sinking further and faster. We cannot see the same kind of business investment as in Liverpool in towns such as Birkenhead, Ellesmere Port or New Ferry, which I represent. Merseyside has had some success in the centre, but Knowsley, Southport and other places around the city centre are not seeing the same benefit. That is because of market failure—the degradation has been so great that the regeneration needed is too big for the private sector on its own.

[Conor McGinn (St Helens North) (Lab)]

My hon. Friend and I share not only the region of Merseyside, but similarities between our constituents and constituencies. St Helens has seen huge cuts to local government, plans for investment in transport shelved, a moratorium on a new police station and now the proposed closure of the court house. Given the points that she has made, does she agree that that denigration of the status of our town discourages business and, most importantly, people?

[Mrs Anne Main (in the Chair)]

Order. May I ask for interventions to be kept brief? That was more like a mini-speech.

[Alison McGovern]

Thank you, Mrs Main. I think that was the first intervention that my hon. Friend the Member for St Helens North (Conor McGinn) has made in Westminster Hall, so I am sure he will take your advice.

My hon. Friend is right, however. Of course I care that businesses should be successful; I want people to be able to make a profit, to enjoy their town centres and to have a good environment to be in. My main point, however, is that regeneration matters because of what the quality of buildings and the built environment do to people’s hearts and souls. Being from a place that other people think is rubbish is no good—I know—so regeneration matters not only because it helps people to make a buck and to get a job, but because of the pride we take and the status of our towns. That is why I am having the debate today.

My hon. Friend the Member for St Helens North made another good point. The problem with regeneration is the fact that the Government pull away access to capital from every direction. The housing market renewal initiative, which was helping lots of parts of Merseyside, including just up the road from New Ferry, has been cancelled and done away with. Swathes of grassland just by New Ferry are not being built on because the market is providing no capital to build the houses, and the Government will not do it. Regional development agencies—gone. Bromborough, where I am from, was rebuilt by the regional development agency, which identified business opportunities and pushed friendly capital towards there, so that our place would grow, and it did—but the RDA is now no longer there. We have the local enterprise partnership, which is a lovely organisation, but it has no resources. As my hon. Friend said, every Department of Government has stopped spending capital that previously went to regenerate our towns.

The net impact is that market failure simply cannot be addressed. Where a town centre has deteriorated to such an extent that no business can make a decent case to the markets to access capital to invest there, nothing can be done. Only the state can fix this—it is not for the private sector alone. It is not down to Government alone, either, but it cannot be done without Government.

I want to say a few words about New Ferry. It is where my office is, and I have spent time trying to get a regeneration scheme off the ground there. It is very close to a cancelled housing site that is now just scrubland, and there are lots of empty shops. There is a genuine need, not just for business investment but for regeneration. The area needs reshaping and a new idea of what it can be; there are so many empty shops that people do not go there any more. No business is prepared to risk expending capital by itself on New Ferry. What the Government have done means that there is no mechanism to make regeneration happen, so I am standing here today to ask the Minister to create a mechanism—to find a way for the state to do regeneration in our towns once more. That is desperately needed and it must be done.

I will briefly share some of my constituents’ views. In advance of this debate, I distributed leaflets and used Twitter and Facebook to tell my constituents about it, and they have written to me in great numbers to tell me what they think. Miriam Clack of Stanley Road in New Ferry said, about the place that we are from:

“it’s a pig hole, and it’s a disgrace, and no one is in the least bothered about it.”

I am bothered about it, and I think the Government should be as well. This is the place where we live. She asks why the closed shops are not pulled down or made into something else, and she is right to. She goes on:

“If I was younger I would leave but I can’t so I’m stuck in this hole.”



Another constituent, Matthew Thomas, has had a great idea. He says:

“I think we already have a sufficient number of shop premises. I would even say we have too many. In my opinion it is worth considering the impact of removing the shops”.

He is right. New Ferry needs to be reshaped, but only the Government can do that. No one business, on its own, is going to lead a private sector solution to deal with it; it needs to be a partnership.

The local community has done great things, but, as Joan Rawcliffe of Ortega Close said,

“in spite of considerable efforts carried out by the New Ferry Regeneration Action Group (e.g. the farmers’ market, the landfill site”—

we have a new park there—

“regeneration of the area as a whole failed to take place. Monies from outside sources…were not received by New Ferry.”

Such money was received in other areas, but is not available now because of the Government’s actions.

In closing my contribution, I put it to the Minister that the situation is desperate. I see it, day in, day out, week in, week out, when I am in New Ferry staring at boarded-up buildings and the crumbling bricks of those beautiful old buildings I mentioned. I see it; if he does not, he is welcome to come with me to myriad town centres up and down our country to see it. I ask him to think about this: if he, as a Government Minister, could do one thing, it should be to restart the regeneration of our country. That is desperately needed and I ask him to do it.

--- Later in debate ---

[Alison Thewliss]

Yes. I am interested in hearing about what is happening in towns in England, and I believe that some of the ideas from Scotland may be of use and of interest to other hon. Members. I would be more than happy to visit the constituencies of other hon. Members, and I encourage them to come to Glasgow or elsewhere in Scotland to see some of our initiatives. There is a lot going on.

[Alison McGovern]

I have great friends in Glasgow, and I visit often. I thank the hon. Lady for her invitation, and I extend a similar invitation in return.

[Alison Thewliss]

I thank the hon. Lady and I will leave it at that.

--- Later in debate ---

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (Mr Marcus Jones)]

I am delighted to serve under your chairmanship, Mrs Main. I thank the hon. Member for Wirral South (Alison McGovern) for securing this important debate and giving me this opportunity to set out the Government’s vision for the future of our towns and cities.

I am passionate about high streets and town centres and their importance to our communities and local economies, so I was delighted to take on the portfolio for high streets, town centres and markets. We are at a critical moment for our town centres, and I am dedicated to giving local authorities, local enterprise partnerships and local communities access to the tools that they need to transform their local areas. The Government have made it clear that we wish to empower towns and cities to become real engines of growth, unleashing their full potential by placing power to make decisions locally in the hands of people who know those local areas best, and we have certainly started to do that. We have created 39 local enterprise partnerships, chaired by business leaders, covering the whole of England. We have delivered 28 city deals, which are revitalising the English regions by enabling private sector growth. And now we have the Chancellor’s vision for a northern powerhouse that will raise the growth rate of the north, which could be worth an extra £44 billion for the north by 2030. Clearly, the Wirral and Liverpool have a vital role to play in that vision.

There has been significant investment in the Wirral, which I will touch on when I answer some of the hon. Lady’s questions. There has been significant progress, because five years ago more than 1,300 people in the Wirral were claiming jobseeker’s allowance. That figure has now fallen to less than 700, which is less than half the number we inherited. We are not complacent, but that reduction represents significant progress.

High streets and town centres play a crucial role in our areas. They create future jobs and nurture small businesses. A recent Association of Town Centre Management report shows that town centres contribute nearly £600 billion to UK plc each year. Recent news has shown that high streets across the country are fighting back valiantly following the great recession. Recent data show positive footfall trends in most locations, and the national town centre vacancy rate fell to 9.8% in July 2015, which is the lowest reported since records began in July 2011. Year-on-year sales have increased for 28 consecutive months, which is the longest sustained period since 2008.

Where empty shops stubbornly remain, I recognise that they can blight town centres and bring down the general appearance, which is why I urge local authorities and landlords to think innovatively and look for meanwhile uses for such properties. Pop-up shops have provided a great stimulus in many towns and high streets, not only enabling entrepreneurs to get going but bringing people into town centres who are keen to see new, innovative traders. The Government have taken significant action to support town centres to weather the storm. Since 2010, the Government have helped to create 300 town teams and have given more than £18 million to towns, which includes funding and practical support in New Ferry in the hon. Lady’s constituency.

[Alison McGovern]

I think that the Minister is about to make my point for me. We had pop-up shops in New Ferry, and they did not work; we have a town team, and it does not work. What we need is capital, because the market in New Ferry is failing. Will the Minister please help us with resources?

[Mr Jones]

I am coming on to those points. I am well aware that there are many structural issues facing many town centres, and there are many areas where, as the hon. Lady identifies, the stock of property is not conducive to 21st century use. There are many challenges, so this is probably a good point for me to address her questions. First, she mentioned the national planning policy framework. There is a strong “town centre first” policy in the NPPF, and areas such as Croydon, Swindon and Southampton are doing extremely well in ensuring that they are strong in relation to the “town centre first” policy. The chief planning officer wrote to all local authorities in February 2015 to reiterate the “town centre first” policy and to remind councils that they should pay due deference to this important policy.

The hon. Lady also mentioned the views of the Association of Convenience Stores. The association is extremely important, and I am meeting it this Friday, which I am sure she will be glad to hear. She made a fair point on out-of-town stores, but she and her fellow Opposition Members failed to mention online retailing, which has had a significant effect on town centres. She made an important point on regeneration.