Apprenticeships and Skills (Public Procurement Contracts) Bill

Debate between Baroness Keeley and Andrew Gwynne

Friday 1st November 2013 Commons Chamber

[Barbara Keeley (Worsley and Eccles South) (Lab)]

I am pleased to have the opportunity to speak in support of the Bill, which has been introduced by my hon. Friend the Member for Denton and Reddish (Andrew Gwynne). I congratulate him on the Bill and on the excellent way in which he opened the debate. We can lose our way in such debates when there are such long contributions from Government Members, but we will remember this debate for how he opened it.

I want to say to my hon. Friend and those who are interested in supporting the Bill that apprenticeships are important for my constituents, who appreciate how much difference a completed apprenticeship can make to their employment chances. We need a strong skills infrastructure and a high proportion of our young people participating in higher education, or gaining an advanced apprenticeship or equivalent technician-level qualification. That is one point of agreement among hon. Members this morning—we all support the more advanced apprenticeships that can take people to a higher level of training.

I have looked at the benefits to those who take on apprenticeships. The Richard review of apprenticeships found that apprenticeships deliver substantial wage and employment benefits over the learner’s lifetime. It found that, in fact, an advanced apprenticeship delivers wage returns of 22% and employment returns of 14%. The person who achieves an apprenticeship can therefore earn 22% more than similar individuals who have not completed one. In addition, completed apprenticeships continue to deliver those strong earnings and employment returns for seven years post-completion. On the point from the hon. Member for Shipley (Philip Davies), completing an apprenticeship straightaway delivers higher wages to that person and carries on delivering for seven years.

[Andrew Gwynne]

I am pleased that my hon. Friend is going to support my Bill today. Is not the point about lifting those opportunities and raising the salary levels of her constituents of real importance, because in her area, like mine, low skills and wages are endemic? This is about tackling those two great social problems in places such as Salford and Denton and Reddish.

[Barbara Keeley]

It very much is, and I really do agree with my hon. Friend.

I agreed with the point my hon. Friend made earlier about long-term unemployment, particularly youth unemployment, being high in Salford and my constituency, as it is in his. In my constituency—only a part of Salford—we have almost 3,000 jobseekers, of whom 900 are unemployed young people and 390 are over-25s who have been unemployed for two years or more. In fact, the number of people who have been unemployed for two years or more has risen this summer by 34%. I hear from young people, week in, week out—as I am sure do other hon. Members—about how over one or two years of unemployment they can start to lose hope. I get some really desperate appeals for help and support from them.

The previous Labour Government’s offer was that by 2015 there would be an apprenticeship for every 16 or 17-year-old who wanted one and was suitably qualified. We should keep that in our minds, because obviously, with the economic difficulties in recent years, we do not want 16 and 17-year-olds who are not in education, employment or training to lose hope, and I think they could do so. Worryingly, the number of apprenticeship starts for under-19s has fallen by 20,000 from 132,000, in 2010-11, to 112,000 last year. That is a dismal record. Youth unemployment remains stubbornly high, yet the number of apprenticeship starts for that age group have fallen. That is pathetic.

Government Members, in particular, have spoken about the difficulties of small employers taking on apprentices. You might be aware, Mr Deputy Speaker, that I took on an apprentice in my constituency some years ago. She was a 17-year-old who had started her business administration apprenticeship in a bakery, but was interested in working in an MP’s office. She was an excellent staff member and completed her apprenticeship, becoming one of the highest-achieving apprentices the college had ever worked with. In her early 20s, she is now a county councillor serving part of your constituency, Mr Deputy Speaker. We can, therefore, support apprenticeships. It is an interesting development that not only did she train in business administration, but she has gone into local government and I am sure is doing an excellent job.

[Barbara Keeley]

Indeed, it is. I should say—I am sure it was the same for my hon. Friend—that that excellent experience was partly due to the training supervised by my office manager, to whom I give credit. As employers, we have to remember that we can play our part. Like all employers, we must offer training. What is more, having a 17-year-old working with us really revitalised my office. I was invited to a 21st birthday party—the first I have been to in a long time!

Apprenticeships.org is the website of the National Apprenticeships Service. In May, we were worried that only 37 apprenticeships in Salford were available on the website, and now there are still only 44, so the situation is not improving. There are other websites, but that is the national one. Salford city council is doing an excellent job providing support for apprentices and apprenticeships through Salford Futures, an employment initiative that has been running since April 2012. It, like the earlier example from Tameside, provides support to unemployed Salford residents through the provision of work experience placements and pre-employment training and support. It also encourages local employers to create and develop employment opportunities through the provision of grants, funding and wider business support. I have managed to link up employers who contacted me with that business support, and I know it is excellent.

Salford Futures is being delivered with the support of the Greater Manchester combined authority, not just individual authorities. The hon. Member for Shipley talked about his local authority perhaps not excelling in procurement, but local authorities can work together on this, and that might be a solution for any authority that feels it does not have the skills to do it. It is supported by the Greater Manchester combined authority and co-funded through the Greater Manchester commitment to youth employment scheme. There are some excellent partnerships in areas such as Greater Manchester, which are committed to ensuring that we tackle the scourge of youth unemployment. The package of support for employers includes

“Access to a 13-week wage subsidy, paid at national minimum wage, for any employer that recruits an eligible Salford resident into an apprenticeship or job with accredited training for a minimum period of six months…Brokerage and dedicated recruitment support…Information and advice on accessing additional funding opportunities, including the National Apprenticeship Service’s…initiative…Wider business support from Salford City Council's business team”.

I commend the business team. I put an employer who was interested in taking on apprentices in touch with them, and I know that they gave that employer a great deal of support.

The Bill would ensure that suppliers who won major public contracts began to offer apprenticeship opportunities if those contracts were at a certain level. We have just had a lot of to-ing and fro-ing about the circumstances, but the Bill actually follows on from “Apprenticeships”, the fifth report from the Business, Innovation and Skills Committee. Having looked into it, the Committee recommended that approach, and suggested that at least one new apprenticeship could be provided for every £1 million of procurement spending.

I have described what Salford city council has been doing, but there is also good news from Salix Homes. Our housing associations are really showing the way ahead. Salix Homes was recently named by Salford council as the chosen landlord to take ownership of the 8,500 council homes in Salford in a proposed stock transfer, although that is, of course, open to consultation. It has worked to secure a commitment from its contractors—or subcontractors—to recruit two apprentices for every £1 million invested in homes and communities throughout Salford. That amounts to more apprenticeships than the number recommended by the Select Committee, and it shows what can be done. Salix Homes has promised that if the stock transfer goes ahead, it will invest a further £700 million over the next 30 years, which it says

“could generate more than 1,000 new apprenticeships for…young people.”

[Andrew Gwynne]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for highlighting more of the best public procurement practice that already exists. Salix Homes has set itself a very ambitious target. Have any small businesses in my hon. Friend’s constituency expressed the fear that that may prevent them from being included in the subcontracts?

[Barbara Keeley]

No. I understand that Salix Homes and the sub-contractors want to work in a way that helps both local young people and those who train them.

Salix Homes wants to employ highly trained people if it becomes the owner of those thousands of homes, and I commend it for that commitment. It would not, however, become the landlord in my part of Salford, where another organisation, City West Housing Trust, committed itself to creating 40 apprenticeships, which it managed to do in 2012. Perhaps we can now generate a race between the two housing associations: the target set by Salix Homes might provide the spur for City West Housing Trust.

[Andrew Gwynne]

My Bill requires apprenticeships that are being generated in places such as Salford to be advertised in local jobcentres to give young people an opportunity to gain access to training and skills. Does my hon. Friend agree that that is an important provision?

[Barbara Keeley]

Indeed, and I shall say more about it in a moment.

As my hon. Friend said, it makes a great deal of sense for the Government and public authorities to use the leverage of the money that they already spend on public procurement—this is not additional funding—to promote skills training and provide new apprenticeship opportunities. We need those in Salford. According to the latest monthly figures, we have a core of 3,000 unemployed people, including nearly 1,000 young people, and that preys on my mind.

I hope that my hon. Friend is heartened by the example that I gave from Salford, but it is clear that many more apprenticeships could be created if the Government backed his Bill. Recently, we have had contracts let by public authorities without any local advertising of job vacancies or any commitment to provide apprenticeships and skills training, and that is a real missed opportunity. My hon. Friend talked about the new schools completed through Building Schools for the Future, but I had contractors complaining to me as our new schools were being built that they did not feel it offered them opportunities locally. We have had new buildings at Salford Royal hospital, and the BBC and ITV have moved to Salford Quays. The BBC has done quite an amount, as a publicly funded body—it is not a public authority and so the Bill would not strictly apply to it—to take on more apprentices. The BBC has said that, being the name it is, people apply from all over the country, whereas I know that what it wants to do, now that it is based at Salford Quays, is try to take on local young people. Having the vacancies advertised in the local jobcentres would help with that. So a number of opportunities have been happening in Salford, but we still have fewer than 50 apprenticeship vacancies advertised on the national apprenticeships website. I should say that four of those are with the BBC in Salford, whereas 20 are with the BBC in London, so we are still not forging ahead as much as we should.

I go back to the fact that we have 3,000 jobseekers in my constituency, with 900 young people unemployed and 390 over-25s who have been unemployed for two years or more. I think about that group of unemployed young people. I want them to have the opportunities of an apprenticeship and the benefits that can bring: higher wages straight away; higher wages over the period of seven years; and more chances of employment. We need the extra apprenticeships that could come through the measures in the Bill and I very much commend it to the Minister and to all hon. Members here today.

Health and Care Services

Debate between Baroness Keeley and Andrew Gwynne

Wednesday 3rd July 2013 Commons Chamber

[Andrew Gwynne (Denton and Reddish) (Lab)]

May I begin by thanking the Health Committee and its Chairman for the report and the clarity with which he presented its findings, and Members from all parties for the thoughtful way in which they have debated the issues today? The right hon. Member for Charnwood (Mr Dorrell) is known for his diligence and attention to detail, and his speech clearly illustrated those instincts.

Before I address the points raised by the report, let me put on record our gratitude to the many thousands who work in our health service. As we approach the 65th anniversary of the NHS, we should take a moment to pay tribute to those staff who are doing a tremendous job, often in difficult and challenging circumstances.

With the indulgence of the House, I would also like to place firmly on the record my support for and appreciation of the dedicated doctors, consultants, nurses, carers and support staff in Tameside general hospital, many of whom will be feeling battered and bruised today. Tameside general hospital serves most of my constituency and today’s media reports highlight some of its failings. Deep-seated issues need to be grappled with urgently, but we should also recognise and listen to the many decent, good and hard-working staff who work there, because they often have many of the solutions and have not been listened to in the past.

I also apologise for leaving the Chamber briefly during the speech of my hon. Friend the Member for Worsley and Eccles South (Barbara Keeley). There was no discourtesy intended to either her or the House: I was dealing with the BBC’s breaking news that both the chief executive and the medical director of Tameside general hospital have resigned, which I support. Sadly, it has come three years too late—I called for it to happen three years ago—but, nevertheless, it is a step in the right direction to ensure that Tameside general hospital has a safe and secure future.

[Barbara Keeley]

We heard from the hon. Member for Southport (John Pugh) about the value of executive leadership. Our conurbation of Greater Manchester has one of the best and safest hospitals in the country. The Salford Royal hospital is the seventh safest in the country and has an excellent chief executive. Today the leadership of Tameside hospital has changed and I hope that the people of Tameside will end up with an excellently led hospital. I agree with the hon. Member for Southport. My example shows the difference between a hospital that is well led and one that is not.

[Andrew Gwynne]

I agree with my hon. Friend. Had she been listening to BBC Radio Manchester this morning, she would have heard me making precisely that point. The situation at Tameside is incredibly frustrating for me and my hon. Friends the Members for Stalybridge and Hyde (Jonathan Reynolds) and for Ashton-under-Lyne (David Heyes). Whenever we meet the chief executive and chair of Tameside hospital—we do so frequently—they always give us excuses as to why Tameside is different from the rest of Greater Manchester because of the industrial legacy and poor health outcomes in the borough, but one could make exactly the same arguments for Salford: there is no reason why one part of Greater Manchester should have an excellent hospital while another has one with long-term problems.

Following that slight indulgence, I want to turn to the report and focus on four key areas. First, the right hon. Member for Charnwood made some pertinent points about the Nicholson challenge. To be fair, in previous reports the Health Committee has taken the consistent view that the Nicholson challenge can be achieved only by making fundamental changes to the way in which care is delivered. It makes that argument in this report too. It states:

“Too often…the measures used to respond to the Nicholson Challenge represent short-term fixes rather than long-term service transformation.”

The Select Committee is right about that.

If we are to sustain the breadth and quality of health and care services, we need a fully integrated approach to commissioning—something that the right hon. Member for Charnwood and others have spoken about powerfully. The Opposition agree with that. I hope that the right hon. Gentleman will agree that we have put forward bold proposals for a genuinely integrated NHS and social care system that brings physical health, mental health and social care into a single service to meet all our care needs.

We know that that approach works. In Torbay, integrated health and care teams have virtually eliminated delayed discharges. Partnerships for older people have helped older people to stay living independently in their own homes and have delayed the need for hospital care—something that my hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham, Selly Oak (Steve McCabe) rightly referred to. Where physical and mental health professionals have worked closely together, they have shown that a real difference can be made.

An integrated, whole-person approach is the best way to deliver better health and care in an era when money remains tight. As the Committee’s report notes,

“the care system should treat people not conditions.”

The right hon. Member for Charnwood was right to point out that developing the role of health and wellbeing boards is the best way to plan such integrated care. He reaffirmed that he is “happy to endorse” the Burnham plan. We were happy to hear that. He is right that there is an issue with single commissioning budgets without checks on local government. As somebody who has a background in local government, I think that he is right about the need to extend the ring fence to social care spending. Unless those budgets are protected, there will be a temptation to siphon off the money that is needed to provide the integration that we all want to see.

Museum of Science and Industry

Debate between Baroness Keeley and Andrew Gwynne

Wednesday 26th June 2013 Westminster Hall

[Andrew Gwynne]

I absolutely would not support anything that might lead to the introduction of charges at MOSI, because I think that would be a very retrograde step. Where I agree with the hon. Gentleman is on the need for a longer-term vision for the museum, whether that is through charitable giving or through greater sponsorship. I am cautious about the airport, which is not a cash cow for every funding cut in Greater Manchester. Indeed, the Manchester Airports Group already contributes greatly towards the arts in Greater Manchester, most notably through its sponsorship of the Hallé orchestra. I am not sure that the Manchester Airports Group can for ever write blank cheques to fill every funding cut that comes Manchester’s way.

[Barbara Keeley]

My hon. Friend is making a great case, and I support what he says about charging. I note that a parent from the constituency of my hon. Friend the Member for Stretford and Urmston (Kate Green) started the Facebook group “Save The Museum of Science And Industry Manchester.” In her appeal, she made this specific point:

“It is one of the few places left…suitable for everyone from babies to older people.”

She makes the important point that, because the museum is free

“this means that it is accessible to everyone, not just those who can afford to go on expensive days out.”

Does my hon. Friend the Member for Denton and Reddish (Andrew Gwynne) agree with her? In these days of cuts and austerity, when families are suffering and wages are going backwards, we must think of having such days out. Young people can learn a lot from a free day out, particularly one with their family.

[Andrew Gwynne]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. Not only is the museum free, it is fun. That is why people want to keep going back. MOSI is a hands-on museum. There are not lots of exhibits in glass cases; there are lots of things that people can touch, feel, do and play with, which can spark imagination. MOSI is a great fun day out for children and adults of all ages. We must develop a clear vision of what the museum wants to do in the future.

Arts and Creative Industries

Debate between Baroness Keeley and Andrew Gwynne

Wednesday 19th June 2013 Commons Chamber

[Andrew Gwynne]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right about the museum’s value to young people across Greater Manchester in respect of how we proceed with the area’s economic development. Greater Manchester is the home of the world’s first passenger railway station—the Liverpool and Manchester railway opened in 1830 and is now the base of the museum—and has seen the development of graphene and future technological advances. The museum is at the heart of that and education is key to its success.

[Barbara Keeley]

Absolutely. My hon. Friend echoes the words of Dame Nancy Rothwell. She thinks the museum is responsible for making young people consider careers in science and engineering. Her views are echoed by Tim O’Brien, the astrophysicist from Jodrell Bank observatory, who said:

“Museums like Mosi play a vital role in celebrating modern day science as well as our industrial heritage…I have no doubt at all that these places make future scientists and engineers and are vital to our future productivity.”

The museum is free, so everyone can visit. The growth in visitor numbers that I mentioned shows that we must maintain that. Part of the threat coming from the 10% cut has been a discussion about introducing some form of charging. Two-thirds of the 800,000 visitors to the museum came in family groups. Many of the parents supporting the campaign to save the Museum of Science and Industry have made it clear that turning up as a family to the museum if it charged, as it used to, would make for a very expensive day out.

Given MOSI’s importance to families and the future students of science and engineering in our region, it is vital for me to seek reassurance that it is not under threat of closure. I am sure that my hon. Friend the Member for Manchester Central (Lucy Powell) would say the same if she were here; I am very much putting forward points that she would have made in this debate had she had the opportunity.

I understand that the Minister has told the BBC that the Science Museum Group is not to receive 10% cuts. Will he confirm that in this House? It is all right to make those points to the BBC, but they should be made here. If there are announcements about the funding of important museums such as the Museum of Science and Industry, we should, frankly, hear about them first in this House—that, of course, is a point that we Opposition Members are always making.

We have also heard in this debate that the Science Museum Group has a large and growing structural deficit. Will the Minister also address not just the immediate threat of the 10% cuts but how MOSI and other museums in the group can maintain their buildings and connections? The Museum of Science and Industry is truly part of the fabric of the city that was the birthplace of the industrial revolution. We have to maintain and develop it.

Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation

Debate between Baroness Keeley and Andrew Gwynne

Thursday 21st March 2013 Commons Chamber

[Andrew Gwynne]

I very much doubt it; we can but hope. There are some good ideas that build on the many regional initiatives that the last Labour Government left in place in May 2010. The strategy almost reinvents the wheel, but I do not care who reinvents the wheel; the fact is that the wheel should never have been smashed up in the first place.

My Denton and Reddish constituency has been badly affected by unemployment. The figures that were released yesterday showed an increase in those claiming jobseeker’s allowance over the past 12 months. There are now 2,642 unemployed claimants in my constituency, which is 6% of the economically active population. The longer-term picture is far worse. The number of those claiming jobseeker’s allowance over the past 12 months has now gone up 32%. The figure has gone up 44% for young people and, staggeringly, for people over 25 claiming jobseeker’s allowance, the figure has gone up 70% in the past year.

[Barbara Keeley]

Is my hon. Friend as concerned as I am to learn from the OBR forecasts that unemployment has not peaked? It will peak later this year or early next year, so the figures that he and I have quoted will get worse.

[Andrew Gwynne]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. She may have read the Manchester Evening News research, which showed that Tameside, which is part of my constituency, is the worst place in the north-west of England for young people to access job opportunities. There are real issues here that need to be resolved by Government.

Some good local initiatives are being pushed through by my two local authorities. One is Tameside, a Labour local authority, and the other is Stockport, a Liberal Democrat authority. They are doing their best in very tight circumstances, not least because every man, woman and child in Tameside is losing the equivalent of £163 in central Government grant to the local authority and Stockport is losing £94 per head of population.

We are seeing initiatives such as the introduction of town teams in Denton—I am proud that my office is represented on the Denton town team—and a pooled apprenticeship scheme in Tameside, which enables firms to reduce the risk in taking on apprentices. That initiative has been ably led by the leader of Tameside council, Councillor Kieran Quinn, who set out an ambition to have every young person in work or training by 2020. Tameside council has done a deal with New Charter Housing, the local registered social landlord, to ensure that one affordable house is built per week for the next three years. Stockport has the Stockport Boost initiative, its town centre is a Portas pilot, and there are huge opportunities along the M60 corridor with its close proximity to the airport city enterprise zone and the Grand Central redevelopment. That initiative is being pushed forward by the Greater Manchester combined authority and the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities—a Labour-led, city region initiative.

Lord Heseltine talks about combined authorities and giving more responsibility to local enterprise partnerships, and that is where Greater Manchester takes a lead. He also mentions local leadership, which is a thorny issue. I personally support the idea of a Greater Manchester-wide mayor, and although I realise that others in the city region are not convinced, I at least welcome the debate started by Lord Heseltine in his report.

My final point—which I have already touched on—is about housing, which continues to be a big problem in my constituency. The new homes bonus announced by the Government in 2010 was supposed to unleash growth and help build at least 400,000 additional homes, but it has failed to deliver.

Police Funding (Greater Manchester)

Debate between Baroness Keeley and Andrew Gwynne

Tuesday 22nd June 2010 Westminster Hall

[Andrew Gwynne]

This is the first opportunity that I have had to welcome my hon. Friend to the House. He will be a stalwart campaigner for his constituents, who are on the other side of the River Tame from my constituency. He is absolutely right. Although the police authority has had to make some difficult decisions about the police precept, a lot of hard work went into ensuring that the funding package for this financial year was robust and matched the needs of policing in Greater Manchester.

Of course, the previous settlement was made by the Labour Government before the general election. As a result, police authorities set their local budgets on the basis of that settlement and will now have to make difficult choices to bring their budgets into line with the new Government’s amended settlement. Greater Manchester police authority has already admitted that tough decisions will have to be made. There is a concern in my constituency about how that will affect policing in Greater Manchester.

Throughout the years of the Labour Government, we saw a real fall in the number of crimes that were committed. Overall, crime fell by 36%. That was, in part, thanks to the record investment in levels of policing. In 1997, Greater Manchester police employed fewer than 7,000 police officers. According to the most recent figures, from September 2009, there are now 8,148 police officers.

According to the House of Commons Library, in my constituency we now have 917 full-time equivalent police officers, as well as—a great invention of the last Labour Government—police community support officers. Across the same area, the boroughs of Tameside and Stockport, we now have 99 PCSOs committed to being a uniformed presence on the streets.

[Barbara Keeley (Worsley and Eccles South) (Lab)]

Like my hon. Friend, I would like to pay tribute, particularly to Inspector Kevin Mulligan and the Greater Manchester police force in Salford, who have done a great job, with the help of PCSOs, in bringing down crime—particularly antisocial behaviour, which was of great concern to my constituents. Does my hon. Friend share my concern that these budget cuts will really affect PCSOs and, in our case, the neighbourhood team work that can get crime and antisocial behaviour down?

[Andrew Gwynne]

I agree with my hon. Friend. It is crucial not to diminish the role of the PCSOs and to support the neighbourhood policing teams. Most people will recognise that neighbourhood policing teams, based on every ward in our boroughs, are one of the most successful recent changes to policing in areas such as Greater Manchester. That localism has made a big change to how the police are viewed by the general public, and it is important that we should maintain it.

Backed by that high level of investment, there have been some impressive results. In the borough of Tameside, during the period from 2001-02 to 2009-10, crime was reduced by a fifth. Crimes such as burglary fell significantly. Figures from the House of Commons Library show that the number of burglaries in Tameside fell from 6,084 in 2002-03 to 3,926 in 2008-09. There was a similar trend in Stockport: vehicle crime fell from more than 7,000 in 2002-03 to 3,746 in 2008-09. That shows that proper investment has an effect on crime. In Tameside, we know that effective crime-fighting has improved the quality of life for residents, both collectively and individually. That is why the cut of just under £7 million is of real concern.

Crime itself is not always the main threat to people’s sense of well-being: sometimes the fear of crime is just as, if not more, important, although it can be hard to quantify. Neighbourhood policing and bobbies on the beat have been a real reassurance to our constituents.

I am concerned about how many more efficiency savings there are in the police service in Greater Manchester. It has been streamlined over the past decade and it is not clear that there is now much spare capacity; it is a very lean organisation. In short, all the cuts will inevitably impact on front-line services, even if that is not the Minister’s intention.

Any plans to cut back office staff might not be as simple as they first sound. Some back-office positions are filled by officers who have been injured in the line of duty. If there are no roles for them, they might have to go on sick leave, which will not help to reduce costs. A key to freeing up police officers has been to have the necessary bureaucracy carried out by civilians in a back-office role, so that officers can spend more time on the beat, which is something my constituents will want to be continued and maintained.

We also have to bear in mind that a number of cuts have already been announced and reconfirmed in today’s Budget. The local crime and disorder reduction partnerships in Tameside and Stockport, and no doubt across the whole of Greater Manchester—partnerships involving various local agencies including the local council, housing associations and the NHS—have made a significant impact on reducing crime in my constituency. They have helped to reduce the rate of reoffending, especially in respect of key crimes such as burglary, car crime and antisocial behaviour.

Reducing the funding available to crime and disorder reduction partnerships will put all that good work in jeopardy. The ability to respond to complex issues in a multi-agency setting, which ensures a range of expertise, could no longer be relied on if agencies were stripped back even further. Agencies would go back to being able only to fire-fight issues, rather than take the current proactive approach to local concerns.

I give one example. In Tameside, alley-gates have had a huge impact in dealing with crime and making people feel safer. Since 2005, more than 1,300 households have benefited from the initiative. In a recent survey by Tameside council, 96% of people said that they had felt safer since the gates went up, and 42% felt that they had had an impact on antisocial behaviour. However, with local authority cuts on the way, there will be less money available for such crime prevention initiatives; that, along with further cuts in the police budgets, will have a knock-on effect.

I turn to another matter that I wish to highlight. There is a sense of irony in my constituency about the local Liberal Democrats in Stockport. I appreciate that the Minister may not have the authority to speak for his coalition partners on this matter, but we shall see. We have found out all too soon that the Liberal Democrats say one thing in opposition and quite another when in government.

In February, the Stockport Liberal Democrats put forward a council motion condemning the previous Labour Government and the borough’s two Labour Members of Parliament—myself and my hon. Friend the Member for Stockport (Ann Coffey)—for the 3% increase in the local police grant settlement, claiming that it would impact on front-line policing in Greater Manchester. How strange that they should have said nothing when the Tory-Liberal Government ordered the cuts. It is the height of hypocrisy, especially as it will mean a less effective police force in my constituency, in Tameside and Stockport and across Greater Manchester.

What objections have the local Liberal Democrats raised? The silence is deafening. [Interruption.] It so happens that the hon. Member for Manchester, Withington (Mr Leech) has just popped his head round the door; he has now left. Perhaps they are so mesmerised by their newly acquired Government offices that they are suffering from some form of political amnesia. They are certainly not putting the people of Stockport and Greater Manchester first. That is not surprising, given that every Liberal Democrat Member of the House today was elected on a pledge not to support the £6 billion cuts programme, although they now seem content to its being driven through at high speed. I hope that they recover their principles soon, and think once more about these damaging cuts to our police service.

I accept that people are generally suspicious of politicians using statistics, but it is worth repeating the point that when Labour was in government, we in Greater Manchester saw recorded crime fall by 36%, including antisocial behaviour and other more serious offences. We need to ask serious questions about the Government’s commitment to reducing crime and protecting British people.

Has the Minister given any thought to the effect that the cuts will have on local policing? What will be the effect on the fear of crime if the police are less visible in the community? In light of the cuts to local government announced in the Budget today, what will be the effect on the funding of crime and disorder reduction partnerships? A multi-agency approach has made a real contribution to cutting crime and the fear of crime.

The counter-terrorism budget, too, has been cut—by £10 million. Although no one wants to raise public concerns about terrorism, has any assessment been made of how the cut will impact on our effectiveness in protecting the public from terrorism? That question is particularly appropriate for Greater Manchester, as its police take the lead on such issues for the whole of the north-west.

We also need to consider grants for specific posts, such as drug-testing officers or school-based police officers. They are not funded out of the main police grant, but specific grants are given for individual posts. Given the budget tightening, those important and worthwhile posts could well be under threat too, putting more pressure on the remaining posts. What assessment has been made of the combined impact of the grant reductions made by the Minister’s Department and the council tax freeze, which will effectively eliminate Greater Manchester police authority’s ability to raise funds locally to support policing?

From the discussions that I have had with the local police and other agencies, I know that there is a real sense of concern about this issue, not just for Greater Manchester police, but police forces across the country. We need to have a more considered approach that takes into account what local communities want and need, particularly in relation to something as important as policing and community safety. I look forward to the Minister’s response.