Economy: Prosperity of Towns

Baroness Farrington of Ribbleton Excerpts

Wednesday 7th January 2015 Lords Chamber

[Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon]

The noble Lord should look at the facts. My noble friend Lord Heseltine has been working very closely with the Government, but I can do no better than cite an area that the noble Lord, Lord McKenzie, knows well. In Luton, there has been a successful LEP initiative on growth funds—with Woodside Link, Bedfordshire, the building of the new link road in Houghton Regis will enable major employment growth and help reduce congestion north of Luton. The noble Lord need look no further than his own town, where he will see the benefits and the results of the Government’s schemes.

[Baroness Farrington of Ribbleton (Lab)]

My Lords, would the Minister care to comment on the disproportionate allocation of resources and capacity for growth for many of the areas in the north of England, both the north-west and the north-east? This Government are disproportionately favouring his noble friends’ sort of areas at the expense of local authorities such as Preston and Lancashire. Does he agree that one of the most effective things for enterprise is for the local authority to ensure that it can match funding to make areas places that people want to live in, with decent services?

[Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon]

Suffice it to say that I do not agree with the noble Baroness. The local growth funds have demonstrably shown success up and down the country. I quote:

“Reaching this landmark deal is a real demonstration of central government’s confidence in our economic potential”.

That is from Edwin Booth, the chair of the Lancashire local enterprise partnership. Last time I checked, that was not down south, where the noble Baroness asserts that some of my noble friends may be.