Covid-19: Economic Recovery

Baroness McIntosh of Pickering Excerpts

Tuesday 20th April 2021 Grand Committee

[Baroness McIntosh of Pickering (Con)]

My Lords, it is a great pleasure to follow my noble friend. I congratulate him on being such a champion for disabled people. We came into the House at the same time, and I yield to no one in my admiration for all he does in that quarter.

I am delighted to speak in this debate. I congratulate my noble friend the Minister on setting the scene and especially on highlighting the undoubted generosity of this Government. I will make two specific points in beginning. I said in the Budget debate, and repeat here, that I believe we are in danger of failing women, particularly younger women. They have lost out, particularly in the hospitality and retail sectors, although we do not yet know to what extent. We are also in danger of failing older woman, who find it so difficult to re-enter the market yet—I include myself in this—are being asked to work longer before they are entitled to take their state pension.

There is also one sector that I believe is worthy of perhaps more targeted support than we have given it at this time—the aviation sector. It is the sector to which my husband contributed more than 30 years of his working life, and one of which I have always been very supportive. As a Government we should recognise that its margins are particularly low. I hope we can recognise that it has probably suffered greater even than the hospitality and retail sectors. I believe we owe it to the sector to enable it to build back better once the economy starts to surge, as my noble friend Lord Hannan so enthusiastically says it will—and I do not disagree with him.

I shall focus my remarks on the levelling-up agenda, particularly from a northern and rural perspective. I am looking especially at the build back better possibilities that my noble friend set out. How will this work in a rural landscape, particularly looking to the food and farming sectors in the countryside and the role of market towns as hubs in this regard?

I welcome the commitment my noble friend highlighted: that we will send civil servants to Darlington, Leeds and other places. I hope they respond as enthusiastically to that call. To me, growing up near Darlington, it was a big day out, so I can commend the pleasures of Darlington to them without any hesitation. Obviously, the housing will be a lot cheaper than where they might currently live. I welcome that commitment, but specifically what policies we will introduce in rural areas, particularly in a northern context?

In preparing for today, I had an excellent briefing from North Yorkshire County Council. I pay tribute to the work it has done in setting up a rural commission and a climate change commission, leaning in—in the words of my noble friend Lord Vaizey—to the times and recognising where these twin challenges are coming from. We have challenges in rural areas such as North Yorkshire, particularly in transport and connectivity. I welcome all the support the Government are highlighting in this area, and I hope for even more support.

The rural bus network has taken a particular hit because obviously it is very difficult to entice passengers to travel to work on rural buses. The collapse in passengers during the pandemic, with more people working from home, has undoubtedly left a great dent. Broadband and mobile phones are woeful in rural areas, particularly the uplands of North Yorkshire, and that is something I take every opportunity—such as this—to highlight.

I live in despair about promoting electric vehicles in rural areas. I would like to travel the 240 or 250 miles to North Yorkshire and to think that there would be sufficient charging points to enable me to purchase an electric vehicle, if I could ever afford one, and run it locally before I travel back to London.

These are the everyday challenges we face in rural areas. It is important that, while North Yorkshire has benefited in some regards, being a desirable place to live and work—I think more people will purchase homes there—some negative sectors have emerged. We have been particularly hard hit in that food supplies to the catering sector during the lockdown absolutely collapsed. Also, large numbers of people have been furloughed and there is ongoing uncertainty about whether they will go back to jobs. Structural challenges in this regard remain.

I now turn to what we are planning to do, in particular BioYorkshire. I had an excellent briefing from the vice-chancellor of the University of York in this regard. BioYorkshire is a very exciting concept. It is a global bioeconomy programme to be delivered by the global leaders in the sector. It is a 10-year programme that will accelerate the translation and application of research discoveries into full-scale biotechnology applications using the region of Yorkshire’s world-class science base to deliver profitable bio-based production of chemicals, materials and fuels, building on the strengths we have in this regard of food, farming and the already well-developed food clusters we enjoy in North Yorkshire. I pay tribute to BioYorkshire and hope that it will enjoy the match funding required. It will need £430 million of government support to lever £570 million of co-funding. It is a partnership between the University of York and Fera Science, which I worked closely with for five years when it was based in my constituency and gave frequent evidence to the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee, which I had the privilege to chair. Askham Bryan agricultural college will play a key role, as will private sector partners such as Ocado and Nestlé, which many noble Lords will be familiar with.

However, I want to ask a specific question on match funding, building on contributions from other noble Lords. The Government made an early and welcome commitment on leaving the European Union to make good the shortfall in university funding for the future. This is where I want to pin my noble friend down: is this for the foreseeable future—the next five or 10 years —or is it just until the end of a current EU programme such as Horizon, which expires, and the money runs out, next year? This is extremely important to projects such as BioYorkshire because, for it to succeed, the University of York and the match funding will require this money to be made good by the Government. My specific question is therefore: is it a long-term commitment from the Government that they will make good, on an ongoing, year-on-year basis for the foreseeable future, the shortfall that we have suffered since leaving the European Union, or is it only until the end of the current funding programme, such as Horizon and other programmes, in 2022? I repeat: to ensure the success of programmes such as BioYorkshire—which I am sure is replicated across the country—we need this match funding from the Government to make good the shortfall now that we have left the European Union.

On “levelling up” and “building back better”, which are phrases that are very easy to throw around but difficult to make good on, how will this work in a northern and rural setting such as North Yorkshire and the whole of the Yorkshire region? What specific policies and funds do my noble friend and the Government plan to make available to ensure their success?