Infrastructure (Financial Assistance) Bill

Charlie Elphicke Excerpts

Monday 17th September 2012 Commons Chamber

[Danny Alexander]

I had the pleasure of spending some time in Cornwall earlier this year, and of driving down that stretch of road. I understand the case that my hon. Friend makes. It has been made to me by Cornish colleagues from both coalition parties, and we will of course look sympathetically at any requests that might be made. It is always welcome to see local funding coming forward, and to see a local area taking responsibility for what it wants to do.

[Charlie Elphicke (Dover) (Con)]

The way in which the guarantees will be structured will be incredibly important for the planning by the financiers who wish to unlock these important projects. Will this involve credit support for the land or undeveloped infrastructure, credit support for the development finance piece, or credit support for the off-take or use of the infrastructure at the end of the day?

[Danny Alexander]

As I shall explain, we are not seeking to circumscribe unnecessarily the nature or structure of the guarantees, either through the Bill or through the announcements that the Government have made. We are willing to have discussions with those involved in projects that meet the criteria that have been set out, and it might well be that different structures of guarantee will be appropriate for different projects. I do not wish artificially to circumscribe the flexibility of the scheme in advance of the discussions with the individual projects. I am sure that those involved in the projects will be well able to have discussions with Infrastructure UK about the nature of the guarantee that would suit them best.

I was explaining the convention that the Government should not rest significant expenditure under common law powers on the sole authority of general supply legislation. Accordingly, to offer the support we want to see, Government need Parliament’s authority to incur expenditure in connection with agreements to provide financial assistance and to pay out on liabilities should they be called upon.

Today we seek authority for the Treasury to incur up to £50 billion of expenditure in connection with giving financial assistance to infrastructure across the UK. That financial assistance might take the form of guarantees, loans, indemnities or other support backed by public funds. It could be used—

--- Later in debate ---

[Danny Alexander]

The Secretary of State will have to make a decision in the normal way. I am sure that he will have heard my hon. Friend’s comments, and I shall ensure that they are passed on.

[Charlie Elphicke]

Will the right hon. Gentleman give way?

[Danny Alexander]

I must make some progress, but I will give way again later.

Housing guarantees, alongside a wider package of housing and planning reforms, will contribute to the construction of up to 70,000 homes, including affordable housing, and opportunities for first-time buyers to get on to the housing ladder. That will ease conditions in overcrowded and overpriced residential areas, and will enable people to locate near to jobs.

The steps that we plan to take, and which the Bill enables us to take, will help more companies in a wide range of sectors to grow and flourish, not just in the south-east of England but throughout the UK, and will give more people access to a wider range of opportunities. The benefits will also be felt in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The UK’s hard-won fiscal credibility should benefit the whole of the UK.

--- Later in debate ---

[Danny Alexander]

I hear the case that the hon. Gentleman is making. We have made important announcements recently, particularly in relation to rail links in and to Wales, which I hope he welcomes. I will not support specific projects that may be in gestation, but we will work with the Welsh Assembly Government, who are principally responsible for such proposals. If there are projects for which a guarantee is appropriate, we will consider that very positively in the light of the representations made to us.

As the hon. Gentleman will know, great interest has already been expressed by investors and those involved in projects since the UK guarantees idea was launched six weeks ago. Since then, about 40 companies and project sponsors have come forward, responsible for projects worth well over £5 billion and covering high-priority investment in areas such as energy, transport, water, waste and telecommunications. Detailed discussions are already taking place with, for example, those involved in the Mersey Bridge Gateway project, which is considered to be one of the world’s top 100 infrastructure projects. We have also indicated that we would be willing to consider a guarantee relating to the green deal.

There should be no doubt that the Government are in a position to deliver this policy, and the investment it will unlock, only because of the decisive action that we have taken to reduce the deficit, and the credibility that that has secured for this country. When we came to office, the UK taxpayer was paying interest rates comparable to those of Spain and Italy. Were that still the case, the course of action that we are taking now would be impossible. Because we made tough decisions to regain control of our public finances, we now enjoy interest rates of only about 2%. That is the result of a responsible approach to spending and a credible long-term commitment to regaining control of the public finances.

Despite those tough decisions, we are already spending more on critical transport and communications infrastructure directly as a Government than was spent at the height of the spending boom. We are providing £18 billion-worth of rail investment, supported by the spending review, and a further £9.4 billion of infrastructure enhancements for the rail network was announced in the summer. Ten super-connected cities—the hon. Member for Swansea referred to super-connectivity—will enjoy ultrafast broadband and high-speed wireless connectivity as a result of Government investment, with funding set aside for a further 10. We are also focusing on how we can reduce burdens and keep costs low so that investment, whether public or private, goes as far as possible.

Last week we announced a package of measures to reduce burdens on business still further, including the reform or removal of more than 3,000 regulations to reduce their impact. That constitutes the most ambitious action ever proposed by a modern British Government to set business free. Our spending plans have prioritised capital spending that supports balanced sustainable growth across the country, and our efforts to reduce burdens on businesses mean that investment has gone even further. That approach is producing results despite difficult conditions. More than 1 million private sector jobs have been created under this Government, and this year we rose from 10th to eighth in the World Economic Forum rankings of international competitiveness. The Bill could allow us to unlock even more investment without placing material additional burdens on the public finances, enabling the Treasury to support infrastructure delivery so that we can make better use of private sector finance, skills and incentives, while also managing exposure to the taxpayer.

Under the previous Government, the UK fell in the infrastructure world rankings from seventh in 1998 to 33rd in 2009—behind Namibia, Slovenia and Cyprus. We are now up to 24th and taking the necessary steps to make the further improvement this country needs. There can be no argument with the view that we are delivering far more than under the plans we inherited from our predecessors.

The Bill contains appropriate safeguards and checks to ensure transparency and accountability to Parliament for actions taken under it. It imposes an upper limit on the amount of expenditure that the Treasury and Secretary of State may incur, which can be increased through affirmative resolution. It also requires the Treasury to update the House regularly. In answer to a point that was made earlier, where expenditure is charged on the Consolidated Fund, the Bill requires the Treasury as soon as practicable to lay a report before Parliament specifying the amount paid. Any expenditure or contingent liabilities will be reported in the whole of Government accounts.

[Charlie Elphicke]

One of the key sensitivities is that one does not want a guarantee to end up like quantitative easing, whereby guarantees are issued and nothing actually comes out the other end. To what extent and how will the Treasury monitor the situation, to ensure that this is a results-based guarantee that brings forward such projects and really makes them happen?

[Danny Alexander]

I am not sure I accept my hon. Friend’s characterisation of quantitative easing. One of the strengths of the tight fiscal policy that this Government have run and will continue to run is precisely that it allows the monetary activism that we have seen in this country and, indeed, in other parts of the world. However, he is right that the purpose of the Bill is to enable infrastructure projects to come forward quickly. That is why one of the key criteria by which we will decide whether to issue a guarantee to a particular project is that it can get under way within 12 months of the guarantee being issued, and that it has the necessary consents in place. This is about bringing forward projects now; it is not about offering guarantees now for projects where nothing will happen for many years to come.

--- Later in debate ---

[Charlie Elphicke]

Can the hon. Lady clear up a bit of confusion? Today, she wrote in The Guardian that the Labour party would fix all this with a bankers bonus tax to build new affordable homes. However, it seems that this tax has been spent a number of times. Back in March, the Leader of the Opposition said it was going to be used to fund the young unemployed. Which is it?

[Rachel Reeves]

The bank bonus tax is being used to do two things: first, to create 100,000 jobs for young people; and secondly, for the construction of 25,000 new affordable homes. The Opposition believe that the priority right now is construction and getting young people back to work. The Government believe that the priority is a tax cut for the bonuses. That just shows how out of touch this coalition Government are.

Nothing better illustrates the long-term costs of this Government’s short-sighted complacency than the shocking shortfall in infrastructure investment. If we want to build a productive, competitive economy for the future, we need to invest in the road and rail systems that keep this country moving; in the energy supplies that power our industries; in the information and communication networks that turn ideas into real innovations. With study after study confirming Keynes’s original insight—that construction projects can maximise the multiplier effects of new investment, creating skilled jobs in the construction sector as well as in engineering and design—there is no better time than now.

Instead, we have had from this Government countless speeches, statements and strategy documents. People are asking, “Where is the delivery?” As the CBI is asking, where are the diggers on the ground? When are we going to start turning blueprints into bricks and mortar? It was the Prime Minister who said,

“This autumn, the government is on an all-out mission to unblock the system and get projects underway”.

That sounds promising—until we realise that he said this a year ago. Since then, what have we seen? None of the road building projects in the autumn statement package have begun construction. The number of housing starts is down on 2011. Planning applications are taking longer to approve. I agreed with the Prime Minister when he said:

“In terms of job creation today, getting construction projects off the ground is critical.”

But in the year since he told us that barely one in 10 of the projects listed in the Government’s construction pipeline have moved forward to procurement or construction, and almost as many of them have moved backwards. Total UK construction output is down by more than 10% and last week’s jobs figures showed that the number of jobs in the construction sector has fallen by 89,000, bringing the total number of construction jobs lost since this Government came to power to 120,000.

The Deputy Prime Minister has promised that support for infrastructure and other private sector projects from the regional growth fund would offer a

“boost to business, which will jump start growth and create jobs that last in the places that really need it.”

That sounds like just what we need, but that was said a year ago. We know that since then just £60 million of the promised £1.4 billion has been released to businesses, creating barely 5% of the 37,000 jobs promised.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer announced £20 billion in new infrastructure investment to be funded by the pension funds—that was a year ago. We now know that this scheme will be launched next year, with funds amounting to only a tenth of what was promised back then. As the failure of this Government’s promises increases, their rhetorical displays have become ever more strident. Two weeks ago, in response to questions from my right hon. Friend the Leader of the Opposition, the Prime Minister said:

“If we look at what is planned by this Government, we see that between 2010 and 2015 we will be investing £250 billion in infrastructure.”—[Official Report, 5 September 2012; Vol. 549, c. 230.]

It is true that the national infrastructure plan sets out £250 billion-worth of projects— would government not be easy if you were judged only on what you had planned? If we look instead at what has been delivered, we see that the picture is rather different. The Office for National Statistics shows that new infrastructure orders since the second quarter of 2010 average less than £2 billion a quarter. At this rate, it will take not five years but more than 30 years for the Government’s grand plan to be delivered. The latest construction output figures released last week show that progress is slowing, not accelerating. It is no wonder that the director general of the British Chambers of Commerce has described the national infrastructure plan as

“hot air, a complete fiction”.