Southend Borough Council

David Amess Excerpts

Thursday 27th May 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mr David Amess (Southend West) (Con)]

Mr Speaker, I am grateful to you for giving me this opportunity to raise certain matters of great concern to my constituents in Southend West. I am also grateful to have the opportunity to congratulate the Under-Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, my hon. Friend the Member for Bromley and Chislehurst (Robert Neill) on his appointment to the Government. I must deny completely that I said to his private office that, if he were kept well watered, he would continue to grow. As far as I am concerned, he does not need to grow in stature. Given his wide experience on the Greater London authority, I can think of no one more able than he to deal with matters of local government. I am also delighted that he has been given this particular Government job, because he is married to a former councillor and mayor of Southend, and he therefore has a particular insight into matters affecting my constituency.

I also congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Rochford and Southend East (James Duddridge) on his appointment to the Government. It is not widely understood that, when someone is appointed as a Whip, they have to sign up to the life of a Trappist monk, but the job is an extremely important one. On 5 January this year, my hon. Friend and I took part in an Adjournment debate in which we raised a number of issues. I am delighted to be able to quote some of the things that he said. They include:

“We have extremely good directly elected councillors, and they should be allowed to get on with the job of spending the money as local residents desire”.

He also said that he and I were united in our desire to get fair funding for the town we represent, saying that

“counting correctly is the most fundamental single thing the Minister could review when considering the future prosperity and regeneration of Southend.”—[Official Report, 5 January 2010; Vol. 503, c. 147.]

He is looking forward to working with my hon. Friend the Member for Bromley and Chislehurst, as he did in opposition, and together we hope to ensure that Southend gets an accurate census in 2001, as well as the central Government funding that it deserves and needs.

My hon. Friend the Member for Rochford and Southend East was not a Member of this place when we had the previous census. It was an unsatisfactory enterprise in every sense, and I raised many questions about the way in which it was conducted. About 20,000 people were left off, and that has had a devastating effect on our constituents. The next national census will take place on Sunday 27 March 2011. The error that happened in the previous one had a devastating effect on Southend Together, the local strategic partnership which includes the council, NHS South East Essex, Essex police and the Southend Association of Voluntary Services. As my hon. Friend the Minister knows, Government funding is calculated by using the population figures from an area’s census, so those mistakes have led to a serious lack of funding. We believe that £8.5 million was lost to local residents.

I have had an awful lot of Adjournment debates since I was first elected to this House. In them, I have exchanged words with whomever the Minister was, and they have tried to help with whatever concerns I have raised on behalf of my constituency. This evening, I am asking my hon. Friend the Minister to listen very carefully to the points that I want to raise, because I genuinely believe that this new coalition Government could make things far better for my constituents, and those of my hon. Friend the Member for Rochford and Southend East, at no extra cost.

As we heard in the discussion of the Gracious Speech on Tuesday, there is a genuine and robust debate to be had about unitary status. Part of the constituency of my hon. Friend the Member for Rochford and Southend East comes under Essex county council, but mine does not. We have an entirely unitary authority, and I have to tell the Minister that I feel that, as a unitary authority, we face some disadvantages. It is a very small authority, and I hope that in the fullness of time over this Parliament, we will be able to join forces with surrounding local authorities so that we can pool expertise and, frankly, carry more clout than seems possible as a unitary authority at the moment.

I deal next with the whole issue of quangos, about which my hon. Friend the Member for Rochford and Southend East is on the record as having strong views. I share them and I am delighted that this Government are committed not only to looking at the budgets of quangos, but to abolishing them. It is absolute madness that, according to a recent Local Government Association report, while the state spends an average of £7,000 a person on health, education and care for the elderly, just £350 is controlled by locally elected politicians. I believe that my hon. Friend referred to this in the debate of 5 January.

I would have thought that we wanted to make it worthwhile for people to vote for local councillors by giving them real power, which I certainly had in the late ’70s and early ’80s when I was involved with Redbridge borough council. Many of those powers have been taken away, as has much of the funding. Much of the money going to these quangos, however worthy, should now be given directly to local authorities. I put it to the Minister that that could surely be done at no extra cost to the public purse; indeed, there would surely be some savings from adopting that approach.

Let me touch on a few transport issues. There is no question but that Southend’s transport infrastructure needs to be improved. Early works have been completed, marking the start of the enhancements to the junction at Progress road in my constituency. A key section of the main arterial route into Southend will complete this suite of improvements, securing a major element of the comprehensive travel and regeneration solution. Such works are a vital investment for Southend and are already having a substantial regeneration impact on the town, as well as achieving significant reductions in congestion and much improved travel and journey times. This is vital for visitor destinations such as Southend, where tourism still accounts for a major part of the town’s economy. Southend is, of course, delighted with the help it has been given thus far, but I hope that the Minister will look carefully at the arrangements already being undertaken.

I am not going to detain the House by talking about what is happening at Cuckoo corner. It used to be shared with my hon. Friend the Member for Rochford and Southend East, but is now mainly in my constituency. There has been some concern from local residents about what is happening with that particular development.

The proposed expansion of Southend airport is welcomed in some parts of the town, but not in others, where there is some concern. Most of that concern is felt in the area that I represent. I think that the matter needs to be handled extremely carefully.

We are blessed with an excellent council leader, Councillor Nigel Holdcroft, an excellent deputy, Councillor John Lamb, and a first-class chief executive, Rob Tinlin. I think, however, that had my hon. Friend the Minister been canvassing with me in my part of Southend before the recent local elections—we were, of course, delighted to increase our majority on the council—he would have observed real concern on the doorstep about the expansion of the airport, which people expect to cause extra noise and congestion and to have an additional impact on the environment in Southend West. During the general election campaign, I told my constituents that I was discussing pollution and the environment with one of the European Commissioners.  I ask my hon. Friend the Minister to pass my message of concern to our hon. Friends in the Department for Transport.

A particular cause for concern, about which I hope my hon. Friend will have something to say, is the shedding of civil service jobs over the past two years, mainly from Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs. We in Southend are not in a receiving zone; neither are we London, but we are seen as being essentially London. Jobs are at risk, because thus far they have been moving to the midlands and the north. Our town’s economy is very fragile, and we really do need those jobs. I cannot emphasise that enough to my hon. Friend.

I understand that the Homes and Communities Agency has frozen most of its housing assistance packages today. Southend has significant amounts of land with housing consents lying vacant under private ownership, which is blighting the town and undermining investment confidence. Examples are the old laundry building in Leigh Broadway at the east end of the town—which I represent—and the old laundry building south of our excellent grammar schools. Will my hon. Friend see what he can do to assist the freeing up of some of those sites for housing development?

The Dartford crossing will always be a disincentive to access and investment in south Essex and Southend, especially if the present Government proceed with the last Government’s proposals to sell the crossing. We need to keep it in public ownership and to seek better tolling solutions.

I suppose that the showpiece of the Gracious Speech was the proposal to create new academies. I ask my hon. Friend to convey to the Secretary of State for Education and, in particular the Minister of State, Department for Education, my hon. Friend the Member for Bognor Regis and Littlehampton (Mr Gibb)—who visited Southend a few weeks before the general election to meet heads—that it would be useful for us to have some sort of steer on what the new quangos are intended to do.

I have already touched on local and regional quangos. I understand, although my hon. Friend the Minister may correct me, that it is proposed that the regional development agencies in the south should form sub-regional economic partnerships. I believe he has suggested something the size of Essex as a likely partnership size. That would be difficult for Southend, as the county council would inevitably dominate the agenda, and the pressure would be for it to reflect rural Essex rather than our rather—dare I say—brasher parts of the county. I hope that a partnership could be devised for the south of the county and perhaps he could suggest to the Secretary of State that we could pilot such a partnership scheme in the south of Essex. The council would be keen to be involved in any number of pilot schemes.

The Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, my hon. Friend the Member for Newbury (Richard Benyon)—the Fisheries Minister—is keen to visit Southend and although my hon. Friend here today does not need to visit Southend to see it for the first time, I ask that, in his new ministerial capacity, he visit Southend so that we can show him what we are talking about.

I end with some issues of great concern to my hon. Friend the Member for Rochford and Southend East and myself. We were disappointed—I am not being churlish—about the funding regarding the pier, which is an icon. I had the privilege to chair the Committee that considered the Olympic Games Bill and I am keen that Southend should be involved. At Hadleigh, we will have the biking event and there is a training opportunity for divers and swimmers at Garons. Eastwood secondary school in my constituency has a wonderful training facility for one of the smaller national squads. But I am excited by the prospect of Southend pier being involved in the opening and closing ceremonies. I understand that we are not going to compete with the drummers in Beijing and that we will have a number of opportunities for celebration. I hope that Southend will be involved in that. Any help my hon. Friend can give to the pier would be gratefully received as would any help that could be given with regard to the cliff slippage. If there is any money in Europe for the dredging of the Thames estuary for cocklers and fishermen, that would be also greatly welcome. In addition, I was privileged to attend a session at Blenheim school at which volunteering was being piloted.

All of us in the House recognise that these are tough times and that there will be little money available. However, I ask my hon. Friend to do all he can to assist Southend council in getting a fair deal in terms of the moneys that are available.