Oral Answers to Questions

Diana Johnson Excerpts

Thursday 10th April 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Willetts]

Let us be absolutely clear what today’s IFS report shows. It shows that people on lower earnings throughout their working lives are going to pay back less. That is a deliberate feature of our reforms which means that they are fairer and more progressive than the system we inherited from the Labour Government. Meanwhile, people who earn a lot during their working lives as a result of going to university will pay back more. That is what we intended with these reforms, and that is what the IFS shows we are delivering.

[Diana Johnson (Kingston upon Hull North) (Lab)]

3. What progress he has made on rebalancing the economy across the UK.

[The Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills (Vince Cable)]

The regional growth fund plays a key rote in stimulating private investment and employment in areas dependent on the public sector. Today, my right hon. Friend the Deputy Prime Minister has announced 50 further projects and programmes that have been awarded regional growth fund support in round 5. Together they will share £300 million of RGF support and have pledged to deliver £1.9 billion of private sector investment and to safeguard or create 37,000 jobs. We have also increased resources under the strategic direction of local enterprise partnerships to at least £20 billion until 2020-21.

[Diana Johnson]

In 2011, Hull voters kicked out the Lib Dem councillors who had delayed setting up the Humber LEP. From then on, the Labour council, MPs, local businesses and the LEP took the lead in working together to bring to the city Siemens, City of Culture, and rail electrification. Does not that show the potential of real devolution to the regions? Why does the Secretary of State block the plans that are set out in the Heseltine review?

[Vince Cable]

I certainly welcome devolution and the cross-party approach that we have adopted to attracting Siemens. I remember going to Hull in 2010 and 2011, when an excellent Liberal Democrat council was laying the foundations for the bid for Siemens that is now happily realised.

--- Later in debate ---

[Matthew Hancock]

Yes, I will. Only this week, we took through the statutory instrument to expand the start-up loans scheme and ensure that the funding is available. Fifteen thousand people have now had the benefit of using the scheme, but it is not just about the money; it is about the mentoring and the wider support that come with a start-up loan, and I commend everyone to have a look at the scheme and commend it to their constituents.

[Diana Johnson (Kingston upon Hull North) (Lab)]

Does the Secretary of State share my concern that, following the closure of the Insolvency Service office in Hull, there will be a gap between Newcastle and Ipswich with no Insolvency Service offices between those two areas? Will he agree to meet me to discuss this matter?

[Jenny Willott]

I am happy to meet the hon. Lady to discuss this issue. The Insolvency Service is having to look at the way in which it manages its estate. The number of insolvencies has been dropping significantly year on year, and it has to make the best use of its resources.