Spending Review and Autumn Statement

Debate between Diana Johnson and George Osborne

Wednesday 25th November 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Osborne]

My hon. Friend has been a doughty champion of flood defences on the Humber. As he well knows, the Environment Agency is looking at the big, long-term scheme that has been put forward there. I will make sure it takes a serious look at what it can do to protect industries in his constituency.

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

Continuing with the Humber theme, I welcome the Chancellor’s announcement of the £1 million for Hull city of culture 2017, which I think takes the total to £5 million. If he is really serious about the northern powerhouse and investing in the arts in the north, may I gently point out to him that that compares very badly with the fact that an arts campus in Battersea is getting £150 million, an unspecified arts project at the Olympics site will get money and there is an additional £150 million for London museums? Will he think again about what the northern powerhouse and the arts actually mean?

[Mr Osborne]

I do not think the sum the hon. Lady gave for the Battersea project is quite right. I make no apology for saying that we should invest in our great national museums wherever they are—the Museum of Science in Manchester, the Burrell Collection in Glasgow, or the Science Museum and the V and A in London—because they are all part of what makes the United Kingdom a fantastic place to visit and to live in. I will look seriously at proposals she puts forward for investments in the arts in Yorkshire. As she will see in the autumn statement, we have made a big investment in the arts in Manchester with the commitment to Factory Manchester. We have previously committed money for the Turner Collection to come to Hull, and we have already renovated a number of museums in Hull. Does she have new ideas? Her constituency neighbour, the right hon. Member for Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle (Alan Johnson), made a request to me and I have funded it, which I am glad she welcomes.

Autumn Statement

Debate between Diana Johnson and George Osborne

Wednesday 3rd December 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Osborne]

My hon. Friend is, of course, absolutely right. He came to No. 11 Downing street with representatives of businesses from the whole of the north-west, and particularly with those businesses that create and support jobs in Carlisle and across Cumbria. My hon. Friend, of course, has been instrumental in getting the Government to look at the A69 and the A66 to see what more can be done to support those east-west links across the very north of England. Without him as MP for Carlisle, that study would not have happened.

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

Why does the Chancellor consistently forget to mention Hull when he is talking about the northern powerhouse, particularly when people in Hull seem to think that the northern powerhouse is a new electrical store that is opening and not the joined-up plan for the whole of the north that it is? He can redeem himself, however, by announcing today the privately financed initiative to electrify the line to Hull, for which we are all waiting.

[Mr Osborne]

Of course, we are waiting for it partly because under 13 years of the Labour Government, it never happened. We are looking at improving rail connections to Hull. I was there fairly recently and talked to Lord Haskins, the head of the local enterprise partnership. I go out of my way to say that Hull should be part of the northern powerhouse, and I have talked about the links between Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds and Hull across the east-west link of the north of England. I think there are real opportunities, alongside the flood defence programme in the Humber estuary that we have talked about. The investment in the enterprise zones there and the Siemens investment in Humberside are important. There are lots of great things happening in Hull, and the “Hook up Hull” campaign is yet another example of a great campaign that we are looking to support.

Spending Review

Debate between Diana Johnson and George Osborne

Wednesday 26th June 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Osborne]

No, I do not accept that at all. The last Labour Government had a shocking record on house building, especially affordable house building. If the hon. Gentleman turns up in the Chamber tomorrow, he will hear some positive announcements about affordable house building.

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

Lord Heseltine’s plan for localising regeneration funding in a single pot would have cost £49 billion. The announcement today is for just £2 billion. Lord Heseltine said that such a figure would be a slap in the face for local areas. Does the Chancellor agree, and why did he not stand up to the Lib Dem Business Secretary, who opposed that idea?

Economic Policy

Debate between Diana Johnson and George Osborne

Monday 25th February 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Osborne]

I cannot believe that the hon. Gentleman waited an hour and four minutes to read us the Whips’ handout again. As I have said, perhaps the Labour party will circulate its alternative economic policy, so that we can have a real debate about it in the House.

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

Given the loss of 1,000 private sector jobs in the Hull area over the last couple of months, and the 15,000 people who are looking for work, does the Chancellor think that the downgrading will help or hinder the economic recovery of the Humber?

[Mr Osborne]

What will help the economic recovery of the Humber are, first of all, the low interest rates, which, as I said earlier, are tested every day out there in the bond market. In addition, however, we have opened new enterprise zones in east Yorkshire, we have cut the bridge tolls on the Humber bridge—which I would have hoped that the hon. Lady would welcome—and we have invested in new road projects in and around the area, which had been demanded for years.

Autumn Statement

Debate between Diana Johnson and George Osborne

Wednesday 5th December 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Osborne]

I can absolutely confirm that. We are doing everything we can to support businesses in my hon. Friend’s area and to make sure that all parts of the country benefit from the infrastructure investment that we are making. Having been up to his part of the world, I know that we are making those investments and they are bringing real benefits to the area that he represents.

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

Can the Chancellor explain to the 1,200 people in and around Hull who are facing private sector job losses announced in the preceding four weeks exactly what is in the autumn statement in terms of jobs and growth for them?

[Mr Osborne]

Of course we regret any decision made by any company to reduce jobs, but we are creating jobs in the economy. In Humberside we have committed to new enterprise zones. We have reduced the tolls on the Humber bridge. We have introduced today new tax allowances from January next year to help small businesses in the hon. Lady’s area to invest. These will all help create jobs, and I hope the people she represents will also welcome the increase in the personal allowance, which will see a reduction in their income tax bill, and the decision not to go ahead with the Labour party’s 3p fuel duty rise.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Diana Johnson and George Osborne

Tuesday 6th September 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Osborne]

I certainly will. I agree 100% with the point the hon. Gentleman is making, and on Friday we will be meeting as the G7, and then we have the ECOFIN meeting next week. He is absolutely right: as well as needing to tackle the fiscal policies and budget deficits, we need to make Europe more competitive. We need to make the whole of the European continent more competitive, and that involves supply-side reforms, deepening the single market and promoting free trade around the world, and I will be making that point today and in future.

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

T9. Given the latest data on manufacturing, construction, exports and retail, can the Chancellor explain to me exactly where we will see growth and jobs coming from, especially in an area such as Hull?

[Mr Osborne]

I hope the hon. Lady welcomes the decision we made to make sure that Humberside had an enterprise zone. The way that this and other countries are going to get growth is not by taking yet another fix of the debt-fuelled spending bubble that got us into the mess we are in at the moment; it is by becoming competitive and having successful private sector businesses and a tax and regulatory environment that allows them to compete with not just the rest of Europe but the rest of the world.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Diana Johnson and George Osborne

Tuesday 16th November 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mr Osborne]

Of course we are urging fiscal restraint on the European Union. I should pay tribute to my colleague, the Economic Secretary, who has been out to Brussels twice in the past few days to argue vigorously for restraint in the European Union budget with considerable success. One of the problems we are dealing with is that the previous Government gave up half the rebate and that is one of the reasons why the budget is increasing.

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

T5. The unemployment rate in my constituency was 10.7% in September. After the announcement in the comprehensive spending review of the slashing of jobs, services and skills, what does the Chancellor think will be the unemployment rate in my constituency in 12 months’ time?

[Mr Osborne]

The whole point is that we have given these forecasts to an independent body, rather than just relying on the forecasts given by the Chancellor of the Exchequer at this Dispatch Box, so that people can believe in their independence and credibility. The Office for Budget Responsibility will produce its autumn forecast on 29 November. But of course the OBR figure that all Labour Members seem to use is the one for the public sector head count, but they seem to forget that this same body made a forecast of an increase in net employment, which sadly they never use.