Amendment of the Law

Eric Ollerenshaw Excerpts

Monday 28th March 2011 Commons Chamber

[Eric Ollerenshaw (Lancaster and Fleetwood) (Con)]

I am grateful to follow the hon. Member for Newcastle upon Tyne Central (Chi Onwurah), who was trying to make some positive comments about regulation, as was the hon. Member for Sheffield South East (Mr Betts), who spoke previously. Unfortunately, however, what we have heard from the majority of Opposition Members is this line about how we are cutting too far, too fast. It would really help their presentation to the country, including my electorate—or at least their presentation to us—if they said which cuts they would be prepared to tolerate, because to my electors their position just sounds bogus and false. The Opposition have lost the argument about how we got into this problem, but it would be really useful in the argument about how far we cut to know their position. I can say from my attendance in the Chamber that they have opposed every one of the Government’s proposed cuts. We would therefore love to hear one or two suggestions from the Opposition about where they would be by now.

Like most Members, I suppose, I spent the weekend trying to find out what constituents really feel about this Budget, on the political proviso that we should be careful on the first day, and then see how it sinks in on the following days. We are now five days in, and if I can sum up the general view by quoting one of my electors, he said of the Chancellor—in true Lancashire fashion, of course—that he did not think that the lad had done too badly, given the poor hand that he had been dealt. I have found that to be pretty much the general impression.

As for growth, my hon. Friend the Member for Stratford-on-Avon (Nadhim Zahawi) is absolutely right. Indeed, the north and western Lancashire chamber of commerce has said:

“Overall there is a lot in this Budget for Business,”

and specifically mentioned the corporation tax reduction and cuts in fuel duty. From the workings-out that I have seen, the Federation of Small Businesses gives the Chancellor eight and a half out of 10, welcoming the measures on fuel duty, the fair fuel stabiliser, apprenticeships, deregulation, enterprise zones and small business rate relief, and the doubling of entrepreneurs’ relief and the increase in the R and D tax credit for SMEs.

In the few minutes remaining, I want to pick up on something that my hon. Friend the Economic Secretary said last week when she talked about regional imbalances. Anyone who goes to the Fleetwood end of my constituency and asks people there what their view is of economic policy over the last 13 years, would simply be told that Fleetwood had been forgotten—a port now without a ferry service; a train line without a train on it. Yet behind all that—to return to the point made by the hon. Member for Newcastle upon Tyne Central—all that small businesses talk about are the regulations that prevent them from taking on more people. I have food processors in my constituency that export all over the world, but they are trapped by regulation. They want to take on more apprentices, and they hope that something will come from the measures in the Budget.

The interesting thing about Labour policy on the regional imbalance over the last 18 years is this. The Office for National Statistics uses a measurement called gross value added, which measures the contribution to the economy of each individual producer, industry and sector. It showed that there was decline in the north every year for the past 13 years as growth in London and the south-east increased. Lancashire’s rate of decline was twice that of the whole of the north over the past 13 years. The figures are consistent for every single year.

What has gone wrong? My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government has suggested that the regional development agencies were not working, and I support that view. I sat on the board of the London Development Agency for four years. I have to be careful what I say, because I see my hon. Friend the Member for Ealing Central and Acton (Angie Bray) in the Chamber, and she was instrumental in getting me on to that board as the lone Conservative. But why did London need such an agency in the first place? It had all the bureaucracy and office-led systems of any other development agency. It also claimed that every person employed across the whole of London was employed as a result of its actions. I could never quite make that connection, because I thought that perhaps the City of London Corporation and the development in the docklands might also have had something to do with people coming to London.

There is a general view in my part of the world that people in London think that the north-west begins and ends with Greater Manchester and Merseyside. I am therefore not surprised that each of those areas is to have one of the new enterprise zones, but I hope that Ministers are listening and will perhaps decide that there will be room for one of the 21 zones announced in the Budget in part of Lancashire.

During my four years on the board of the London Development Agency, I learned that, while it is possible to spend money on all kinds training schemes, as the Opposition have proposed, infrastructure is the key. This Government have made a commitment to major transport improvements. I also hope that the Under-Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, my hon. Friend the Member for Bromley and Chislehurst (Robert Neill) will look into the proposal in the Liberal manifesto for regional stock exchanges. Given the problems with banks and investment, they might encourage greater investment by local people in local businesses. The Chancellor should look into that. A great practical step forward would be the announcement of a Lancashire-wide stock exchange based in Lancaster.