Oral Answers to Questions

Eric Ollerenshaw Excerpts

Wednesday 28th January 2015 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

It is the “long-term economic plan”, by the way.

Let me tell the hon. Gentleman how things are going in his own constituency. Never mind the academics; let us see what is happening for working people in his constituency. The number of people claiming unemployment benefit is down by 31%, the youth claimant count is down by 34%, and the long-term youth claimant count is down by 57% in the last year alone. If we look across London, we can see 470,000 more people in work, and more than half a million private sector jobs have been created.

What I want to know is this: when did the Labour party become the welfare party? When did that happen? It is Members on this side of the House who are standing up for hard-working people, and who are on the side of work and on the side of enterprise, reforming work and, yes, reforming welfare to make that happen.

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

Q15. As part of the Prime Minister’s long-term economic plan to rebalance the British economy, will he continue to support Britain’s coastal communities, such as Fleetwood in Lancashire, to make up for 13 years of neglect by the last Labour Government?

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right about the importance of investing in our coastal communities, and that is what we have done through our coastal communities fund. So far more than 200 projects have benefited, creating or safeguarding more than 16,000 jobs. I know that Fleetwood received a boost from the fund last year, when Wyre council was given a grant to develop new tourist attractions, but I want to see more happen to help my hon. Friend’s constituents and to help our coastal communities, of which Fleetwood is such an important part.

Oral Answers to Questions

Eric Ollerenshaw Excerpts

Wednesday 27th November 2013 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I can tell the hon. Lady what we have done on business rates, which is to extend the freeze on business rates that the last Government were going to get rid of. What we are also doing on business rates is to have a £2,000 cut in national insurance for every business in the country. For small businesses up and down our high streets, I cannot think of anything that will make a bigger difference than seeing their national insurance bill go down by £2,000 and being able to employ more people.

On the subject of how to help business, how on earth can it be a good idea to say that you want to increase corporation tax as you go into the next Parliament? That seems to me absolutely mad—a new Labour jobs tax.

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

By the end of this year, more than 8,000 people in our country will have been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, of which only 4% will have even the chance of a five-year survival rate. Those figures have not changed for the last 30 years. Will the Prime Minister join the all-party group on pancreatic cancer and Pancreatic Cancer UK in their aim, which is that it is time to change and improve on those dreadful outcomes?

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend makes a good point. An issue always raised by charities campaigning on some of the less well-known and less prevalent cancers is that they do not get a fair share of the research funding. That is an issue that I have taken up with the Health Secretary. We need to make sure that we are spreading research funding and the work we do into cancer fairly across the different disciplines and across the different cancers.

Oral Answers to Questions

Eric Ollerenshaw Excerpts

Wednesday 4th July 2012 Commons Chamber

[Alok Sharma (Reading West) (Con)]

5. What recent discussions he has had with Ministers in the Northern Ireland Executive on economic development.

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

11. What recent discussions he has had with Ministers in the Northern Ireland Executive on economic development.

[The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland (Mr Owen Paterson)]

My right hon. Friend the Minister of State and I meet regularly with Northern Ireland Ministers in support of their efforts to promote economic development and to help rebuild and rebalance the economy.

[Mr Paterson]

I have regular discussions with the First Minister, Deputy First Minister and Minister of Finance. Last year’s Budget, which became the Finance Act 2011, made that facility available. There are 24 enterprise zones in England, four in Scotland and seven in Wales. They have the capacity also to have enhanced capital allowances. I am in favour of them as a benefit for Northern Ireland, but this is a devolved issue and a devolved decision.

[Eric Ollerenshaw]

Does my right hon. Friend agree that economic development in Northern Ireland would be much assisted by greater competition on the ferry routes in the Irish sea? A good start would be the restoration of the ferry link between Fleetwood and Larne.

[Mr Paterson]

I wholeheartedly endorse what my hon. Friend is doing in trying to improve ferry links across the Irish sea. I cannot think of a better place to expand to than Fleetwood.

--- Later in debate ---

[The Prime Minister]

I can quite understand why the hon. Gentleman raises this on behalf of his constituents. What happened is not acceptable. Clearly, it is an operational matter for the bank, but the Financial Services Authority has been monitoring this very closely. My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland spoke yesterday to the chairman of RBS. The lessons must be learned, but I can tell the hon. Gentleman that RBS has said that it will reimburse any customer for penalty charges or overdraft fees—anything that is incurred because of these difficulties.

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

Q3. To be blunt, my constituents and businesses are losing faith in their banks. What they need from the Prime Minister is a reassurance that there will be no more political skeletons in the cupboard left by the Labour party.

[The Prime Minister]

What matters for my hon. Friend’s constituents and, frankly, for everyone in this House is that we get to the bottom of what happened as quickly as possible. We have had a vote in the House of Lords; we will have a vote in the House of Commons; and then we need to get on with it. We are sent to this House to hold these inquiries, to find these facts, to pass these laws. Let us get on with it.

Oral Answers to Questions

Eric Ollerenshaw Excerpts

Wednesday 30th November 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Paterson]

The hon. Gentleman makes a good point. The HET is building up an extraordinary archive of knowledge. As he knows, I am interested in opening up Government archives so that they may be assessed by professionals. Down the road, this might be a matter that is well worth discussing with the devolved Executive to see whether the HET can form the basis of an archive for historians.

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

2. What discussions he has had with Ministers in the Northern Ireland Executive on economic development.

[The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland (Mr Owen Paterson)]

I meet regularly with the First Minister and Deputy First Minister to discuss matters including the Northern Ireland economy, and the Minister of State met last week with the Minister of Enterprise, Trade and Investment to consider a range of issues related to economic development.

[Eric Ollerenshaw]

Does my right hon. Friend agree that improved transport links between Northern Ireland and the mainland will be vital for economic development, and that the completion of the M6-Heysham port motorway link will be vital?

[Mr Paterson]

I admire the skill of that question, and I congratulate my hon. Friend on working for his constituents. I am glad to say that there is a sailing twice daily to Northern Ireland, and I hope the new link will boost trade between Northern Ireland and his constituents.

Oral Answers to Questions

Eric Ollerenshaw Excerpts

Wednesday 10th November 2010 Commons Chamber

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

As I said earlier, I think every Member agrees that the funding for universities should be a mixture of direct support from the state and contributions made by—[Interruption.] As soon as we came into government, we looked exhaustively at the option of a graduate tax, which was proposed by some Labour Members and by the National Union of Students, but we discovered that that would be much more unfair and would allow particularly high earners to opt out of the system altogether, compared to the progressive system of graduate contributions that we are proposing now.

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

Q8. Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs has a business payment support service, which has helped many businesses in my constituency that have met short-term problems to achieve a delayed payment of taxes—sometimes the taxman can help, apparently. Does my right hon. Friend agree that this is a valuable service and that HMRC, alongside every other part of Government, should provide as much flexibility and support as possible for business, if we are get out of the recession left to us by the previous Government?

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

I strongly agree with my hon. Friend. I think that HMRC’s business payment support service is indeed, as he says, a very valuable and important service, and it remains in place. By the end of September this year, 371,200 arrangements had been granted, worth £6.38 billion. That is extraordinarily valuable to small and medium-sized enterprises, which are indeed struggling and deserve all the support they require to power us out of this difficult economic environment.