Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between George Freeman and Philip Davies(9 years, 9 months ago)
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George Freeman
My right hon. Friend and predecessor makes an important point. Since we launched the life science strategy at the start of this Parliament, as set out and led by my right hon. Friend, this country has attracted over £3.5 billion of inward investment into the sector and created more than 11,000 jobs, so something is going very right. He makes a key point: the next step is to ensure that our NHS is driving quicker access. We shall shortly be announcing the chair of the review, and we have already started to gather evidence. My right hon. Friend will have noticed on his recent trip to America the support and the interest that it is gaining overseas for driving our sector forward.
Philip Davies (Shipley) (Con)
When the Secretary of State’s Department was called the Department of Trade and Industry, he called for it to be abolished, saying:
“The DTI should be wound up because it doesn’t perform a function. It has no real role anymore”.
Interestingly, his solution was not to reform the Department and rename it BIS; his solution was to split the duties of the Department between existing Government Departments —he cited the Department for Work and Pensions and the Department for Education and Skills. Which of his duties does he think should be handled by other Government Departments, or what has changed his mind? Was it a ministerial salary, perhaps?
Offshore Gambling Bill
Debate between George Freeman and Philip Davies(11 years, 9 months ago)
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George Freeman (Mid Norfolk) (Con)
I pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Thirsk and Malton (Miss McIntosh) for leading the debate this morning, and to my one-time office mate, the Under-Secretary of State for Skills, my hon. Friend the Member for West Suffolk (Matthew Hancock), whose constituency includes Newmarket.
As a sponsor of the original Bill, it is a pleasure for me to be here on this Friday morning to support this Bill. I support it because I believe the racing industry needs it, and I shall say something about why this great industry requires our support. Contrary perhaps to the wishes of the Whips, I do not intend to talk the House through my family’s long connection with racing, other than to acknowledge it, as I think that will reveal something about the extent of this great industry’s footprint out in the rural economy.
As one or two Members know, my father was a one-time national hunt jockey who rode for Her Majesty the Queen Mother and won the grand national in 1958. My brother is a racehorse trainer in California, where the funding for racing is rather more sustainable. It a place to which many of the British diaspora in racing have headed because of its more sustainable model of funding. Other members of my family have for many years been involved in breeding. My uncle Christo Philipson was a one-time chairman of the British Bloodstock Agency, and I grew up Newmarket, so I know very well that it, along with a number of towns such as Newbury, Malton and others in the UK, is totally dependent on this industry.
I also have a constituency interest. I am not lucky enough to have Fakenham race course in my constituency, but it sits on its northern boundary. It sits at the heart of a deep local, rural and equestrian economy of which Norfolk is proud and on which it relies—a network of point-to-point races, local equestrian activity and pony clubs, which are all part of the grassroots footprint, particularly of national hunt racing, and a cluster of trainers and breeders around the Attleborough area on the fringes of the Shadwell Stud in the corridor between Fakenham and Newmarket. This is the invisible side of racing that one does not see when tuning in to watch the Derby, the 2,000 Guineas or even the grand national. It is for the benefit of those communities and the rural economic impact that I stand here today.
We are debating this important issue because the health of racing is vital to our overall economy, yet it is under severe threat. The crisis in prize money and the crisis in respect of the leaching away from the industry of revenues on which every other racing industry around the world is able to rely is undermining the health of this great industry, It is, as I say, an issue of vital national importance.
Let me take the opportunity of reminding the House of the industry’s size. More than £10 billion a year is placed in bets; more than 6.5 million people attend our race courses, with a total turnover of over £3 billion. About 7,000 staff are employed directly, but more than 80,000 full-time equivalent staff are employed in supporting and associated activities. There are more than 4,000 breeders. We hear a lot about the top 10 or 15 breeding operations, but there are many small breeders and small-time trainers at the bottom of the pyramid who rely on prize money to keep them in business.
I would also argue that the horse racing industry has a disproportionate impact in the rural economy—an area that the Government have rightly put at the heart of their economic mission to drive a rebalanced economy and to help this country claw its way out of the debt crisis that confronts us. Its wider footprint—the feed suppliers, the hauliers, the farriers, the saddlers and the tourism associated with local race tracks—is very significant.
The truth is that our racing industry faces a crisis in respect of prize money, and it is a crisis that is particularly affecting those in the bottom half of its pyramid. At the top of the racing industry, particularly in the flat sector, the cost of racing is easily met by the rewards associated with breeding. For those at the bottom of the pyramid, however, prize money is the central method for covering costs and maintaining racing as a sustainable and viable activity. I shall say a little more about that in a few moments.
Philip Davies
As my hon. Friend knows, I share his passion for horse racing, but does he not accept that the levy model largely works by taking its income from low-quality racing, which some people might describe as betting office fodder? The money raised from that tends to be used by the levy board to increase the prize money at the top end rather than increase it at the bottom end, which might help the small-time owners, trainers and breeders to whom he refers.
George Freeman
My hon. Friend makes an interesting point. I dare say there is an extent to which the industry needs to think about how it allocates its prize money, but the fundamental point is that unless it has a sustainable link to a reliable source of revenue from its principal input, which is betting, all this discussion is academic. The central point we are confronting today is how this great industry, which successive Governments have acknowledged needs a statutory basis, continues to ensure that the betting activity that feeds off it puts back a sustainable and responsible contribution to promote it.
The truth is that the levy has not been able to react quickly enough to the transformation in the gambling industry, which has seen so many of our gambling businesses move offshore. Eighteen of the 20 biggest bookmakers are now offshore. We have heard of one this morning—it is an “n of 1”—proudly maintaining a presence here in the UK, but the trend is indisputable and has been very significant in reducing the industry’s income.
Prize money has been significantly affected. It is important to acknowledge that prize money is vital for ensuring that we attract the best horses for breeding here, the best horses in training and the best people in the industry. Our elite racing sector at the very top is, of course, world beating, but prize money is also crucial to sustaining the less glamorous part of the industry out in our more diverse parts of the rural economy.
The levy contribution has nearly halved over the last five or six years. I want to highlight that by having a look at today’s Racing Post, which will illustrate some Members’ points. I do not intend to read it all, but let us look at today’s card at Lingfield. The first race at 1 o’clock is the Bet at bluesquare.com claiming stakes. The prize money is £2,045. If we divide that up between the first, second and third and between the owner, the trainer and jockey, and we take off the costs—of fuel, of staff, of getting a lorry to get a horse to the races— we see that that simply does not add up. Across the country, we are seeing small trainers and breeders packing up.
The other interesting thing to notice about the 1 o’clock at Lingfield is that there are only four runners in it. What is happening across the sector is that in that lower half of the market, fewer and fewer people are able to survive. That feeds in on itself. The smaller the fields, the less attractive for TV coverage and the less attractive for betting. In case anyone is concerned that there is a bumper race with huge prize money somewhere in the middle of the afternoon, the 1.30 prize money is £2,000, the 2 o’clock is £2,700 and the 2.30 is £2,040. These are disproportionately small sums compared with prize money in France or in Ireland. That is why we are seeing increasing numbers of trainers leaving this country and going to those territories. We are allowing this structure to undermine one of our great industries at a time when the Government are rightly doing everything they can to remove obstacles to growth and to drive economic recovery.
Canterbury City Council Bill
Debate between George Freeman and Philip Davies
Philip Davies (Shipley) (Con)
In the previous debate my hon. Friend the Member for Cities of London and Westminster (Mr Field) said that I knew his constituency better than he knew mine. That certainly cannot be said for the hon. Member for Nottingham East (Chris Leslie), who knows my constituency far better than I know his. I certainly would not want to challenge his knowledge of Nottingham. As you know, Mr Speaker, he was a distinguished predecessor of mine—far more distinguished than I am—and I am sure that most of my constituents would rather he were still representing them than to have the misfortune of having me represent them. The people of Nottingham East are very fortunate to have him on their side in Parliament, and I am delighted to see him in his place this evening.
On the motion of whether we should revive these particular Bills, the main issue revolves around what has changed since they were first introduced. That is what lies behind this debate. It seems to me that three things have changed since these Bills were first proposed. The first, as we have heard in some detail, is the existence of the EU directive, which was never envisaged by the Bills’ promoters. It seems bizarre to revive a Bill when it might make absolutely no difference to the cities and towns trying to promote it. That would be the result of it being completely overridden by EU legislation. As I say, that was not envisaged when the Bills were first proposed. It seems absolutely bizarre to me that local authorities would want to continue spending taxpayers’ money in their local areas pursuing something that might be a complete and utter waste of time.
The second thing that has changed since the Bills were first proposed is the excellent report on pedlary and street trading produced by Durham university. It was a very weighty document, which I certainly commend to any hon. Member in this House. It makes the point that pedlars encompass the entrepreneurial spirit that we want to promote. Those who might have thought when the Bills were first proposed that pedlars were a nuisance will, on reading this report, find that their original prejudice was completely and utterly wrong.
The fact that Durham university makes the point so well in its report brings me on to the third thing that has changed since the Bills were first proposed, as I think was touched on by my hon. Friends the Members for Christchurch (Mr Chope) and for Devizes (Claire Perry). They said that since these Bills were proposed, we have suffered a very deep recession, which was not envisaged at the time. Encouraging pedlars and encouraging people to go down the route of peddling is something that this House should encourage people to do in response to the fact that some people are finding it difficult to get a job.
George Freeman
While my hon. Friend is on the subject of things that have changed, does he agree that one of them is that we on these Benches are all in this together? As we pursue a programme to develop and promote the big society, does he agree that each day of the week we find ourselves promoting a different part of society? We have national weeks and days for various things, so should we consider having a national pedlary day to promote the benefits of pedlary, particularly to some of our youngsters and school leavers, as a way of getting into entrepreneurship and small business?
Philip Davies
My hon. Friend makes an excellent suggestion, as he often does. I certainly would not want to challenge him if he wanted to pursue introducing a national pedlars day. Along with my hon. Friend the Member for Christchurch, I would be one of the first to support it. My hon. Friend is absolutely right that we are all in this together, which is something I tell my Whips on a regular basis.
I would like to make some distinction between the two Bills under consideration in respect of their merits for revival. I certainly share the misgivings of my hon. Friend the Member for Christchurch about some elements of the Canterbury City Council Bill, as I think my hon. Friend the Member for Canterbury (Mr Brazier) knows. We must make it clear, however, that the latter has made a valiant effort on behalf of his constituents to highlight to people in this place why this Bill is so important to his area. Although we may not agree on every particular detail of the Bill, my hon. Friend the Member for Canterbury has gone out of his way to do that; he has engaged in the debate, probably more than any other Member sponsoring their particular Bill. I am particularly grateful that he respected the point I made about touting with respect to the original Bill and struck that out in the proposed Bill. I am extremely grateful for the way in which he has dealt so constructively with all these points. On that basis, I am much more minded to support the merits of the Canterbury City Council Bill.