The Economy

Debate between George Freeman and Sheila Gilmore

Tuesday 11th December 2012 Commons Chamber

[George Freeman (Mid Norfolk) (Con)]

It is pleasure to rise and to prove the right hon. Member for Oldham West and Royton (Mr Meacher) wrong through my passionate defence of the Chancellor, not that he needs it, and my welcome for the autumn statement.

I am old enough to remember the 1970s and when the economic history of that period is written, I think it will be rather simple: in 1979 a Conservative Government inherited bankrupt public finances and put them straight with an enterprise economy. A Conservative Government sorted out the mess of the European currency-inspired recession of the early 1990s and gave the future Labour Government a golden legacy in 1997. After two years of sound public finances following the previous Conservative Administration’s public spending commitments, the previous Labour Government embarked on an unprecedented spending spree—a boom disguised under various labels, such as cool Britannia—that left this generation with an historic debt legacy for which we, our children and our grandchildren will be paying the bills for many years to come.

[Sheila Gilmore]

One of the problems with the hon. Gentleman’s retelling of history is that the Labour Government paid down national debt so that it was lower after the first few years of that Government than it had been at the end of the previous Tory Government.

[George Freeman]

I am grateful for that intervention. If the previous Labour Government paid down the debt, why have we inherited this historic debt legacy—a legacy, it is worth reminding the House, that sees us paying debt interest payments that are set to rise to £76 billion a year, which is more than the amount spent on more than three Departments? This is a historic legacy, for which the Labour party should be ashamed.

Amendment of the Law

Debate between George Freeman and Sheila Gilmore

Monday 28th March 2011 Commons Chamber

[Sheila Gilmore (Edinburgh East) (Lab)]

A very interesting thing happened in my city in 2009. For the first time since the 1960s, the number of affordable rented homes built exceeded the number of private homes—55% of all new build was affordable rented homes, subsidised by public spending. That subsidy helped the private builders who otherwise would have had to shut up shop for a while—as many have had to do—and meant that some at least could stay in work, and that gave work to the skilled work force who would otherwise be sitting at home watching daytime television because there was no work. When those people are at work they are contributing to our economy and paying taxes—[Interruption.] I do not know why that is so funny for people who want to reduce the deficit, because if people are paying taxes in, that is far better than their simply taking benefits out.

That was a good thing. It showed the weakness of the private sector, however, that it was affordable rented homes that had to be built in the numbers to keep some people in work. I look out from my constituency office at a regeneration scheme that has stalled because the private sector is not leaping in to build new homes and to bring offices or any other kind of business into the area. I look out on land. There is no shortage of land, but there is a shortage of investment to make all this development happen. We ought to invest in housing and build a real shared equity scheme, rather than providing a meagre amount of money that will be available for only one year, as we learn if we read the detail. The scheme is not sustainable: for one year there will be £250 million.

Shared equity has certainly helped to keep the house market going in my city—it is very important—but it needs subsidy. What is wrong is the constant juxtaposition of the private and public sector as though they are at war. In fact, the two are constantly interrelated.

[George Freeman]

Will the hon. Lady give way?

[Sheila Gilmore]

No, I will not.

The private and public sectors are constantly interrelated, because public sector stimulus has kept the economy going since the recession began.

History has been rewritten, and I find it deeply perplexing and upsetting that the Liberals have been prepared to be complicit in that. I am not surprised that the hon. Member for Colchester (Bob Russell) took us along the byways of Colchester becoming a city, because it was a diversionary tactic. He did not want to talk about his party’s real economic policy. It reminded me of when I was working from home—suddenly, cleaning the kitchen became quite attractive because I could not settle down to do the work that required a bit more effort. That is what is happening with a party that went into the election telling people that it would be downright dangerous to cut public spending too quickly. That is not just some sort of Labour notion, as the Conservatives seem to think. It was the policy of two of the parties that went into the election and that, together, won a majority of public support. It is not true that the public supported the financial disaster that the Conservatives are now wishing on us.

I said in a previous finance debate that the proof would be in the outcomes and that if the Conservative party was right and economic growth was driven by their policies, I would concede that, but so far we are seeing nothing of the sort. Our position would not be too far, too fast—