Economic Growth

Hazel Blears Excerpts

Wednesday 15th May 2013 Commons Chamber

[Hazel Blears (Salford and Eccles) (Lab)]

I am pleased to follow the hon. Member for Wyre and Preston North (Mr Wallace), but I can assure him that it is not our party that is obsessed with Europe. I think he needs to get his own house in order.

The last few years have been enormously difficult for families trying to make ends meet, working really hard and trying to give their young people a decent start in life. Arguments will rage about austerity cuts and the lack of investment—there are as many opinions as there are economists. I do not want to rehearse those arguments today, but to talk about something practical that I believe can help to address our economy’s problems that are causing such misery to thousands of families across the land.

There is sometimes a moment—in business, in politics and in communities—when an idea begins to take root, to gather support and to gain traction and momentum. I believe that the emergence of social value is one such moment. If it is pursued with energy and integrity, it could make a reality of the so far rather nebulous concept of responsible capitalism.

Eighteen months ago, I worked with the hon. Member for Warwick and Leamington (Chris White) to take the Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012 through this House, and I was delighted to do so. The duty to put social value at the heart of public procurement came in at the end of January. If implemented across government, across local government and in private sector supply chains, I believe it could make a huge difference to the number of apprenticeships, the amount of local labour, the building of small and medium-sized enterprises and the encouragement of innovation.

Over the last year, I brought some big companies together with social enterprises to see how they could collaborate to renew our economy. I have been heartened by the commitment from the private sector. Good companies know that this is not about philanthropy or altruism, because doing good is good business. Moving from traditional corporate social responsibility into a place where businesses are using their mainstream models to make a social impact in procurement, human relations, marketing and product development is helping to get social value into companies’ DNA. That is the way to get our economy moving.

Let me give a couple of examples. Sodexo, whose headquarters are in Salford, is working with one of my local social enterprises to take on ex-offenders to carry out grounds maintenance and facilities management. That is a fantastic partnership. Deloitte is helping 30 social enterprises to grow to scale under its social investment pioneers programme. CH2M HILL, which built the Olympics stadium and is working on High Speed 2, has values that extend to every level of the company when it comes to apprenticeships, training and social mobility. Trading for Good is a brand-new website where people can ask questions such as “Which is the company that takes apprentices? I want that company to redo my roof. Which is the company that is building local supply chains? I want to spend my money there.” It is a fantastic resource.

[Mr Sheerman]

Does my right hon. Friend agree that social value, if combined—as it can be, and will be—with crowdsourcing and crowdfunding, will bring a real democratic renewal and a modern capitalism to our country?

[Hazel Blears]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. The combination of social value and the creation of social investment through crowdsourcing, peer-to-peer lending and the activities of the Big Society Capital bank, which was a Labour idea, will take us along precisely that track.

My final example is Interserve, which employs 50,000 people and has a turnover of £2 billion. Its chief executive, Adrian Ringrose, recently committed himself to reinvesting 3% of his profits in the communities where his companies operate. That is the kind of thing that good, decent companies can do, and it can make a big difference. Such companies want to rebuild trust and secure a better reputation for big business, which has suffered from a lack of trust because of the activities of the banks and others. There is also the fact that it is good business.

The challenge for the Government is to enable that activity to become mainstream, rather than a niche activity in which only a few people engage. I ask them to think seriously about extending the Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012 to cover goods and major infrastructure. Over the next five years, we shall spend £200 billion on the really important things that we need: energy, transport—including High Speed 2—and building broadband. Why should we not include social value clauses relating to local labour and local supply chains in all infrastructure contracts? Can we not imagine the difference that that could make?

When money is tight—and it would be tight for us if we were in government— we can make a real difference by gaining extra impact from procurement and by doing business differently. We need community reinvestment, and we need to provide incentives for companies such as Interserve to do the right thing. A year ago, when I presented a ten-minute rule Bill in the House, I suggested that bankers could voluntarily put some of their income into local social enterprises. That might even make bankers popular, for goodness’ sake, and it is a very practical thing that we could do.

The Government must also support the development of measurement and metrics for social impact. There is a lot of good work going on. The Connectives Limited in Manchester, which is run by two inspirational woman accountants, has done fabulous work on social audit and accounting, but if we are to make such activity mainstream, we need to ensure that the metrics are rigorous and substantial. I should like the Treasury to do some more work on that.

In the time that I have left, I want to mention the Big Society Capital bank. It was the bank’s first anniversary last week, and I went to an event to mark it in the City. There was standing room only because there was such a huge appetite for the creation of a social investment market. The leadership of Sir Ronald Cohen and Nick O’Donohoe is first class. They have some really good ideas about how to get products to market, and about new types of bond such as social impact bonds. They are trying to persuade foundations and pension funds to invest. I welcome the Government’s consultation on a tax relief for social investment; I think that that is a very good idea. It could release an extra half a billion pounds into the market.

Difficult economic times demand creativity, innovation and boldness. We must get behind that, and make it happen.

Oral Answers to Questions

Hazel Blears Excerpts

Tuesday 14th May 2013 Commons Chamber

[Danny Alexander]

The hon. Gentleman is stretching somewhat beyond the area of housing, Mr Speaker, but with your permission I would like to address his question. Some £10 billion worth of infrastructure projects prequalified for the guarantee scheme, bringing forward substantial investment in infrastructure. We are investing more in transport infrastructure in this Parliament than his Government managed during the economic good times. We are investing more in the railways than has been done since Victorian times. He should compliment the Government on our approach to infrastructure, because, whether in transport or communications and broadband, more is happening than his Government ever managed.

[Hazel Blears (Salford and Eccles) (Lab)]

Q5. What steps he is taking to implement the Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012 in his Department in relation to its procurement procedures; and what guidance his Department has given to its agencies on this matter.

[The Economic Secretary to the Treasury (Sajid Javid)]

Those buying services on behalf of taxpayers should be continuously looking for ways to maximise value for communities. As part of the sustainable procurement agenda, the Department and its agency already consider social factors when evaluating relevant tenders. The Cabinet Office guidance on the Public Services (Social Value) Act has been shared with all procurement staff in the Department and its agencies.

[Hazel Blears]

I thank the Minister for that reply, but as economic growth and job creation are proving somewhat elusive for the Government, will he now take practical steps to include in major infrastructure contracts—such as High Speed 2, defence procurement and house building programmes—social value clauses that promote local labour, apprenticeships, local supply chains and small and medium-sized enterprises? That is a practical measure that he could put into action now.

[Sajid Javid]

First, I hope the right hon. Lady will join me in commending the work done by my hon. Friend the Member for Warwick and Leamington (Chris White) to ensure that the 2012 Act reached the statute book. I also commend her for her work to promote and help its passage. However, I do not recognise her comment that jobs and growth have been elusive. We have seen 1.25 million jobs created in the past three years: one of the fastest rates of private job creation ever. Returning to her main point, it is important that social impact is taken into account in public procurement. The Treasury takes that very seriously, and we expect other Departments to do so too.

Beer Duty Escalator

Hazel Blears Excerpts

Thursday 1st November 2012 Commons Chamber

[Hazel Blears (Salford and Eccles) (Lab)]

My hon. Friend is making a powerful case. I have had the pleasure of visiting his constituency and having a drink of beer in Hartlepool at the time of his election. My community in Salford and Eccles is similar to the community in Hartlepool. We have a great brewery, Joseph Holt, which just this year has been forced to get rid of 11 pubs, with the loss of 94 jobs, at the same time as seeing massive increases in duty. Does my hon. Friend agree that the escalator is punishing communities in poorer areas such as ours, where people’s wages have not kept pace with duty increases?

[Mr Wright]

My right hon. Friend is exactly right. She mentions the importance of the pub trade in the local economy—the economies of Salford and Hartlepool are very similar—but she also talks about breweries, which brings me to my next point.

We have a major brewery in my constituency: Camerons brewery—I am pleased to confirm to the House that it has nothing to do with the Prime Minister, thank goodness. Camerons brewery has been on the same site for more than 140 years, using the unique Hartlepool water from its own well to make the beer. It now employs 100 people and is involved in large-scale ale and lager production. Not only does Camerons produce quality ales of its own—I would recommend to hon. Members Camerons Strongarm and 6th Sense, which are particularly good pints—but its modern manufacturing facility and investment in plant means that the brewery is now capable of producing 1.3 million hectolitres per annum, with the potential to increase that, given certainty in the brewery trade, to 2 million hectolitres. Camerons has been well positioned to win orders for beer and ale production from global brands such as Carlsberg. The brewery continues to be—and has been for the best part of 150 years—an important part of the town’s manufacturing base.

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[Grahame M. Morris (Easington) (Lab)]

I wish to place on record my thanks to the hon. Members for Burton (Andrew Griffiths) and for Leeds North West (Greg Mulholland) for securing this debate, and I congratulate them on doing so. I also thank the Backbench Business Committee for allowing this important and timely debate to take place. I realise that the Minister is relatively new to his position, but he should know that these arguments were made when clause 186 of the Finance Bill was debated. Similar arguments were pursued by my good self and by my hon. Friends the Members for Livingston (Graeme Morrice), for Gateshead (Ian Mearns) and for Wansbeck (Ian Lavery). I ask the Minister to have a look at those arguments and to review the decision, as that would be extremely helpful.

I was rather alarmed to hear the hon. Member for Leeds North West suggest on a point of order earlier that the Government were not giving serious consideration to issues chosen for debate by the Backbench Business Committee. I hope that is not the case, because there is a powerful case for the Minister to consider the House’s decision on this motion.

I must declare an interest as the vice-chair of the all-party save the pub group. I am also a member of the Working Men’s Club and Institute Union, and as such I am very concerned about the impact of the beer duty escalator on working men’s clubs—this was also raised by my hon. Friend the Member for Midlothian (Mr Hamilton). Nobody in this House can be in any doubt about the impact of the current economic climate and, in particular, the beer duty escalator on the pub trade—the Minister certainly cannot, unless, like the Olympic flame, he does not go out. [Laughter.]

It is apparent that since the beer duty escalator was introduced in 2008 a range of new and demanding costs have been applied across the industry. Like many hon. Members, I have received briefings from the British Beer and Pub Association and, through the all-party save the pub group, I have had discussions with stakeholders. It has been pointed out to me on numerous occasions that inflation has risen, VAT has increased and brewing costs have risen, whereas incomes have fallen right across the sector. The fuel duty increases have also had an adverse impact on delivery costs.

[Hazel Blears]

My hon. Friend is clearly well versed and an expert on these issues. As well as the economic costs, there are clearly important social costs to our pubs closing. A constituency such as mine has only a handful of remaining public houses, many of them intimidating places where the general public do not want to go. Will he therefore support communities that want to take over those pubs and bring them back to life, as we are trying to do with the Woolpack pub in Salford?

[Grahame M. Morris]

My right hon. Friend makes a really good point, and I hope the Minister is taking note.

As we all know from our constituencies, pubs are a vital part of our social life and a social hub. No matter what sort of area we represent, be it Labour, Tory, Lib Dem or nationalist, be it in the north or the south, be it countryside or urban and be it wealthy or poor, public houses are the hubs of our communities. Just as important is the fact that pubs and brewing are vital to the UK economy. Other hon. Members have mentioned the figures, so I will not repeat them, but the sector makes a huge contribution—I believe it is in excess of £20 billion. I believe that the Minister acknowledges that the proposals in the beer duty escalator would be revenue-neutral—they would not generate any additional revenue for the Treasury—so what can be the justification for continuing with it? The only answer I can come up with is that this is part of another public policy agenda—perhaps the Minister can enlighten us. Might it be an issue of public health? Perhaps the Government think it desirable to force up the price of alcohol to dissuade people from consumption. We have heard from various hon. Members that the consequence has actually been the reverse, so perhaps this is a perverse application of policy, resulting in the public buying beer, wine and spirits from the supermarkets in cut-price deals, and consuming them at home. There is a strong case for reviewing the escalator.

Infrastructure (Financial Assistance) Bill

Hazel Blears Excerpts

Monday 17th September 2012 Commons Chamber

[Danny Alexander]

The hon. Lady makes an important point. Of course, the Bill will not discriminate between projects on policy grounds. We have set out some criteria, which I shall come to, but there are many energy projects—particularly in the renewables field—that are being brought forward in this country as a result of that framework and the policies that have followed from it. Some of those projects may well fall into the category that needs the support from the guarantees that the Bill will provide. In that sense, the Bill should give us an extra tool to ensure that the renewables investment that we need can go forward in a timely fashion, which I hope she would welcome.

The House will know that the Treasury already has wide powers under common law, not limited by statute, to issue guarantees, make loans and give other financial assistance in support of infrastructure. In some cases, Secretaries of State have statutory powers to support infrastructure; in others, they would need to rely on common law powers. However, many Members will also know that there is a long-standing convention, dating back to 1932, that the Government should not rest significant and regular expenditure under common law powers on the sole authority of general supply legislation. Accordingly, in order to offer the support that we want to see, the Government need Parliament’s authority to incur expenditure in connection with agreements to provide financial assistance and to pay out on liabilities, should they be called on to do so. Today we seek authority for the Treasury, or the Secretary of State where appropriate, to incur up to £50 billion of expenditure in connection with giving financial assistance to infrastructure across the UK.

[Hazel Blears (Salford and Eccles) (Lab)]

In drawing up the agreements for such significant expenditure, what account will the Chief Secretary take of the Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012, so that we can secure a social, environmental and economic impact from such contracts—in particular, through employment and training opportunities for young people—and ensure that the money makes a difference on the ground in our communities?

[Danny Alexander]

The right hon. Lady is referring to an important piece of legislation, which, generally speaking, will have been taken into account in the process of giving consent to a project. The guarantees will be offered to projects that meet a number of criteria, one of which is that they already have the necessary consents in place to get going within 12 months. The objective is to bring forward and accelerate the development of infrastructure, and it would be inappropriate to impose additional obligations on people delivering projects. This is about enabling projects that are already slated to happen to get going quickly.

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[Rachel Reeves (Leeds West) (Lab)]

We will not oppose the Bill on Second Reading, but we do not think it remotely adequate to meet the scale of the challenge we now face: the longest double-dip recession since the war, record levels of youth and long-term unemployment, dangerously low levels of business investment, and as a result, deficit reduction way off track, with borrowing up by a quarter this year. The longer this situation continues, the higher the price for businesses, taxpayers and working families in the future: permanent damage to our long-term productivity and competitiveness, and billions of pounds in additional unplanned Government borrowing.

The Opposition have been urging the Government to act and we have repeatedly identified infrastructure investment as an urgent priority. However, this is not the plan it purports to be. The Prime Minister said that he would “cut through the dither”, but he has simply created another distraction—a fig leaf for their own inaction; a peashooter where we needed a big bazooka. At a time when we need to be bold if we are to boost business confidence, to come out with something half-hearted and hesitant risks making things worse.

Before proceeding, I would like to apologise for that fact that, as Mr Speaker and the Chief Secretary to the Treasury are already aware, I cannot be present for the winding up of this debate.

Let us remind ourselves of the background to the Bill. Over the summer, we learned that the UK economy had entered its third quarter of negative growth—the longest double-dip recession in British post-war history. Unemployment remains unacceptably high; youth and long-term unemployment is a national disgrace; and headline employment figures conceal endemic under-employment. Record numbers are working fewer hours than they want to, and record numbers are trapped in temporary work. The Chancellor’s promise of expansionary fiscal contraction has come to nothing.

A Government who proudly proclaimed on page 1, paragraph 1 of their coalition agreement that eradicating the deficit and securing the recovery were their No. 1 priority are now midway through their term of office. What do they have to show for themselves? They have an economy that is smaller than when the Government’s measures began to take effect and, at the last count, £150 billion in additional debt—a figure that is likely to rise further, with borrowing up by a quarter this year. As the former US Treasury Secretary writes in this morning’s Financial Times,

“the reality is that the primary determinant of fiscal health in both the US and UK over the medium term will be the rate of growth. An extra percentage point of growth maintained for five years would reduce Britain’s debt-to-GDP ratio by close to 10 percentage points whereas austerity policies that slowed growth could even backfire in the narrow sense of raising debt-to-GDP ratios and turning debt unsustainability into a self-fulfilling prophecy.”

[Hazel Blears]

Would my hon. Friend describe this as plan A, plan A-plus, or plan B? [Interruption.]

[Rachel Reeves]

From a sedentary position, my hon. Friend the Member for Nottingham East (Chris Leslie) suggests “plan F for fail”, and I could not agree more. I wish this was a plan B, but I do not think it is. It is more words, when what we require is action. Yet the Government do not listen to the evidence—they just plough on with a plan that everybody else knows has failed.

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[Hazel Blears (Salford and Eccles) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Weaver Vale (Graham Evans). I thought the beginning of his speech was unusually partisan. He is normally a man who seeks consensus, and I hope that for the benefit of the north-west region we can agree today about what is important.

Members of all parties welcome the Bill, but it is frankly too little and too late, to reformulate what is now an established mantra. It is the product of two pretty much wasted years. There has not just been wasted investment, which could have started to move the country forward, but the result of the delay has been far too many wasted lives, particularly in my constituency and among young people. I hope that the Bill will not be a mirage, as the regional growth fund has been—I will come to that a little later.

The Chancellor can call the Bill plan A, plan A-plus or plan A-plus-plus, and we can call it plan B—I do not really care. However, it shows real acknowledgment by the Government that cuts alone will not get us where we need to be so that our economy can start to fire, people can be employed and we can produce the growth that our country so desperately needs. It is too little, too late, but it is certainly welcome.

The reality of our economy is stark. It shrank by 0.5% in the second quarter, we are back in recession and growth has flatlined for the past two years under the coalition. In the north-west, unemployment was more than 9% between April and June. Only in the north-east and Yorkshire is the figure higher. Employment has to be our top priority, because we are in danger of seeing another lost generation of people who cannot get into work. Long-term unemployment is at a 16-year high and the number of people working part time has gone up by 2% in the past year. Many people are desperate for full-time work but simply cannot find it. In my constituency, 2,350 young people are currently unemployed, of whom 1,500 have been unemployed for up to six months, nearly 500 for between six and 12 months and 360 for a year or more. We all know from our previous experience what happens when a generation feels that it has no hope for the future. We have seen the impact that it has on our communities, so we need to get moving.

The regional growth fund, which was heralded as something that would provide investment in infrastructure and jobs, particularly in the north-west, has been an absolute disaster. It simply has not worked. After two years, only 88 of the 236 offers of funding—a third—have been finalised, and just £60 million out of what was going to be £1.5 billion has got to the front line. Some of the projects carried a cost of more than £200,000 for each additional job created. In short, the scheme has been too expensive and too lengthy, and the National Audit Office has said that the administration of it has been pretty much a disaster. If this infrastructure programme has any of the same qualities, it will not achieve what the Government, and certainly the Opposition, want it to.

Where should the Government focus their support? Certain areas are crying out for attention. I disagree with the hon. Member for Reigate (Mr Blunt), because I think housing is a key part of our infrastructure. In Greater Manchester we have 100,000 people waiting for homes, and we have 25,000 empty homes, including 6,000 in Salford. I do not just want new build; I want us to be able to refurbish those homes, which people are desperate to occupy. The sooner we can do that, the better.

Let us be careful, however. Reforms to the planning system have been discussed over the past few weeks, but we have to build not just houses but communities. We have seen what happens when we build houses on barren estates without putting in place schools, shops and leisure facilities. The use of section 106 agreements will be reduced, and we will not have the community infrastructure levy. I am seriously worried that we will just have a lot of boxes, which do not make communities. That must be taken on board in the changes to the planning system.

[Mr Blunt]

I have heard the remarks that the right hon. Lady and the right hon. Member for Wentworth and Dearne (John Healey) have made about housing, but housing is not infrastructure in any strict sense of the word. Infrastructure is there to support the people who live in that housing and the businesses in which they work. Does she accept that if we bring housing into the definition of infrastructure, we reduce that definition ad absurdum? I completely accept her points about the importance of building communities, but that should be addressed in a proper housing and planning strategy. Infrastructure, in a proper sense of the word, is different.

[Hazel Blears]

I understand the hon. Gentleman’s concern about his local green belt. If he can encourage his party’s Front Benchers to invest more in brownfield sites in the north-west, where we can build communities, I will take on his housing allocation tomorrow to ensure that we can house our people.

[Mr Brian Binley (Northampton South) (Con)]

May I introduce Northampton into the discussion of brownfield sites? We could build between 35,000 and 40,000 houses on brownfield sites there, and I would rather do that than destroy our green belt.

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[Hazel Blears]

The hon. Gentleman obviously supports a Labour policy, which has always been to build on brownfield sites. If he is at all tempted to come over to our side of the Chamber, I am sure he will be welcomed.

The public and private sectors need to work together to make investment effective. When we started to develop Salford Quays 15 years ago, the city council bought the site for £5 because it was a liability rather than an asset. Now we can see what the public and private sectors working together have made happen in that area. The ratio of private to public sector investment there is 9:1, because the £50 million of public sector investment drew in £450 million from the private sector, creating 15,000 jobs and the fabulous developments at MediaCity. Peel Holdings has just submitted its phase 2 planning permission application for further development in four phases over the next 20 years, which will bring at least another 15,000 jobs to the area. If the Government are looking for projects to fund, MediaCity is up and running as a fabulous example of what can be achieved when the public and private sectors work together.

On that point, bids are now in for superfast broadband from cities across the country. Salford’s bid went in this morning, and MediaCity is a well placed platform to provide the developments that are envisaged through the superfast broadband programme. When the Economic Secretary winds up the debate, will he indicate his warm welcome for Salford’s bid, and hopefully his support for it?

As the hon. Member for Weaver Vale said, transport is a pressing need. We welcome the northern hub, but why do we not build High Speed 2 from the north down towards London? That would mean that the initial investment would go into the areas of greatest need and highest unemployment, where planning permission may well be easier to obtain than in more controversial areas. I have talked to some of the companies involved in the construction of High Speed 2, and they feel that it would be a very good idea to do that rather than to build from the south to the north, as always happens with such projects. Perhaps the Economic Secretary could indicate his support for that idea as well.

I am delighted that the Government are going to review aviation capacity in the south-east, but why not consider Manchester airport and our regional airports across the country? Why can we not have other hubs to provide us with the connectivity that we will need? The north-west is a confident area with great business people and local authorities that want to get on with the job. When I was Secretary of State, we made the 10 local authorities in the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities area the first city region with powers over planning, housing, transport and skills, to try to ensure that we could draw in inward investment. In Victorian times we had that type of confidence about our economy, and we can do exactly the same thing now to get our young people back into work.

I am worried about where the Government are going with the planning system. When I took the Planning Bill through the House three or four years ago, the whole point was to have national planning policy statements so that we could get major infrastructure projects through the planning system more quickly in the days when it took seven years to get a power station and 10 years to get a major railway interchange. The Conservative party and the Liberal Democrats fought the Bill tooth and nail because it provided for too much of a national plan and did not have the localism that they wanted. They cannot have it both ways. They must recognise the need for national policy to get infrastructure through.

The same is happening with housing policy. We are tearing up planning policy statements, some of which were made only three or four months ago, and we have talked about localism and going along with what local people want. However, when that does not suit, the policy seems fragile indeed. We tear up at our peril a planning framework that has been in place for 50 years, trying to get the balance right between development and local communities.

The Bill as it is currently worded represents a huge missed opportunity. The criteria in it for the projects make no mention of how the funds will be spent. In an intervention, I referred to the Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012. If we spent the money so that we got social value as well as infrastructure projects, had local procurement, employed local people and got extra impact for the expenditure, we could have a transformational effect on some of the poorest communities in our country.

When we built MediaCity, we had conditions about using local labour and had twice the number of jobs that building the Olympic site provided. By including conditions in the Bill on training, apprenticeships, local procurement and local supply chains, we could make a huge impact on those areas of the country such as the north-west, where unemployment is shockingly and unacceptably high. I say to the Government: “Think again about this massive infrastructure programme, and spend the money wisely and well.” We could thus ensure that we made a difference to the lives of those young people who are being betrayed and let down by the Government.

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[Priti Patel (Witham) (Con)]

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this debate. I congratulate the Government on showing their commitment to infrastructure investment in the UK by introducing the Bill.

For all the criticism from Opposition Members, it is worth reflecting on the fact that over 13 years—I say this as an Essex MP—there was next to no infrastructure investment in the county of Essex or even in East Anglia. I welcome the fact that the Government recognise that investment in infrastructure is vital in providing jobs, growth and long-term economic prosperity.

Despite our economy being one of the largest in the world and our having spent most of the last decade as one of the world’s five biggest economies by GDP, our infrastructure has been neglected. It is interesting to see where we stand in the international league tables. The World Bank’s logistics performance statistics place us 16th in the world, behind many other economies. Unless that tide is reversed, the consequences for our economy will be catastrophic. Poor infrastructure is not only a barrier to British-based businesses, but makes Britain less attractive for foreign direct investment, which leads to less economic growth.

Every £1 that is spent on construction generates an estimated £2.84 in total economic activity. It impacts across the supply chain through the multiplier effect. I therefore welcome everything that the Government are doing. Of course, any money that comes into the Treasury helps to bring down the deficit, finance the debt built up by the Labour party and pay for public services.

I am pleased that the Government have recognised the importance of infrastructure. That contrasts with what we witnessed over the previous 13 years. I believe that it was one of the most cataclysmic failures of the last Labour Government that they did not adequately invest in infrastructure when the economy was growing. As a result, we have been left with road, rail, airport, energy, port, water and digital infrastructure that is not fit for our country.

[Hazel Blears]

Does the hon. Lady recognise that during the period of the last Labour Government, 101 new hospitals were built, and that under the previous Conservative Government, not a single new hospital was completed in this country?

[Priti Patel]

Speaking for Essex, I do not recognise that. The county of Essex has had no infrastructure spending whatsoever. Despite Essex being the county of entrepreneurs, where thousands of new businesses are started each year, and despite it being a net contributor to the Treasury, Labour neglected it. Local and regional infrastructure in Essex failed to keep pace with national and local economic growth. That is no doubt one of the reasons why the electorate booted Labour MPs out of Essex, full stop, at the last general election. It is now a Labour-free zone.

Bank Bonuses

Hazel Blears Excerpts

Tuesday 11th January 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Order. There is, understandably, enormous interest in this subject, but I remind the House that what is being discussed is an urgent question rather than a full-length statement. If I am to accommodate a reasonable number of Members, brevity from Back Benches and Front Benches alike is vital.

[Hazel Blears (Salford and Eccles) (Lab)]

Voluntary organisations and community groups face cuts of at least £3 billion this year. If we are really all in this together, would it not be better for the banks to use their profits to support those community groups, rather than paying themselves up to £7 billion in massive personal bonuses?

Comprehensive Spending Review

Hazel Blears Excerpts

Wednesday 20th October 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mr Osborne]

Of course I agree with my hon. Friend. We made every effort to protect the science budget—that was one of the things that we strained to achieve—and if the efficiency proposals in the Wakeham report are implemented, that will lead to a real increase in scientific output. We have also been able to confirm the synchrotron project in Oxfordshire. Although Oxfordshire is extremely well-represented in the Cabinet, it is unfortunately not one of the counties that will benefit from a super-fast broadband pilot, but I hope that if the pilots are successful we will be able to roll them out in other rural parts of England, including the Banbury constituency.

[Hazel Blears (Salford and Eccles) (Lab)]

According to the independent organisation New Philanthropy Capital, the massive cuts of nearly 30% in local councils’ budgets over the next four years will mean cuts of between £3.2 billion and £5.1 billion in charitable and voluntary bodies which provide essential services for many of the most vulnerable people in our communities. What action will the Chancellor take to ensure that the Prime Minister’s much-vaunted big society does not end up smaller and weaker, and leave thousands of the most vulnerable citizens at risk?

[Mr Osborne]

As I mentioned early in my speech, we have provided some additional resources for the voluntary sector through the transition fund. As for the local government settlement, I said that it was challenging. The right hon. Lady, who used to be a member of the Cabinet, is well aware that some difficult decisions were required to reduce the deficit. If there are other areas of Government spending that she would have preferred me to cut more, she can tell me what they are, but she did not volunteer any in her question.