Infrastructure (Financial Assistance) Bill

Hugh Bayley Excerpts

Monday 17th September 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Crispin Blunt (Reigate) (Con)]

I fear I shall use them, Mr Deputy Speaker.

I am grateful for the welcome I received from my hon. Friend the Member for Northampton South (Mr Binley), who said how glad he was to see me. It has taken me 15 years to arrive on the Government Back Benches and this is my first speech as a Back Bencher for more than eight years. I enjoyed the fact that the first constituent to seek my help after I was relieved of my responsibilities as one of Her Majesty’s Ministers was a gentleman who needed assistance at an employment tribunal in a case of unfair dismissal. I was able to look him squarely in the eye and tell him that he had to take whatever he got from the employment tribunal, and once that was done, he must put matters behind him and get on with the rest of his career and his life. I have every intention of doing that, and enjoying the freedoms of the Back Benches.

It was interesting to follow the Gatling gun-like delivery of the shadow Chief Secretary, the hon. Member for Leeds West (Rachel Reeves), who rattled through her speech. When I sat on the Opposition Benches, I heard similar speeches from colleagues about Government announcements that were made but not immediately delivered. When they relate to infrastructure, things take a tiresome amount of time.

I wondered about the economic analysis that underlay the hon. Lady’s critique. What kind of economic la-la land are the Opposition living in that they think the financial markets would have confidence in underwriting the Government’s debt if it continued to be managed by Labour? They had got us into the most appalling trouble by May 2010. It took the formation of the coalition and the urgent need for all Ministers to attend to their departmental expenditure to drive down debt so that the Chief Secretary could deliver credibility to the financial markets and our nation could continue to enjoy borrowing rates that are at an historic low. The difference between us is that if Labour had been in charge, we should probably have been enjoying borrowing rates something like those of Spain, which would be costing us £40 billion a year in the extra interest charges we would have to pay on the monumental national debt that was built up under the previous Government.

Having achieved a level of market confidence, it is absolutely proper that we now look to capital expenditure. That is why in principle I welcome the Bill and the fact that under the so-called Baldwin convention the Government are seeking specific authority for capital expenditure of this type. However, better explanations are required of the detail.

[Hugh Bayley (York Central) (Lab)]

If business confidence in the previous Labour Government was as bad as the hon. Gentleman suggests, it would have been reflected in interest rates, yet in fact when his party came to power we had interest rates at a record low. I acknowledge that they have continued at that level, but it was a record low that his party and the coalition Government inherited from Labour.

[Mr Blunt]

That would be fine if the markets had not entirely discounted the prospect of the hon. Gentleman’s party being retained in office in 2010. It was perfectly clear that Labour was being sent firmly through the exit door. I assure the hon. Gentleman that if the markets felt there was any chance of the former Prime Minister and his henchmen remaining in office, we should have faced a quite different picture.

Having just held a Ministry of Justice portfolio, I turn to the subject of prisons, which are mentioned in the Bill as a potential source for capital expenditure. There is a case for measures that enable capital expenditure on prisons. There is a very strong case, which I shall continue to press from the Back Benches, for building new prisons, not to increase the number of prison places but to modernise the prison estate and make it fit to deliver rehabilitation, work and security at a sensible, affordable price in a prison infrastructure for the 21st century.

Oakwood prison offers an example. It was built with running costs of more than £10,000 a prison place less than other category C training prisons of its type. With capital expenditure at about £100,000 per prison place, one can easily see the rough order of magnitude in a 10% return on that scale of investment. If we then take into account the fact that we could sell off the old prison sites, that we will not have to deal with the accumulated maintenance deficit in the older parts of the prison estate and that we will get much better implementation of policy in prisons that are built with work, security and rehabilitation in mind, we can see that the case for including prisons in the Bill is extremely strong.

I am, and will remain, an advocate of wholesale reinvestment in our prison estate. It means new prisons that will be more efficient and older ones closing so that we end up with the estate we should have for the 21st century. There is currently a competition process for nine prisons, the second such round of competitions—eight are currently in the public sector and one is in the private sector. All the bids I have seen, from both the public and private sectors, show the enormous benefit of competition in coming forward with better ideas on how to run our prisons.

At this point it would be appropriate to pay tribute to the officials in the Ministry of Justice and to Michael Spurr and all the people at the National Offender Management Service with whom I have had the privilege of working over the past two and a half years. I put on record my gratitude to them and, as prisons are in the Bill, to Peter McParlin, chairman of the Prison Officers Association, the biggest trade union representative in the Prison Service. In an era of considerable change in the service, I commend the constructive relationship and dialogue I had with him and with other union officials and staff, including those from the National Association of Probation Officers.

I turn from my former responsibilities to the application of the Bill to my constituents. Reigate plays host to some serious national infrastructure. We have two prisons, but we are adjacent to Gatwick airport, the M25 runs through the middle of the constituency, and the London to Brighton main line is another key piece of infrastructure. The constituency has been under constant developmental pressure throughout my time as Member of Parliament. The borough of Reigate and Banstead has more than met the housing targets imposed by the previous Administration. It is not housing we are short of; it is infrastructure. For example, we are woefully short of primary school places, the M23 has yet to be finished and brought to an end at the Hooley interchange, and there needs to be a reorientation of the railway line that cuts across the London to Brighton main line and runs between Guildford and Tonbridge.

I share the criticism of others about the delay in the decision over the future of airport capacity in the United Kingdom. For me, the answer is blindingly obvious: we need an airport in an estuary that can operate 24 hours a day and that has the capacity to deal with the primary needs of the United Kingdom, which is to have a proper hub airport. That has been fairly obvious since people were looking at Maplin Sands about 50 years ago. Frankly, it is about time we got on and made the decision. I seriously regret its being put off for another three years.

I will conclude by expressing my concern about housing appearing as infrastructure in the Bill. I do not think that housing is infrastructure. The financing of housing should come from other mechanisms. I hope that my right hon. and hon. Friends will understand my concern about housing appearing in the Bill in conjunction with the Chancellor’s remarks about the green belt and the potential threat to it. I will be examining the Bill very carefully.

--- Later in debate ---

[Hugh Bayley (York Central) (Lab)]

This Bill is a small but necessary step in the right direction. The hon. Member for Witham (Priti Patel)—and not just her, but many members of both coalition parties—has repeated the mantra, which we hear time and again, about Labour’s borrowing being the cause of all evil. They sound like a record stuck in a groove. It is not surprising that the public are losing confidence in the coalition parties. Two years ago they told the public that the Government were borrowing too much and that they would clear the deficit by the end of this Parliament in 2015. My party agrees that the deficit, which was necessary to stop the 2008-09 meltdown, has to be cleared, but we warned the coalition that if it cut too fast, it would snuff out growth, which would reduce tax receipts and increase the national debt.

Let us look at the debt figures. When the coalition came to power, the national debt stood at £779 billion. The latest figures, for July this year, show that in just over two years under this Government’s stewardship, the national debt has risen by 33% to £1,032 billion—above £1 trillion for the first time in this country’s history, as a result of the economic policies that the two Government parties have been pursuing, and this from a party that is worried about borrowing. There is no prospect whatever of the deficit being eliminated by the end of this Parliament. That was a brave promise, but one that will not be met. According to the Office for Budget Responsibility, the national debt is set to rise to £1,437 billion by 2015-16—getting on for double what it was when the coalition parties came into government.

[Mr Newmark]

But under the hon. Gentleman’s party’s proposals the national debt would be increasing by even more, so what is the logic in what he says?

[Hugh Bayley]

No, it would not, and that is the central fallacy. If we snuff out growth, we snuff out revenues and the Government spend more on benefits for people who are unemployed. If we promote growth, we increase the Government’s revenues and we are thereby able to reduce the deficit.

I would acknowledge that the UK went into recession in 2008. Labour policies, including our policy to go for short-term borrowing to jump start the economy, pulled the UK out of recession in the middle of 2009. By the time of the general election, under Labour there was a recovery that had delivered four quarters of growth. Since the general election, there have been three further quarters of growth and five quarters, under the coalition Government, in which the economy has been shrinking—quarter 4 in 2010, quarters 2 and 4 in 2011, and the first two quarters of this year. It is therefore quite clear to me that plan A has failed.

This Bill represents a U-turn, and it is a U-turn I welcome. I wish it had come earlier, but the Government are right to bring forward these proposals. However, if the Bill is to make a significant difference to growth, and therefore to the Government’s ability to reduce indebtedness, they will have to drive forward investment with real determination and vigour. I therefore have some questions that I would like to put to the Minister. First, last year, in 2011, the value of new orders in the construction industry was £46 billion. Clause 2(1) permits the Government to commit a further £50 billion to infrastructure, but I would like to know against what time scale they expect that level of investment to be committed. Are the Government going to commit to £5 billion in new orders for the construction industry—a 10% increase in round terms—in the year to come, or do they hope to commit the lot in one year and thereby double the level of investment? These are crucial questions. Will the Government provide a quantum change in the level of infrastructure investment in this country, or will they tinker at the edges?

My second question relates to clause 2(2), which we have already discussed a bit, which says that the £50 billion ceiling will apply to expenditure and contingent liabilities. However, despite the Chief Secretary’s clarification, I am still not quite clear whether the Government intend to count the full value of the loan guarantees against the £50 billion or a lower figure, tied to their estimate of a proportion of the guarantees which they expect would be drawn down in hard cash.

Thirdly, will the Government guarantee that their assistance will go to all regions, with extra help for those parts where infrastructure investment has taken the hardest hit? I have looked at the change in the value of orders for new construction in Great Britain between 2009 and 2011, and the figure varies enormously from region to region. In London, infrastructure investment in 2011 was up 18% on what it had been in 2009, in the last year of the Labour Government. In the south-east the figure was up by 6% and in the north-east it was up by 14%. However, in all other regions of England, as well as in Wales and Scotland, there was a decline, with infrastructure investment down 3% in the south-west, 9% in Scotland, 15% in the east midlands, 21% in the west midlands, 23% in the east of England, 31% in Yorkshire and the Humber and in the north-west, and 32% in Wales. Will the Government target money on those regions, including my region of Yorkshire and the Humber, that need help most?

Fourthly, clause 1(3) defines “provision”—the uses to which the £50 billion will be put—to include design and construction, as well as operation and repair. It looks to me as though the Government intend this new vehicle to be the substitute or replacement for the PFI model. If that is their intention, I would like the Minister to describe a bit more what the Government have in mind.

Fifthly, the Government’s national infrastructure plan, published in November last year, included flood defences and communications in its definition of “infrastructure”. We have heard that the Government would regard it as possible to use the resources that the Bill will make available to improve high-speed broadband, for instance, in rural areas such as north Yorkshire. However, flood defences are not mentioned in the Bill. I would therefore welcome a clarification from the Minister about whether flood defence schemes will be seen as infrastructure under the terms of the Bill, and therefore fundable from the £50 billion that is being set aside.

My final point relates to apprentices, a subject that I asked questions about when the Government first started to introduce measures to promote capital investment, in the autumn statement last year. The use of £50 billion of extra public money—or more, if the Government are successful in using their contribution to leverage in more resources from the private sector—to support infrastructure investment will provide a tremendous opportunity to boost the number of apprenticeships in the UK construction industry. We could end up with far more people being trained in the skills that our economy needs, now and in the future, and become less reliant on bringing those skills in from abroad. Will the Minister explain what conditions the Government will place in contracts for which they provide guarantees or loan finance to ensure that the contractors increase the number of apprentices they take on and train?

--- Later in debate ---

[Hugh Bayley]

rose—

[Sajid Javid]

Please sit down; sorry.

The Bill contains measures that will support growth, jobs and families. It will support the UK’s infrastructure sector by providing access to finance for financially credible, high value for money projects. It will unlock the investment that the UK needs to make it one of the best places in the world to do business. I commend the Bill to the House.

Question put and agreed to.

Bill accordingly read a Second time.

Infrastructure (Financial assistance) Bill (programme)

Motion made, and Question put forthwith (Standing Order No.83A(7)),

That the following provisions shall apply to the Infrastructure (Financial Assistance) Bill:

Committal

1. The Bill shall be committed to a Committee of the whole House.

Proceedings in Committee, on consideration and Third Reading

2. Proceedings in Committee, any proceedings on consideration and proceedings on Third Reading shall be taken in one day in accordance with the following provisions of this Order.

3. Proceedings in Committee and any proceedings on consideration shall (so far as not previously concluded) be brought to a conclusion one hour before the moment of interruption on the day on which those proceedings are commenced.

4. Proceedings on Third Reading shall (so far as not previously concluded) be brought to a conclusion at the moment of interruption on that day.

Programming committee

5. Standing Order No. 83B (Programming committees) shall not apply to proceedings in Committee, any proceedings on consideration or proceedings on Third Reading.

Other proceedings

6. Any other proceedings on the Bill (including any proceedings on consideration of Lords Amendments or any further messages from the Lords) may be programmed.—(Mr Evennett.)

Question agreed to.

Infrastructure (financial assistance) bill (money)

Queen’s recommendation signified.

Motion made, and Question put forthwith (Standing Order No. 52(1)(a)),

That, for the purposes of any Act resulting from the Infrastructure (Financial Assistance) Bill, it is expedient to authorise—

(1) the payment out of money provided by Parliament of expenditure incurred by the Treasury, or by the Secretary of State, in giving, or in connection with giving, financial assistance to any person in respect of the provision of infrastructure; and

(2) the payment out of the Consolidated Fund, in certain cases, of expenditure which would otherwise be paid under the Act out of money provided by Parliament.—(Mr Evennett.)

Question agreed to.