Crime and Antisocial Behaviour: Slade Road, Birmingham

Debate between Jack Dromey and Richard Burden

Tuesday 11th June 2019 Commons Chamber

[Jack Dromey]

My hon. Friend puts it exceptionally well. I stress again: the police do not always get it right, but they are good men and women, often doing remarkable things in the most difficult of circumstances. If two or more police officers are gathered together and we are talking to them as MPs, they pour their heart out about the mounting problems that face them, because they do not want to be in the position that they are in, where time and again they feel the brunt of public anger. They want to serve the public, but when there are huge reductions in police numbers, the simple reality is they just cannot do it in the way that we did under a Labour Government. We built, dare I say it, neighbourhood policing—17,000 extra police officers, 16,000 police community support officers. Crime came down by 43%. Now that has all been slammed into reverse.

[Richard Burden (Birmingham, Northfield) (Lab)]

I think all of us will recognise the picture that my hon. Friend is painting. The details may be different from area to area, but the overall picture is very recognisable. I put it to him that the problem with the overstretch is affecting the police and other services. It is not simply a matter of numbers; it is the fact that the overstretch is preventing them from intervening early, when it is most necessary. It is interrupting the neighbourhood policing that, if successful, heads off problems before they arrive. The mental health services can work effectively only if they intervene early, but the numbers are not there for them to do that. If nothing else, the Government need to address that point, because by restoring some of the budgets they have cut, they will enable those services to intervene in the way they need to—it has to be early intervention.

[Jack Dromey]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right, because it is about support for the vulnerable on the one hand, but early intervention and prevention on the other hand.

For neighbourhood policing at its best, may I give an unusual example from the Stockland Green area? Six years ago, Sergeant Simon Hensley, now the sergeant in Kingstanding, formed a canoeing club on Brookvale Park Lake. I know, because I was asked to launch it on a rather shaky canoe. Some people asked, “What’s canoeing got to do with the police service?” But he had linked up with the local youth service and some of the local voluntary organisations. It involved at one stage hundreds of local young people, helped to form a good relationship between them and the police, and then, when there was an outbreak of burglaries, young people were coming forward, saying, “We think we know who it is, Simon.” So prevention is critical.

We are doing everything we can in Birmingham, but the Government have a responsibility. The police and crime commissioner for Birmingham will visit Slade Road this Friday to see at first hand what can and should be done next. Resource is key, but resource alone is not enough: we need all agencies with responsibility to come together and act. So, together with the police, the police and crime commissioner and the local authority, I will be convening a summit, at which we want to bring around the table the national health service, the mental health trust, the probation service, the Prison Service and the social housing regulator, which, to be frank, has a lot to answer for in respect of how the powers under the Housing and Regeneration Act 2008 have been used to register and deregister bad landlords. It is going to be key to bring them together to get a concerted action plan to make a real difference in Slade Road.

Let me say a couple of things in conclusion. I have referred in particular to the rapid growth in the private rented sector and the problems associated with that in the Slade Road area, but I do not want to demonise all landlords. On the contrary, I want to celebrate the good, because there are many good landlords in the area who feel as strongly as we do about the bad ones. The good landlords include Jackie, who I was with only last week, and also the legendary Birmingham City striker Geoff Horsfield, who owns a number of homes in the Stockland Green area and particularly in Slade Road. If one goes to one of Geoff’s houses, one sees a house in good repair with proper support for vulnerable people, helping them to rebuild their lives. He is the opposite of the bad landlords in the picture I have painted.

As far as the bad landlords are concerned, let me serve this notice: I have referred to certain addresses, but it is my intention, in the next stages, to name and shame the bad, as well as to celebrate the good. We are not going to have people who have bought lucrative homes exploiting the vulnerable miles away, then dumping them, without support, in areas of our constituencies such as the Stockland Green area of Slade Road. Some of those landlords will end up in the dock and, if I have anything to do with it, out of business.

Quite frankly, the great community of Slade Road, whether it is the upper end—the Frances Road area—or down the shops at the bottom, has had enough. On the streets or at a surgery, one sees the pain on people’s faces for the place where they grew up in the houses they loved—that great-great-great-granddaughter telling the story about her own home that she and her family had been proud to live in for in excess of 100 years—and it is a pain that is absolutely heartfelt. It is totally unacceptable that that fine community is suffering in the way it is. That has to end, but for that to happen not only the Government but all parties need to play their part in erasing a stain on the history of a great community.

Iraq: Coalition Against ISIL

Debate between Jack Dromey and Richard Burden

Friday 26th September 2014 Commons Chamber

[Jack Dromey (Birmingham, Erdington) (Lab)]

rose—

[Richard Burden (Birmingham, Northfield) (Lab)]

I am grateful—[Laughter.] We are both from Birmingham; we get everywhere.

I am grateful to the Prime Minister for giving way. Whether or not we are militarily involved in Syria, there is no doubt that the fighting in Syria has been and is intensifying, which means that the humanitarian crisis that has already been unfolding in Syria will also intensify. For example, there have been more than 650 major impact strikes on Aleppo since February. This will require new ways of getting humanitarian aid in. What preparations are being made for that, because the current arrangements need to be stepped up, and who are the Prime Minister and the international community co-operating with to ensure that that aid gets in?

Motorsport Tyre Manufacturing

Debate between Jack Dromey and Richard Burden

Wednesday 26th February 2014 Westminster Hall

[Jack Dromey]

I met one particular constituent in Kingstanding. He spoke about how he had worked for the factory for 20 years, his father-in-law had worked there for 42 years and his grandfather for 40 years—more than 100 years of service, all told.

When I was elected, my first priority was the future of the Jaguar plant, which was doomed to close. I worked with Tata Motors and the new management, and six months later came the historic announcement by Tata of its commitment to Britain and to Birmingham. Subsequently, we have seen Jaguar Land Rover become a world-class success story, with the Jaguar plant in my constituency now secure for the future.

The plant needs to expand, so Jaguar bought the land on which the Dunlop factory is located. Dunlop could have bought that land but declined so to do. A year ago, therefore, we swung into action and engaged with the company, with Birmingham city council and with the Homes and Communities Agency. I thank Sir Albert Bore, the leader of the council, and the Homes and Communities Agency for the way they worked with the company to identify a site but three miles from the current site in Erdington, at Aston advanced manufacturing hub.

Indeed, on 24 July Sir Albert Bore wrote to Dunlop, saying that there was sufficient land available at a competitive price and that the council would assist with a package to aid relocation of the factory. There was no answer. In parallel, I met senior management of the company three times over a nine-month period, together with the unions representing the work force, the GMB and Unite. On each occasion I asked whether the company would agree to look at alternatives in Birmingham. There was no answer.

In November I wrote to the global chief executive of Goodyear, Rich Kramer, who is based in Ohio in the United States of America, and asked, “Would you look at alternatives for remaining in Birmingham?” There was no answer. I then approached Jaguar Land Rover, and asked whether it would be prepared to extend Dunlop’s lease to allow Dunlop time to build a new factory and relocate. Jaguar Land Rover said to me, “Jack, we can’t get an answer.” However, it agreed to extend the lease by a further three months. There was still no answer from Dunlop.

I then asked the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills to intervene, and he did so. I cannot praise him too highly for the steps that he took. He convened an urgent meeting with the chair of Goodyear Dunlop in Britain and Ireland, Erich Fric, on 30 January. Seven times I had to ask, “Will you look at options to remain in Birmingham?” The first six times, there was no answer. Eventually, on the seventh occasion, the chief executive said, “Yes, we will.” The Business Secretary pushed the button straight away for a meeting, which took place the following day, between civil servants from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, Birmingham city council, the Homes and Communities Agency and UK Trade & Investment. The people at that meeting identified three proposals for Dunlop to relocate in Birmingham, and said that they would put together a package to assist that relocation.

A meeting was scheduled with Dunlop for the following Friday. We thought that at last it was going to do the decent thing and look at alternatives. However, but four days after that meeting, on 3 February Goodyear Dunlop announced its intention to cease manufacturing in Birmingham. In my 40 years in the world of work, I cannot remember any employer acting with such cavalier contempt towards a loyal and long-standing work force. A decision had been made 3,600 miles away, in Ohio, when the factory could have moved but 3 miles and remained in Birmingham.

Dismay has been expressed throughout Birmingham. The city has a great industrial history and the Dunlop factory in Erdington has been a great part of that history. Dismay has also been expressed by the £9 billion motorsport industry. Dismay has been expressed at the highest levels, including by our Prime Minister—I thank the Prime Minister for his intervention, in which he urged Goodyear Dunlop to look seriously at alternatives so as to remain in Birmingham.

Dismay has also been expressed by the reputable Dunlop, Dunlop Aircraft Tyres. Its factory is also in my constituency, and is mercifully no longer owned by Goodyear. It has issued a press statement, and its chairman, Ian Edmondson, could not be clearer: whatever Goodyear does with the motorsport factory, Dunlop Aircraft Tyres is committed to Birmingham, will invest in Birmingham and will grow its business in Birmingham—what a contrast with Goodyear Dunlop motorsports. I thank him for what he has said and done. I also thank the Birmingham Post and the Birmingham Mail for their outstanding championing of the cause of the motorsport factory. They have stood up for Birmingham.

Dismay has been expressed in those ways, but what has been particularly heartbreaking is the dismay expressed by the work force. I will quote from one of the many e-mails I received shortly after the announcement was made. This particular individual has worked in the factory for nearly 30 years. He said:

“To be cast aside like a spare penny is heartbreaking and gut wrenching. I feel physically sick writing this, but feel our voices and our perspective of the situation have not been heard. I drove home today and pulled up on my driveway not even remembering how I got here. My brain is doing somersaults, not sure I’ll sleep tonight knowing I’ve got to get up at 5:00 and somehow drag myself back to the place that used to feed and clothe my family. A place I used to be proud to say I worked. A place that no longer needs my services after years of hard work and dedication, commitment and loyalty…the same company knows none of the above for me and my work mates.”

I have had so many other approaches of that kind, including one from a daughter who was absolutely distraught about her father. He is in his 50s and has worked at the factory for 25 years. He is not well, and his daughter said to me, “Jack, I fear for the future for him. I don’t know what he is going to do. He is in despair.”

It is not just dismay that has been caused: there is also the fear expressed by the work force. I have had e-mail after e-mail and approach after approach from people expressing their dismay but saying, “Please don’t identify me.” In the words of one:

“I’m a Dunlop motorsport employee and would really like you not disclose my contact with yourself as it will probably give good reason for them to dismiss myself”.

E-mail after e-mail, approach after approach, call after call has said exactly the same thing.

Birmingham and its workers will not be intimidated. Their message, our message, and the message of this House and of our Government—I pay tribute once again to the role the Government have played—is abundantly clear: Goodyear Dunlop has both a moral and a legal responsibility to look at the alternatives to closure that are on the table. My message to Goodyear Dunlop today is that even at this stage it should sit down, do the decent thing, engage, look at alternatives allowing it to remain in Birmingham, and not betray Birmingham and Britain.

[Richard Burden (Birmingham, Northfield) (Lab)]

rose—

Citizens Advice Bureaux (Birmingham)

Debate between Jack Dromey and Richard Burden

Wednesday 9th February 2011 Westminster Hall

[Jack Dromey]

rose—

[Richard Burden (Birmingham, Northfield) (Lab)]

This is an intervention on my hon. Friend, but before I start it I think the answer to the question asked by the hon. Member for Birmingham, Yardley is no.

Would my hon. Friend comment on the fact that in the other place, Baroness Wilcox said:

“Central Government has not been notified of the closure of any citizens advice bureaux since the spending review settlement 2010. The Government are aware that local authorities that fund citizens advice bureaux are facing tough decisions but do not expect them when making those decisions to pass on disproportionate cuts to other service providers, especially in the voluntary sector.”—[Official Report, House of Lords, 26 January 2011; Vol. 724, c. WA166.]

Would my hon. Friend join me in inviting the Minister, when he responds, to tell us what it means, other than just words, if the Government let happen what looks like happening in Birmingham?

[Jack Dromey]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. It is proof positive, once again, that the Government are simply out of contact with the consequences of their actions. What is happening in Birmingham is clear beyond any doubt. The question that we will be asking today is what Ministers intend to do about it.

On the point about the council, the hon. Member for Birmingham, Yardley asked whether the CAB had explored alternatives. It has explored alternatives repeatedly. I have seen the correspondence going backwards and forwards. The CAB has tried to find a way forward, but what has it been met with? Among other things, abuse from the cabinet member concerned, Councillor Ayoub Khan. Just when the CAB was looking for a co-operative approach to try to find a way forward, including making economies consistent with protecting the service to the community, it ran up against a brick wall.

West Midlands

Debate between Jack Dromey and Richard Burden

Tuesday 7th September 2010 Westminster Hall

[Richard Burden]

My hon. Friend is right. I fully accept his apology. Indeed, I congratulate him, a fellow west midlands MP, on being elected as Chair of the Select Committee on Business, Innovation and Skills. I also welcome my hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham, Erdington (Jack Dromey), who is a member of that Select Committee, and my right hon. Friend the Member for Warley (Mr Spellar), who takes a keen interest in automotive affairs.

My hon. Friend the Member for West Bromwich West is absolutely right: if one industry sums up the fragility of the recovery, it has to be the automotive industry. It was one of the hardest-hit sectors, but it came through strongly. However, that did not happen by accident, but because people in the industry—whether the management or the work force—willed it to happen and because the Government were prepared to stand behind them. I do not say that the car scrappage scheme turned the automotive industry around, but it was part of the jigsaw of things that allowed that to happen. I do not say that the creation of a taskforce in the west midlands allowed the industry to come through, but it was part of that jigsaw.

[Jack Dromey (Birmingham, Erdington) (Lab)]

I give the same apology, Mr Hollobone, as that given earlier. As a member of the Select Committee I have to be at its 10 am sitting.

Advantage West Midlands has evidence that for every £1 of public money invested, £8.14 is generated in wealth for the local economy. It was rated by the National Audit Office as the top-performing regional development agency, and it was praised for its management of the shock of what happened to Rover between 2000 and 2005, and for consolidating an automotive cluster that employs 150,000 people in the midlands and which is vital to the regional economy. Does my hon. Friend agree with the clear voice of business in the west midlands, which supports Advantage West Midlands and argues for the retention of a strong regional economic structure?

[Richard Burden]

My hon. Friend makes a good point, and I will shortly say a little more about Advantage West Midlands and the haziness that seems to surround some of the present Government’s proposals for change. The responses from businesses and from people outside the political sphere are clear. Sometimes, one gets the impression that the future of effective regional co-ordination—I am talking about the type of co-ordination that Advantage West Midlands has been involved with—has been a matter for debate just among politicians, but it has not. It is an issue for the people affected by the decisions of organisations such as AWM, and for every business that has applied for and may have received assistance from the Advantage Transition Bridge Fund. It is a matter of economic health for many businesses in our region, and an issue of importance for the third sector in the region that engages with AWM.

The Regional Committee had a seminar in the west midlands that brought together different organisations, institutions and players to assess the future of governance in the region. Again, the message was clear that what we need is strong regional co-ordination and a strong regional tier that is accountable. It is easy to come up with the slogan, “Scrap the quangos”, and then look for a quango in the west midlands and say, “There’s AWM, let’s get rid of it.” People know that that is the easy bit; the difficult bit is to get away from the headlines and work out and put into effect the policies that will enable our region to win through. My hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham, Erdington was absolutely right about the matter.

I have referred to businesses, but often the impact of Government policy in the west midlands is felt not just by them but by the people whom we represent. The National Housing Federation recently highlighted that Birmingham is one of the places likely to be most badly hit. Its chief executive, David Orr, said:

“The changes could see hundreds of thousands of vulnerable people fall into debt, forced out of their homes and neighbourhoods and crammed into overcrowded ghettos. Many others will simply become homeless.”

He was referring to the coming changes to housing benefit. All this comes at a time when Birmingham city council itself is proposing to cut no less—and it could be more—than £7 million that was allocated by the previous Government to tackle worklessness through the working neighbourhoods fund. It is not going to reallocate or redistribute that money to enable it to be spent more effectively; it is just cutting it and removing that level of support in tackling worklessness. As my hon. Friends know, the council is proposing to cut back on community day nurseries for some of the most vulnerable people in our city, even though such a proposal runs counter to the idea of stimulating and taking forward the principles of early intervention to which every single political party in this place signs up.

I turn to Longbridge in my constituency. I welcome the fact that, in Shanghai Automotive, there is still an important car presence there. There are plans to introduce new models for the coming year and it is the major technical centre for the whole of Europe, which is good news. However, Longbridge can never again be simply a car plant, no matter how important that plant is. Regeneration and the creation of a diverse economy in Longbridge and the surrounding areas are vital to the future. It is important for the regeneration not just of my constituency but of the south of Birmingham and the regional economy as a whole.

A bulletin produced in August by Birmingham city council, Bromsgrove district council and Worcestershire county council, all of which are either Conservative or coalition led councils, said:

“The new government’s intended changes to planning policy and significant budget cuts continue to have a detrimental consequence on the development programme for Longbridge. Certainty of funding for the MyPlace programme, Regional Infrastructure Fund and the future of HCA funding continues to be at risk”

I am pleased that around £4 million of the Homes and Communities Agency’s money, which was earmarked by the previous Government for Longbridge, has now been confirmed by the present Government, but the message of that update remains a chilling one for many of us. The report on housing and economic development in the west midlands by the former regional Committee said:

“Substantial public funding will remain necessary to increase the supply of affordable housing in the region to the extent required.”

That conclusion was not just dreamt up; it was based on the evidence that we received. It is difficult to relate it to the cuts that are now taking place in housing: cuts of £100 million from the National Affordable Housing Programme, of £50 million from the Kickstart programme and of £50 million from the Housing Market Renewal scheme. I have described the likely impact of that on regeneration programmes such as Longbridge. No doubt other hon. Members can give examples from their own constituencies.

Such cuts affect real people in real communities in our region. For example they feel the impact of the scrapping of 64 school rebuilding projects that had been in the pipeline under the Building Schools for the Future programme, not to mention the scores of other schools, including all but one in my constituency, that never even got to the starting grid of the programme.

Hon. Members, particularly those on the Government Benches, may say that difficult decisions have to be made and they are right. They may say that capital spending would have been squeezed by whoever won the general election and there is force in that argument. Difficult decisions were going to have to be made, but difficult decisions are about making choices. It is a question not just of what choices to make but who makes those choices, who one listens to and what one takes into account when making such choices. That is why it is so important in this climate to listen to the people who are most likely to be affected by the decisions. If they are to have their voices heard, they must have institutions through which they can speak. In Birmingham, in my own home town, we now hear that the city council is proposing radically to scale back the very mechanisms through which local people can have a say in council decisions. So much for all the talk about a big society in Birmingham.

What about the voice for our region? The final report of the West Midlands Regional Select Committee before the general election looked at how institutions can engage more effectively with the public and how that engagement can be used to help the region to become more responsive to the needs of the people who live there. We also recognised that Westminster needs to look at regional issues in a more coherent way. Normally when Select Committee reports are published, the convention is that the Government respond not only within a reasonable time scale but in a considered way. The Government will produce a report that will be discussed by the Select Committee. The Select Committee will consider whether the Government have tackled the issues that were proposed in its report and it will be its decision whether to publish the Government’s response. Occasionally, when there are some holes in the response, the Select Committee has the right to send it back to the Government and say, “Have another think about it before we publish this.” In that way, we can ensure that Parliament can consider properly not only what the Select Committee has said but the Government’s response. My hon. Friend the Member for Dudley North, who is a former Minister, will know that that is precisely what happened over the last year. We produced reports, and they were responded to. There was one instance—I am sure he will not think that I am breaking any confidences here—when we felt that the initial Government response was not good enough. We sent it back and the Government had a rethink and came forward with another response, which was then published. It was done in a considered way that respected the region and the issues that it was raising.

The report, “Making the Voice of the West Midlands Heard”, came out before the general election, but it was dismissed by the current Government in just two sentences in a written statement. Our report on housing and planning in the west midlands, which also came out just before the general election, was dismissed in just four paragraphs in the same written statement. Now Ministers are proposing to scrap the regional development agency, Advantage West Midlands. That is despite the fact that, as my hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham, Erdington said earlier, a National Audit Office report judged the RDA’s performance as “strong” and gave it the maximum possible rating across most areas of the assessment, repeating the findings of the NAO’s report of 2007. As my hon. Friend also said, the most recent independent evaluation suggested that for every £1 invested by Advantage West Midlands, a return of £8.14 is generated for the west midlands region.

Advantage West Midlands is not perfect. My Committee—the West Midlands Regional Committee—suggested changes, including changes to the accountability arrangements for AWM. However, the evidence that was given to us was that AWM’s role in co-ordinating effort among regional players, in securing investment and in putting that investment—hard cash—to use in the areas where it was needed was and is absolutely vital. So, when the Government talk about cutting quangos and then relate that talk to AWM, they are not just talking about cutting institutions; they are talking about jeopardising the programmes and the real investment on which our region depends. And it is really not good enough to say that the new bodies that the Government are talking about—the so-called “local economic partnerships”—will pick up where the RDAs are just leaving off.

Partners around the west midlands, including in my own sub-region of Birmingham and Solihull, want to be as constructive as possible and they are putting ideas together about how they could put in place a local economic partnership. However, I ask the Minister today to be as clear as he can be in the information that he gives and if he cannot give information today I ask him to set out some key points in written form for hon. Members from the region.

In my opening remarks, I talked about the importance of research and development for the west midlands and about the importance of having the mechanisms for stimulating R and D in businesses up and down the region. If AWM is going to be scrapped and if local economic partnerships, which are undefined as yet, are going to replace AWM, it is important that we know which programmes will continue and which will not. Furthermore, of those programmes that are going to continue, it is important that we know which ones will be administered entirely centrally by Government and which will be controlled and administered by local economic partnerships in the future.

I ask the Minister to say clearly what actually is the difference between the budget that will be made available in the west midlands to do the type of things that I have been referring to in my speech and the budget for AWM, because I think that people in the region deserve to know what the difference is. If we are talking about AWM, we are talking about a budget of about £1.5 billion a year. However, when we look at the budget that is likely to be available for local economic partnerships, we are talking about £1 billion, which is not per year but spread over two years.

If I am right about that budget difference—the Minister represents the Government, so he will know the figures better than I do—what is it that will go? What is it that is going to be cut? Perhaps he will say, “Well, it will just be the bureaucracy that is going to go. That is what is going to be the difference—just the bureaucracy. The programmes will be maintained.” However, if that is the case, I must ask, “Who is going to pick up and administer those things? Who will do the work?” Is it the Government’s view that local authorities will simply pick up the slack? Is it the Government’s view that local authority and local authority staff will do that work?