Amendment of the Law

Jim Cunningham Excerpts

Monday 28th March 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Pickles]

My hon. Friend is absolutely correct—so much so that I am delighted to tell him that I will refer to that in a few moments.

The regional bureaucratic approach is not only costly but does not do the job it is supposed to do. Instead, we want to see business men and business women playing a leading role in the debate about their local economy, helping all parts of the country to live up to their full economic potential.

More than 90% of people in England now live in areas with local enterprise partnerships. These partnerships are a new approach to economic development, putting local councils, local communities and local business in the driving seat. The partnerships established so far have already set out plans that are high on ambition and low on bureaucracy—plans to attract investment, boost tourism and strengthen transport links. Local enterprise partnerships are going for growth, not handing out grants. The 21 new enterprise zones are an opportunity for leading partnerships to take their work to a new level. In exchange, we will let them keep all business rate growth in their zones for at least 25 years.

Businesses in the enterprise zones will benefit from a discount of up to 100% on rates and access to superfast broadband. We will work closely with local partners to make sure that the zones do not simply displace jobs and business. For example, the Boots campus in Nottingham will be a centre for science and medical research and innovation, the Manchester airport zone will be ideally placed to make the most of the local science and engineering expertise and international transport links, and Liverpool Waters will keep up the momentum of economic growth in that resurgent English city.

It is not just enterprise zones that are being helped: the Budget extends the doubling of small business rate relief for a second year. This will help small firms and small shops across the country, given that business rates are the third biggest outgoing for firms after staff and rents.

[Mr Jim Cunningham (Coventry South) (Lab)]

Can the Secretary of State say whether Coventry is going to be part of these enterprise zones, and if not, can he give me the reason why?

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[Mr Jim Cunningham (Coventry South) (Lab)]

It is well documented that the west midlands has been one of the worst hit regions during the recession. That is one reason why I raised the issue of enterprise zones in an earlier intervention. Those zones would certainly affect Coventry in a major way.

There is widespread concern in the west midlands about these cuts, but it is important to remember how this started. Some of us were here when the economic crisis blew up. It blew up in America. I realise that Government Members are probably in denial about this, but the fact remains that it started with Lehman Brothers in America. As Members who have followed these events will recall, there are still some charges against them. A Senate investigation took place into why Lehman Brothers collapsed. Some believe that the American Treasury could have done a lot more to help Lehman Brothers out. Be that as it may, it did not happen. We should all remember how this started.

People might have short memories, but the situation became so bad that even a Republican President and tax cutter like George W. Bush ended up pumping billions of dollars into the economy in the last month of his presidency. He realised the seriousness of the situation. It is not true to suggest for a moment that the Labour Government created this problem. It was an international problem, and that has been demonstrated.

It is equally important to say that we were never in the same position as Greece or Portugal—or Ireland, for that matter. We kept our triple A credit rating, although people tend to forget that. If we cast our minds back, we will remember that we had to restructure the banks. Anyone who watched the collapse of Northern Rock night after night on the television would know that there could have been a major run on the banks. The previous Government acted decisively and quickly. The last Prime Minister flew out to America in an attempt to secure international agreement on how to control the banks. The widespread absence of such agreement was one of the major problems. The Prime Minister tried to secure it in Europe as well. To say that we created the present problem is to deny the truth, in my view at least.

As I have said, we had at least 14 years in which to repay our debt—unlike Greece, and unlike other European countries such as Ireland. If we can underwrite Ireland’s debt, or help Ireland and promise to help one or two other countries, that suggests to me that our country has not been as badly off financially or economically as the Government parties have tried to make out. There certainly were economic problems, as I have demonstrated, but not to the extent that the Government’s solution suggests. We said that we would probably halve the deficit over about four years, but the present Government want to eradicate it, and I cannot think of any United Kingdom Government in recent history who have eradicated a deficit. Governments have tried, but they have not been able to do it.

We should bear in mind that when Labour came to power in 1997, 50p in every pound of taxpayers’ money was used to pay off debt. People also tend to forget that, after consultation with industry and the trade unions, we introduced the car scrappage scheme, which brought the motor car industry out of the doldrums. That was a long, hard-fought battle. We would certainly have reduced the deficit over those four years.

Coventry has benefited from significant redevelopment and regeneration, and the public sector has been crucial to that process. What concerns us now is the possibility that the Government’s cuts in the public sector will cause it to return to the days of the late 1970s and 1980s. Members may recall that, during the 1970s and the 1980s in particular, the motor car industry in Coventry and manufacturing in the west midlands were almost annihilated. The Government talk of balancing the economy. The last Conservative Government were balancing the economy at the time, but they were balancing it in favour of the service sector. The present Government criticise the excessive emphasis placed on that sector, but the Conservatives started it.

Rising unemployment is also a growing worry. The latest figures from the House of Commons Library reveal that there are nearly 10,000 unemployed jobseekers in Coventry, and the position is likely to worsen in future years. Coventry is famous for car manufacture, but public sector workers are driving much of the local economy under the present Government.

As some Members will recall, one of the Government’s first actions, last June or thereabouts, was to abolish the British Educational Communications and Technology Agency and the Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency. They also abolished Advantage West Midlands, which was one of the most successful regional development agencies in the country and had created hundreds of thousands of jobs throughout the midlands. It created Ansty technological park, of which the Government are now very proud. What a strange coincidence. When we created a business park at the university of Warwick at the same time, we were told that we had no business to be in the area, but later the Government tried to take the credit.

I will end my speech now, because I know that others wish to speak. There is a time limit anyway.