The Economy

Jim Shannon Excerpts

Tuesday 11th December 2012 Commons Chamber

[Ms Ritchie]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for his intervention. I agree that the banking regime in Northern Ireland is stringent at the moment. We have a unique situation in Northern Ireland. Some of the banking institutions are owned by the south of Ireland, but some have direct links to the Royal Bank of Scotland and Danske Bank. So there is that sort of mix as well. Suffice it to say that small and medium-sized enterprises are facing difficult economic challenges, and to have banks unwilling to lend or provide the necessary credit at this difficult time is not helping economic growth. That needs to be explored by the Treasury and, in the case of Northern Ireland, in some instances, directly with the Department of Finance in Dublin.

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

Does the hon. Lady think that one way of boosting the economy would be to encourage the construction industry, which, as all Members know, has had particular problems? Does she think that the banks should be more sympathetic to the construction industry in particular?

[Ms Ritchie]

I agree that the construction industry, along with agriculture and tourism, is a vital economic lever in Northern Ireland, but, owing to the economic challenges of the recession, many people employed in the construction industry have found themselves without work and many businesses have gone to the wall. They did not meet with a sympathetic reception from the banking institutions, but they need assistance because they are necessary to pump-prime our local economy.

The Chancellor’s welfare plans will remove more than £4 billion from the welfare budget by uprating benefits by just 1% a year until 2015. With a legacy of physical and social neglect from the troubles, this will remove the necessary level of support from many of our people and a substantial sum of money from the local economy. Instead of addressing their own shortcomings, the Government are vilifying the poor and those on welfare as a smokescreen for their own appalling economic record. That will place those most needy and vulnerable in the current economic climate in an even more precarious situation and will hurt not just the unemployed, but those who rely on in-work benefits. It is nothing more than a real-terms cut for those most in need by the same Chancellor who handed out a tax cut for the wealthiest in society at the last Budget. It would seem that some of us are more “all in this together” than others.

The autumn statement might have been politically more surefooted than the Chancellor’s last Budget, but I fail to see what it will do to address the core problems facing the economy. It might reassure some Tory voters here, but I do not think that my constituents or the people of Northern Ireland will find much to cheer about. I fear that we will be having this same debate, with similarly poor economic figures, come the next Budget.