Car Production: Solihull

Debate between Julian Knight and Jim Cunningham

Wednesday 16th January 2019 Commons Chamber

[Julian Knight]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for his intervention. The way to bring jobs into the UK is to create a business environment in which investment can flourish, and that is basically the point of my speech.

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

I congratulate the hon. Gentleman on securing this timely debate. He is right that not a lot can be said about the meetings we have had with Jaguar Land Rover, because that information is confidential, but Jaguar Land Rover is in a totally different situation from Bombardier. We want to support the hon. Gentleman, as he knows, in ensuring that Jaguar Land Rover goes on to create more jobs, and I am sure that he will want to touch on the question of the supply line. I have had a number of letters from small companies that are a bit concerned about the situation, although we have had some reassurances and there will be further discussions. I wish the hon. Gentleman all the best.

[Julian Knight]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for his intervention. I wonder whether he has seen my speech, because I am just about to mention Jaguar Land Rover’s successes, which are manifest. I mentioned employment at the start of my speech, and the reality is that we have gone back to the situation that we were in in 2016.

--- Later in debate ---

[Julian Knight]

I certainly will, and I know the impact that investment has had on my hon. Friend’s local community and on the wider west midlands economy. Those jobs are fantastic. The pay is much higher than the national average wage, which creates jobs in the local economy through the multiplier effect. They are jobs that we have to keep and develop. The key word is “transition.”

[Mr Jim Cunningham]

Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

[Julian Knight]

I am conscious of time. Sorry.

Jaguar Land Rover has announced that all new models will be electrified from 2020, and I have no doubt that other manufacturers will follow suit. It is a simple fact that we do not yet have the infrastructure to handle a wholesale shift towards electric vehicles in the near future.

As I told the House during the passage of the Automated and Electric Vehicles Act 2018, the current capacity for public charging points does not come close to that provided by traditional filling stations. It will take time to put the necessary infrastructure in place and, until it is ready, our environmental goals are best served by encouraging motorists to switch to cleaner, modern vehicles of all types before we get rid of the internal combustion engine by 2040.

As the MP for a car-making town, and as a former chairman of the all-party parliamentary group for fair fuel for UK motorists and UK hauliers, I am grateful for the Government’s proactive approach to the sector. The previously mentioned sector deal is welcome, and I am proud to have the opportunity to serve on the new JLR development partnership, which will give the company, firms in its supply chain, trade union officials and others the opportunity to liaise directly with the Business Secretary, the Mayor of the West Midlands and other local politicians.

I also note the £500 million investment in the new advanced propulsion centre, which is intended to research, develop and industrialise new low-carbon automotive technologies, and in other initiatives such as the Faraday battery challenge and the supplier competitiveness and productivity programme. The car industry has proven itself more than willing to collaborate with Ministers in this field, match-funding not just the advanced propulsion centre but also another £225 million for R&D investment.

We face a period of economic uncertainty, especially for exporters, as we negotiate our future relationship with the European Union and start to pursue our own independent trade policy. It is vital to the wellbeing of constituencies such as mine and the entire British economy, not to mention the Government’s own long-term environmental and technological ambitions, that we do everything we can to offer stability and certainty to companies such as Jaguar Land Rover. Only then will they be able to make the investment needed to protect jobs, drive growth and make our eventual transition to electric cars a reality.

Police Station Closures: Solihull and West Midlands

Debate between Julian Knight and Jim Cunningham

Tuesday 6th March 2018 Westminster Hall

[Julian Knight]

Of course, I recognise that the non-frontline staff do very valuable work. However, as I will explain shortly, the police and crime commissioner cannot say that his cuts will make a substantive difference either to frontline services or to these non-frontline staff.

In my view, what Mr Jamieson has done is a straightforward breach of trust. When Shirley police station closed its doors in 2015, local residents were reassured that the Solihull branch offered a long-term future for a properly resourced local police presence. Now, less than three years later, it is to go, too. Instead of the Solihull branch, the commissioner proposes to have a front desk somewhere in the borough, but even though the consultation on that proposal is under way, we have not been told where that will be or what precisely it will comprise. Before Solihull police station is closed, I strongly believe that local residents have a right to know exactly what will replace it. At present, they are simply being told to trust Mr Jamieson—as I have already explained, they have no reason to do that.

Worse, research by my hon. Friend the Member for Aldridge-Brownhills (Wendy Morton), who is here today to show her strength of feeling and support—as a Whip she is not permitted to speak—raises serious doubts about the extent to which the money raised from the sale of our police station can be redirected to frontline staff. According to the Library, police and crime commissioners are allowed to move funds from their capital to their revenue accounts only in very limited circumstances—primarily to deliver structural changes and to unlock long-term savings.

My constituents deserve to know whether—and how—Mr Jamieson actually intends to use the sale to boost local policing, as I have certainly heard nothing about new capital projects in Solihull or in any of the constituencies of my hon. Friends. It will not do for our police station to be sold to finance new programmes in other parts of the west midlands. My constituents should be given clear assurances that any revenue savings made by closing the station will be spent to boost local police services, and that there is not carte blanche to redirect them all over the place.

Not that local residents have had much of an opportunity to have their say—stakeholders have been offered only 18 working days to respond to the consultation, and originally no point of contact at all was provided for the general public. Only after a lot of chasing by my office was an email address finally provided for the public. Other concerned MPs, including my hon. Friend the Member for Aldridge-Brownhills, and I were not even given the courtesy of a call before the details were released to the press. My colleagues and I find that the commissioner is growing ever more autocratic in his dealings with us and our communities, issuing diktats from the centre against the will of local residents.

Solihull is a large town with a distinct character. Residents expect to see that fact reflected in their public services. Local Conservatives and I fought hard over the past few years to secure a devolution deal for the west midlands that brought power down from Westminster, while protecting the authority and independence of our local council. Decisions such as these will only confirm many of my constituents’ worst fears about how communities like Solihull risk getting short-changed by regional institutions that focus too heavily on major urban centres.

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

The hon. Gentleman must realise that West Midlands police received £444.1 million in 2017-18 and will receive the same amount under its budget for 2018-19. By any logic, that means there has been a cut somewhere. We are faced with the likely closure of at least three police stations in Coventry: Willenhall, Canley and Foleshill. Something has to give, and he should recognise that there has been a cut somewhere.

[Julian Knight]

I do not know whether the hon. Gentleman is arguing for the closure of his local police stations. I certainly would not do that in this respect. I agree that there needs to be a reallocation of resources, and perhaps there are older properties that might be used more usefully, but at the heart of this issue and of the real anger in my community is the arbitrary way closures have been made, the lack of proper consultation and the fact that there seems to be no real path for the future of policing in Solihull. If the police and crime commissioner had come to us and said, “This is what will replace it. We recognise that your town has a large population and a growing issue with certain types of crime,”—I am about to touch on those—I would have said, “Okay, let’s have a conversation,” but he did not call. He just decided to make closures and release the details to the press.

The difficulty is that that brings devolution into a little disrepute. Of course Birmingham has its own policing needs and the commissioner has a duty to see that those are met. I am sure that the centralised and reactive policing model he appears to favour is better suited to urban trouble spots than to suburban and semi-rural communities, but boroughs such as Solihull face discrete policing challenges of their own. Residents often tell me of their serious concerns about so-called acquisitive crime, such as burglary, and vehicle crime, which is on the increase in the borough. Another potentially serious public order problem that Solihull has faced over the years—certainly since I have represented it in this place—is the repeated occupation every summer of our parks and open spaces by unauthorised encampments. Those events are a source of enormous disruption and distress for local residents, many of whom bring their concerns to my office or tell me about them on the doorstep. A strong local police presence is crucial to protecting communities such as Solihull from unauthorised Traveller encampments. When it comes to that, the reactive approach is the wrong approach.

I will close by saying that this is not the end of the fight. Mr Jamieson may have tried to push decisions through without proper consultation, but both in this place and on the ground in the west midlands, my colleagues and I will keep his proposals under the closest scrutiny, bring him to account and continue to make the case for a wiser and fairer deal for our constituents from this police and crime commissioner.

Coventry City Football Club

Debate between Julian Knight and Jim Cunningham

Wednesday 21st February 2018 Westminster Hall

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

I congratulate the hon. Member for Nuneaton (Mr Jones) on securing the debate. As he rightly said, we have had many debates on the subject over the past six or seven years. I agree with near enough everything he has said, so I do not intend to cover that, but I have some other points to make, the first of which is to thank the sports Minister for her help. She appointed a mediator—for want of a better term—and the hon. Member for Daventry (Chris Heaton-Harris) did a very difficult job to the best of his ability. I can find no fault in that.

Another interesting point is that, as I have been arguing for a long time, we should have as a mediator someone from outside football—possibly a judge, if need be—to adjudicate. It has to be someone of substance to take the heat out of the situation. I am glad to see that the Court has now finally come to that conclusion, rightly or wrongly.

I have one or two other observations. I have met successive sports Ministers over the years and I have had no doubt that they have a difficult job dealing with the football league. In my view, that is because of the absence of strong regulation of it. In the Bundesliga, for example, very few clubs have gone bankrupt or out of business. Perhaps we can learn a lesson from that—although others in the Chamber probably know more about the Bundesliga than I do.

I have had a number of discussions with the Chair of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, the hon. Member for Folkestone and Hythe (Damian Collins). Incidentally, he came to one of our debates and he was very helpful, so in fairness I pay tribute to him for that.

[Julian Knight]

Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

[Mr Cunningham]

I do not have very long, so I will give way very quickly to the hon. Gentleman.

[Julian Knight]

To reiterate the hon. Gentleman’s point, I am a member of that Select Committee—its second longest serving Conservative member—and in our discussions we have considered what has happened to Coventry to be a stain on football. It needs to be resolved.

[Mr Cunningham]

I agree with the hon. Gentleman. All of us, including different sports Ministers, have been trying to do that for the past six or seven years.

The Chair of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee has agreed to meet the interested MPs, as I am sure the hon. Member for Nuneaton knows. Subject to us getting a date—[Interruption.] I can see you signalling for me to finish, Mr Sharma, so I will emphasise the point that the club has to stay in Coventry. It has another 12 months at the Ricoh, so let us hope that in a shorter period we will resolve the problem.