West Midlands

Debate between Karen Lumley and Richard Burden

Tuesday 7th September 2010 Westminster Hall

[Richard Burden]

I welcome my hon. Friend to today’s debate. He makes a very important point. I think that the point that he is making is twofold, and both aspects are important.

The first aspect is the type of thing that I was talking about earlier. All the indications are that there are going to be cuts, which will be real and substantial. Those cuts will not simply be in services but in the very things that will be able to generate the wealth that will keep unemployment down, create jobs and enable regional recovery. So there will be substantive cuts.

However, the second and more insidious thing that is going on at the moment is that because of the policies that the Government have come out with and because they have said that AWM will go, to be replaced by these local economic partnerships that are as yet undefined but will take up the strain, the Government have bred uncertainty and unpredictability at the very time that we need certainty and predictability in order to invest and innovate for the future. That is the story that my hon. Friend is talking about in his area and I think that it applies elsewhere.

[Karen Lumley (Redditch) (Con)]

Obviously, AWM has done some good work. However, I visited many companies in Redditch before the election and I have obviously visited a lot since the election. So let me just say to the hon. Gentleman that AWM does not benefit the companies in Redditch, because they do not fall within the category of companies that AWM helps. There is a lot of deprivation in Redditch; it has actually got the highest unemployment in Worcestershire. So a lot of the companies in Redditch are actually looking forward to the local economic partnerships and hopefully Worcestershire will get its own partnership, so that we can see some of the money for those schemes coming into Redditch.

[Richard Burden]

I applaud the hon. Lady’s optimism and I am very happy to sit down if she would like to intervene again. However, what is the budget that she is anticipating for her local economic partnership?

[Karen Lumley]

I am looking forward very much to hearing the Minister’s response to the debate and I am also looking forward to seeing what we get. Actually, for those of us in Redditch something is better than nothing.

[Richard Burden]

I am also looking forward to the Minister’s response. I simply say to the hon. Lady what I said before, that AWM was not perfect and that choices had to be made, as choices always have to be made. However, to make the choice, there must be the institution that people can debate with; to make the choice, there must be the engagement, and to make the choice we need to have the discussion. That is the point. At the moment, it is unclear what the institution will be in the future, what its budget will be and who will have a say.