Pfizer (Sandwich)

Laura Sandys Excerpts

Monday 7th March 2011 Commons Chamber

[Laura Sandys (South Thanet) (Con)]

I thank the Minister for taking the time to be present this evening, as I know he has been all around the country promoting science and our technology base. I also recognise that he and the Government are taking the announcement of the closure of the Pfizer plant in Sandwich exceptionally seriously.

I watched what happened previously when large numbers of redundancies were announced at the site, and it is clear that this Government have distinguished themselves as a Government of action and commitment. The last Government did not seem too worried about the closure of the Pfizer manufacturing plant at Sandwich, with hundreds of jobs lost. I did not hear the then Prime Minister commit to addressing the loss of UK-based skills, nor did I see a taskforce established within days to work with the company and keep as many jobs on site as possible. This Government have not stood by. They have not watched from the sidelines; instead they have galvanised all their resources to try to mitigate the impact this closure will have both locally and nationally.

A fellow Member of this House—an Opposition Member—said to me, “Well Laura, at least it’s happened in the south-east. There are lots of jobs and opportunities for people there, unlike in the north.” May I therefore explain that although Thanet and Dover are located in the south-east, they do not look like the south-east? I represent the 64th most deprived district in the country, next door in terms of deprivation to Wigan and Wakefield. We calculate that the withdrawal of high-paid jobs at Pfizer, which is one of the very few high-paying employers, will bring the average wage in our area down to £17,700. We will therefore be fighting things out in the conference league, with wages that are the 15th lowest in the country.

Let us add up the total of the potential job losses in an area where skills are low and job mobility even lower, and which is still recovering from coal pit closures and the demise of the British seaside holiday. Some 2,400 Pfizer jobs are at risk, and they are the highest paid jobs in the local economy. There are 1,700 contactors on the site, including technicians, scientists and support staff. It is also expected that we will lose thousands of public sector jobs. Experian calculates that the knock-on impact of these redundancies could mean that an additional 5,000 jobs are at risk.

The Pfizer closure will also have a significant impact on the voluntary sector. Pfizer has been very generous in the past. At the last count, an annual sum of £250,000 was donated by Pfizer to voluntary groups locally; £460,000 was given by Pfizer staff to charities; and 200 local schools were supported to promote science. Every staff member was given five days of paid leave to help with local charity groups. This totals in one year much more than the $1 million given as a community legacy when Pfizer shut its operation in Michigan. It is a body blow to the community, which is so dependent on the voluntary sector.

We cannot stop Pfizer leaving the site; that is its decision and responsibility. However, I ask the Minister to help us with our discussions with Pfizer. Pfizer has been in Sandwich for 60 years, but has given its staff and the community just 90 days to readjust. We know that significant numbers of staff will be made redundant soon, with little time for support to be put in place to help them to set up businesses, or to identify investors who might want to buy some of the assets and keep those important jobs on the Sandwich site. I pay tribute to the local Pfizer management at Sandwich who are trying to put in place new opportunities. They, too, have little time to ensure that jobs stay in Sandwich before redundancies are issued. This is a great disappointment, as there are some very exciting opportunities. The site and the staff have real potential.

As the Minister knows, following the meeting he called with venture capitalists, there are some potential opportunities, such as large management buy-outs. In addition, the staff are considering setting up businesses, but will they have enough time to secure the finance and put the packages in place before there is a dispersal of the talented staff?

I am not asking Pfizer to change its exit date—2012 will be when it closes its activities in Sandwich—but that does not mean that it has to rush to redundancies now when so much is being put in place to mitigate the company’s decision. I am not sure that 90 days’ notice after 60 years is fair or reasonable. We need more time, the staff and contractors need more time, and our east Kent economy needs more time.

The Government also have a strong role to play, and with Ministers’ support much has already been achieved. With the Minister’s leadership and the support of the Prime Minister, the Government moved into action immediately. The taskforce, under the effective chairmanship of Paul Carter, has already put in place a range of new opportunities for the site. We are only 30 days into this process and this will be an endeavour for those with stamina. We are in this for the long haul, so we need the Government’s help to realise an exciting future for Sandwich. We need them to back the establishment of a life science centre on the current site at Sandwich, as a national resource, rather than just for our local economy. We seek economic incentives to support this centre in its early years, and we seek special tax credits for research and development that reach beyond the current criteria. This life science centre could be at the heart of a wider research and technology zone covering the whole site and going along the A256 corridor. We would also like the Government to look on this area as one of the flagship enterprise zones that the Chancellor advanced in such a welcome fashion in Cardiff this weekend.

The east Kent economy has been crying out for years for better transport links: the area is 70 miles from London, but can take two hours to reach by train. The Minister experienced a very lengthy train journey of two and a half hours because of both a slow train and works on the line, so he knows that, per mile, Sandwich to London is one of the slowest rail routes in the country. I therefore ask for the Government’s support for our bid to get the rail line from London to Thanet upgraded so that we can get to Thanet within the hour. That would revolutionise our local economy.

In conclusion, we need more time from Pfizer and we need the Government’s commitment for the long term. With that, we have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to turn our local economy around so that in years to come my east Kent colleagues and I can proudly state, “Yes, our area is part of the south-east economy. It does look like the rest of the south-east and our economy can eventually function like the rest of south-east.”