Economy: Growth

Lord Young of Norwood Green Excerpts

Wednesday 15th February 2012 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Wilcox]

It will not be. They are a wily lot up there in Scotland, and it is for the people of Scotland to decide their constitutional future. The Government strongly believe that Scotland is better off as part of the United Kingdom, and I do not think that I can do better than quote an English visitor in 1750, Mr Amyat, the King’s chemist, who famously remarked:

“Here I stand at what is called the Cross of Edinburgh, and can, in a few minutes, take 50 men of genius and learning by the hand”.

We do not want to lose them.

[Lord Young of Norwood Green]

My Lords, with record levels of unemployment, is the noble Baroness concerned about the performance of the Government’s flagship growth policy? The regional growth fund was hugely oversubscribed because of the Government’s cuts, meaning that it has created more losers than winners. Will she explain why, of the winners, more than a year after the bidding process began and more than 10 months after the successful bidders in the fund's first round were announced, more than 40 per cent of successful bidders are still waiting to receive their money?

[Baroness Wilcox]

The regional growth fund has been enormously successful. We are very proud of it, as we are about the number of people who have applied for it. I am sure that it is quite obvious to the noble Lord, as it is to me, that the reason for hesitation from some people is that there has to be due diligence on every bid put forward to make sure that we are not taking taxpayers’ money and investing it unwisely.