Inward Investment: Southend

Mark Francois Excerpts

Monday 8th June 2015 Commons Chamber

[The Minister for Communities and Resilience (Mr Mark Francois)]

I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Southend West (Sir David Amess) on securing this debate. As he has already told the House, we have known each other and been friends for many years, so I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate him on his knighthood and on being re-elected with such a healthy majority at the general election a few weeks ago. I am also pleased to see my hon. Friend the Member for Rochford and Southend East (James Duddridge) in his place. I congratulate him on his re-election. It is good to see him in good health tonight.

My hon. Friend the Member for Southend West has, as is customary, done an excellent job of promoting Southend, and rightly so. He listed some significant achievements of which Government and local partners can be proud. Southend is a key part of the Thames Gateway, which provides one of the biggest opportunities for investment in the UK and remains a very high priority for this Government. I am pleased to have been appointed Minister with responsibility for the Thames Gateway.

South Essex has received some significant private sector investments in recent years—for example, the £1.5 billion investment in the new London gateway by Dubai Ports, in which the Prime Minister and UK Trade & Investment played key supporting roles, and the £100 million-plus investment in London Southend airport by Stobart. They give some idea of the scale of economic growth in the area.

Specifically with regard to Southend, I believe there are many encouraging signs of a new confidence in the area, on the back of which private sector investment is already following. National arts organisations such as Metal, to which my hon. Friend the Member for Southend West referred, are championing and helping local artists from their base in Southend, helping to drive the arts sector locally. Metal puts on the annual village green festival in Chalkwell Park, which now attracts 40,000 visitors a year—and is growing. The Forum, in Elmer Square in the heart of Southend, opened in late 2013. It is an excellent facility where residents can access the combined resources of the municipal library, the University of Essex and South Essex college libraries—a very innovative approach. The relocated Beecroft art gallery is now housed in the old library building on Victoria Avenue with the new enterprise centre—the base from which business support services will be provided through the city deal-funded growth hub.

All these are positive signs of resurgence, as indeed is the successful promotion of Southend United to league one, after winning a nail-biting play-off at Wembley. A few moments ago, my hon. Friend gave us some insight into what happened. In football terms, Southend is literally “on the up”.

The Government have also been playing their part in the city deal. Eighteen months ago, my right hon. Friend, now the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government signed off the Southend-on-Sea city deal, capitalising on opportunities to increase entrepreneurship and innovation, and realise Southend’s full potential. The key ambition at the heart of the city deal is to transform the centre of Southend in order to make it a more attractive place in which to invest. Over time, the Victoria Avenue gateway to the town centre will be remodelled. The city deal will have a catalytic effect, signalling the Government’s confidence in Southend.

As part of the city deal, the Government contributed £1.8 million for the direct business support programme and over £650,000 of funding for the central library redevelopment. This is creating incubator space for up to 10 businesses at any one time, supporting over 100 jobs. It will lever in private sector investment, with over £4 million secured so far, and will provide direct business support for small and medium-sized enterprises across the south Essex area. Over 3,000 businesses have been engaged so far and over 170 assisted to improve performance. John Lamb, the Conservative deputy leader of Southend council at the time, said:

“Government is showing confidence in what we are achieving in our town”.

I know that city status is a subject close to my hon. Friend’s heart. The awarding of city status is part of the royal prerogative, and royal charters have tended to be awarded to mark significant occasions such as the millennium or royal jubilees. As with individual honours, there are no published criteria, but issues that are considered include the history of a town, its vibrancy, identity and community—all areas, to be fair, where Southend has a strong case to make. In recent years, the Cabinet Office has run competitions and sought bids, but we do not know when the next process might be, although I have to say that my hon. Friend’s intentions are now well and truly on the record. When there is next an opportunity to bid, I am sure that he and indeed our hon. Friend the Member for Rochford and Southend East will be very firmly at the front of the queue.

Building on the city deal experience, the Government have agreed growth deals with all of England’s 39 local enterprise partnerships. The South East LEP has one of the largest allocations of local growth funding—so far, £488 million has been committed through to 2021. For Southend, which remains a critical anchor at the eastern end of the Thames Gateway, the growth deal has committed £35.6 million to A127 improvements, which is on top of funding previously approved. A number of junctions along the route, including at Bell and Cuckoo corners and at Kent Elms, will be improved, and I am sure that all south Essex residents will be grateful for those improvements. The Government are also investing £6.7 million to develop the Southend growth hub and to help improve the area around the Victoria Avenue gateway to Southend, which I mentioned a few minutes ago. Growth deal expansion has also committed £3.2 million to the development of a 55-acre business park adjacent to London Southend airport, as part of the Southend and Rochford joint area action plan—the JAAP as it is known—and I pay tribute to those two authorities for their co-operation to make that a reality. I recognise the positive effect regional airports can have on economic growth and London Southend airport has certainly been a success—over 1 million passengers a year, scooping industry awards for growth and for service.

The Government have also very recently announced the three companies selected to tender for the renewal of the East Anglia rail franchise, which includes the Liverpool street to Southend Victoria line. Those three competitors are Abellio Greater Anglia, FirstGroup East Anglia, and National Express East Anglia trains. That process will begin in earnest when invitations to tender are issued in August, and we expect the new franchise to operate from October next year, which should benefit Southend commuters travelling to London—who, indeed, do deserve an improved service.

We have already seen new private sector investments on the back of this new-found confidence in Southend: a refurbished Palace hotel, a decision just the other evening to green-light the Marine plaza development, and an exciting proposal, with significant support from the coastal communities fund of about £1.2 million, for a new lagoon. Perhaps it will also be possible to see the marina development, which I know my hon. Friend has felt passionately about for some time.

We should not rest on our laurels, but the future for inward investment remains bright. It is important as we go forward that Southend capitalises on these opportunities. My right hon. Friend the Chancellor used his first speech after the election to announce a new round of devolution deals and city-county deals. This represents a further opportunity for Southend to work with its neighbours and take greater control of its own economic destiny, to build on the many advantages that it has and to work with the private sector to deliver the skills, jobs, businesses and investment that the country needs.

My hon. Friend made much of Southend’s cultural advantages and a recent report from Warwick University business school claims that nationally the creative sector is growing at four times the rate of the economy as whole, so Southend can expect to benefit from its growing specialisation in this sector.

The attractiveness of Southend, of which the cultural offer is a key component, means that people want to relocate there, which in turn is leading to clear interest from the private sector in investing in Southend, in businesses and in new housing. These are all advantages Southend has been successful in exploiting over the past few years and we have every reason to believe it will continue to do so for the benefit of the town and its residents. They will have no firmer champion in trying to exploit those advantages than my hon. Friend the Member for Southend West. He has put the Government on notice tonight that he intends to be tenacious in promoting the interests of his constituents. We already knew that, as he has been doing that for over 30 years. Nevertheless, we cannot say we have not been told.

I believe the future for Southend is a positive one. I thank my hon. Friend again for his warm words and his recognition that this Government have helped to lay the foundations for the future growth and prosperity of Southend. We can fully expect my hon. Friend and his neighbour, my hon. Friend the Member for Rochford and Southend East (James Duddridge), to continue to keep us up to the mark in making sure Southend remains a wonderful place in which to live and work and a wonderful resort where people can take time on holiday—where they can enjoy the cultural advantages it has to offer and where they can enjoy themselves with their families.

For all these reasons, I believe Southend has a wonderful future, not least as it is represented by two excellent Members of Parliament.

Question put and agreed to.