Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation

Mark Pawsey Excerpts

Monday 13th July 2015 Commons Chamber

[Greg Clark]

My hon. Friend is right, and it is part of his record as Mayor of London of which he can be very proud. He and my hon. Friend the Minister met just before they came to the House to discuss the London Land Commission and further plans to build on the success that my hon. Friend the Member for Uxbridge and South Ruislip (Boris Johnson) has enjoyed. It is vital that we make sure that the capital has homes for the next generation of Londoners, just as he has provided them for this generation.

Local plans have been another success story, as they have helped to drive progress on both the quantity and quality of new development. In the productivity plan, we said that we want to take steps to ensure that there are local plans in every community. We will also make it easier to build 200,000 starter homes on underused commercial land, which can then be offered to first-time buyers under the age of 40 with a 20% discount.

We will update legislation and guidance to ensure that neighbouring councils co-operate on local plans—something that the Communities and Local Government Committee has taken an interest in over the years. The Chair was hopeful that I might listen to the representations from the Committee during this Parliament. We have listened and we are reflecting some of its thoughts in the productivity plan. We want to make sure that planning decisions are made as quickly as they can be; that major infrastructure projects can include some new homes as part of their plan; and that smaller firms have quicker and simpler ways of establishing where and what they can build, particularly on land in the new brownfield registers.

We also want to ensure that our existing housing stock supports working people, which is why the reduction in social housing rents—to bring them in line with the increase that has taken place in private rents—is an important step forward.

[Mark Pawsey (Rugby) (Con)]

If I may bring the Secretary of State back to the importance of local plans, part of the problem has been that some local authorities have been slow in bringing forward their plans. I therefore support the Government’s moves to encourage local authorities to get their plans in place, because the Government will do the work if local authorities fail to do so.

[Greg Clark]

I am grateful for the support of my hon. Friend, who has contributed to the Select Committee’s deliberations. Local councils have now had plenty of time to get on with their plans. More than 80% have published a plan, so we are pushing at an open door.

The Budget and its accompanying documents make clear, in tangible form, our commitment to provide the land and a simplification of the planning system to allow the homes that are needed to be built.

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[Mark Pawsey (Rugby) (Con)]

It is a great pleasure to speak in the debate, and to follow the hon. Member for Oldham East and Saddleworth (Debbie Abrahams), who told us in her opening remarks that under this Government, and the coalition before them, our economy had tanked. Well, if growth of 3%, 2 million new jobs, and a fall in borrowing from a staggering and unsustainable £153 billion a year to just half that constitutes an economy that has tanked, I would hate to imagine how she might describe what happened under the Labour Government in the run-up to 2010.

It is also a great pleasure to see the Minister. I look forward to the considered and thoughtful remarks that I know he will make when he winds up the debate.

I want to focus on the steps that the Government are taking to grow the economy. As we know, we saw record growth of 3% over the last 12 months. We had become used to seeing “flatlining” gestures from the Opposition Front Bench, but we do not see those any more, not least because the person who used to make them is no longer present in the Chamber. We shall see 2.6% growth over the coming year, and it is important for us to maintain that growth, because the Government are doing two things. As any business, household, council or other organisation would do, they are controlling their expenditure —we have heard a lot in earlier Budget debates about how the Government are doing that—but it is also massively important for them to grow their revenues, and they do that when the economy is growing. That is why it is so important for them to focus on growth.

I want to focus on the measures the Government are introducing to grow the country as a whole through the governance of its cities, and on the more flexible planning system.

[George Kerevan]

I rise to intervene on the hon. Gentleman, as I do on all Conservative Members, in the forlorn hope that he might address the worsening trade picture and the fact that we have to borrow to fund our imports. The Government are shifting the burden of debt from the Treasury on to the private sector, and particularly on to foreign borrowing.

[Mark Pawsey]

I am sure the hon. Gentleman is aware of the principle of reshoring, which is taking place in our economy right now. Manufacturing companies that years ago were offshoring and sending jobs out to other countries are now making products in the UK. In Coventry, which is immediately adjacent to my constituency, I visited a small company that is producing the rechargeable torches that sit in every Range Rover. Until recently they were being imported from China. Now they are being produced in the UK. We are slowly bringing manufacturing back to the UK, which will in time deal with the issue that concerns the hon. Gentleman and which is, of course, a concern for the Government.

[George Kerevan]

Will the hon. Gentleman give way again?

[Mark Pawsey]

No, as I want to talk about rebalancing our economy and ensuring that we get effective growth in the regions outside London, which has a momentum of its own.

The Government are looking closely at what is happening in Manchester, and that is the model they want to see. It is very good news that new combined authorities are coming together across the UK to provide the growth that the country needs, because the cities are of massive importance.

[Mr Alan Mak (Havant) (Con)]

My hon. Friend will no doubt be aware of the recent World Economic Forum report on global competitiveness which places Britain one place above its ranking of last year, praises the Chancellor’s deficit reduction and cites our stronger regional growth. Does my hon. Friend agree that the stronger regional growth and sustained investment in our cities, regions and counties is important for the years ahead?

[Mark Pawsey]

Absolutely, and I am pleased that the urban conurbations are coming together in combined authorities across the country.

I am also pleased that the Government have received combined authority proposals from two local authority groups in the east midlands. The Derbyshire consortium has 10 councils including the county council and city council, and the same process is under way in Nottinghamshire.

As part of that process, the Government are right to insist on a directly elected mayor for each combined authority so that there is a figurehead for the body being created. I have tried to put myself in the position of an overseas investor who arrives in Manchester or Birmingham wishing to invest in the region. I would want to understand who is the titular head of the body and who is ultimately responsible. A directly elected mayor goes some way to addressing that.

[Mrs Drummond]

Does my hon. Friend agree that the decision in the last Parliament to create single pots for infrastructure projects such as those determined by the local enterprise partnerships has shifted power, which has been crucial to places such as my area of Portsmouth and his of Rugby?

[Mark Pawsey]

Absolutely. The shift of power from the centre out to the regions is massively important and I will talk about the importance of local enterprise partnerships shortly, but first I want to talk about the impact of combined authorities in my part of the country.

Even though Rugby is right in the middle of the country, under the old regional development agency model we were placed in the west midlands because Warwickshire was put in the west midlands. However, my town’s economic links are much closer to places such as Lutterworth and Leicester in Leicestershire and Daventry and Northampton in Northamptonshire. In so many instances we in Rugby look east rather than west. That is one reason why I have some concerns about the developments in the west midlands. It is entirely right that the urban area of the west midlands—Birmingham, Solihull, Walsall, Dudley, Sandwell and Wolverhampton—comes together. I ran a business in Rugby, and we looked at that block of authorities as one big market. In fact we did not know where one authority ended and the other started because to us it was one big market.

[John Mc Nally (Falkirk) (SNP)]

Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

[Mark Pawsey]

I will carry on, if I may, as other Members wish to speak and I only have a little time left.

It is entirely right that those authorities come together in the midlands engine, but I note that Coventry, a city almost in the centre of Warwickshire and surrounded almost entirely by Warwickshire, wants to join that combined authority. I do not think the people of Warwickshire have made a sufficiently strong case to both the people and local politicians of Coventry for the merits of Coventry remaining within Warwickshire. To take up the comment made by my hon. Friend the Member for Portsmouth South (Mrs Drummond) about the role of the local enterprise partnership, my local LEP is called the Coventry and Warwickshire LEP. It is a natural economic unit, and I would like more thought to be given to the possibility of Coventry and Warwickshire working together as a combined authority. I say to the people of Coventry—to Coventrians—that it is not too late and there is no automatic reason why Coventry needs to join the west midlands combined authority. One of my selfish reasons for having concerns about that is that if Coventry joins that combined authority, Warwickshire may feel a need to do so, too. I have already explained that my authority’s links are closer to the east midlands than to the west midlands. I hope it is not too late to have a further look at this matter.

All that raises the issue of the role of two-tier authorities within the move to combined authorities. Some challenges for government will emerge where we have a two-tier authority and the upper tier wishes to go in one direction and the lower tier—the district councils—wishes to go in a different one. It is entirely right that both tiers are talking to the emerging west midlands combined authority, but I am keen that in my part of the world, Rugby, we continue to talk also to the districts and counties on our eastern flank, because our relationships with that area are so strong.

I wish to make one or two quick remarks about the changes the Government are making to the planning system. It is entirely right that we make it easier for businesses to grow. Housing development is a very substantial part of economic growth and we want to make it easier for people to build new houses. I am very proud that in my constituency we are doing entirely that, with two substantial housing development sites coming forward.

[Several hon. Members]

rose—

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[Martin Vickers]

I am running short of time so I will not, if the hon. Gentleman does not mind.

The way that local authorities are beginning to come together and recognise the advantages of what is on offer from the Government suggests that they will move towards a system of combined authorities. Personally, I would prefer to see unitary authorities rather than combined authorities and economic authorities, but at least it is a step in the right direction.

I have some reservations—for example, in relation to planning. As we all know, planning is very controversial. It is an issue on which we must take our communities with us. If, as in the case of most of my constituency, which falls in a local authority area where there is no local plan and it is years before we will have one, the people, through the democratic process, must have some sort of opportunity to put their case.

[Mark Pawsey]

Does my hon. Friend agree that when a local authority has been incredibly slow to bring forward a local plan, having had many years’ notice that it needs to be done, it is entirely right for the Government to say, “Look, if you don’t do it, we will”?

[Martin Vickers]

I entirely agree, and I am glad to see the Government being much more proactive in that regard. Equally, whether it is the Government or the local authority, they must take communities with them. For many years I have advocated giving those who object to planning developments a right of appeal in certain limited circumstances. One such circumstance should be when no local plan exists, because that means the democratic process has let those people down.

The other thing that I have reservations about is Sunday trading. Personally, I do not want to see Sunday trading extended. It is an uneasy compromise that we have at the moment. I do not want to turn the clock back to the Sundays of my childhood, when the most exciting thing to happen was “Two-Way Family Favourites” followed by “The Navy Lark”, but the rush to allow superstores unlimited opening is detrimental. Our lives have a certain rhythm, as does the week, the month and the year. I think that we are losing something from family life, and from the support that we have given to small traders.