Bangladesh

Debate between Nick de Bois and Simon Danczuk

Thursday 16th January 2014 Commons Chamber

[Simon Danczuk]

I was not aware of that, but growth is a major concern to which I shall return, and I appreciate my hon. Friend’s point.

I have three main worries for Bangladesh at this time. The first is the impact on the country’s democracy. We are extremely fortunate in this country that we have a relatively peaceful political culture. That has grown over many years and generations, not by accident but through co-operation and the determination to have peaceful elections. We accept that the winner of our elections has the right to govern. Bangladesh is a young country—it was created in 1971—and it has been steadily making progress on building democracy. We should celebrate that, but I am concerned that this particular election may well derail democracy there. The irony is that the people of Bangladesh are crying out for their voices to be heard.

[Nick de Bois]

The hon. Gentleman may remember from our trip, as I do, the memorable scenes when we drove out from Dhaka when for miles and miles we saw people—in fact supporting one political party—queuing up in expectation of their leaders. Is not the great failure here that a nation of people who love democracy is in effect being betrayed by their political leaders?

[Simon Danczuk]

That is an excellent point. The impression one gets from visiting Bangladesh is, as the hon. Gentleman says, that people have a strong desire for democratic politics and view politics in a positive light. It seems almost ironic that we should end up with the country in the position it is in now.

My second major concern about Bangladesh is the violence. I am worried that violence could escalate even further in the coming weeks and months. We have seen from around the world that when opposition groups are excluded from the political process, there is a risk of the more moderate groups being squeezed out, with extremists on all sides gaining greater prominence. We can see that from experience in Northern Ireland and, more recently, in Syria.

Business Rates

Debate between Nick de Bois and Simon Danczuk

Wednesday 4th December 2013 Commons Chamber

[Nick de Bois]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for his intervention and for drawing his local council to our attention. My council has spent £100,000 on conferences and, I understand, £106,000 on magazines, no doubt to promote a good message. That £200,000 in Enfield could have been subsidised by another 50% from the Government. If £100 million in rates and business rates is collected in our borough, and £3 million of discounts applied to the retail sector, or specific areas within the retail sector, that can translate into a significant cut to businesses. The council might not use those means, because it realises that there is a business audience scrutinising councils’ spending decisions and wondering why they do not manage the money they gather from taxpayers as if it was their own. That is what drives a business. Uncollected council tax seems to run year on year with no reduction. Enfield council is averaging nearly £1.5 million each year. Why is no effort made to improve that and divert those funds to support local businesses? The answer is that councils do not treat the money like it is their own.

[Simon Danczuk]

I understand the hon. Gentleman’s point about local authorities subsidising business rates for certain sectors, but does he not accept that that can be done inappropriately? In Rochdale, one café has been given 100% business rate relief, causing competition problems for other cafés in the local area.

[Nick de Bois]

I accept that there is the potential for spurring artificial competition. That should not be the case. Section 69 of the Localism Act is clever, because it covers non-competitive areas. It could cover shopping parades as opposed to other centres, or retail alone—it does not have to back business to business. I hope that councils judge it well.

Some 17% of authorities have chosen to apply discretionary relief and have taken advantage of £8 million of Government subsidy. That is not a high take-up rate. There is part of me that wonders about the motivation for councils not doing so: they simply do not want to do so, which I do not understand; they are unaware of it; or there has not been sufficient knowledge and lobbying in constituencies to drive it. I can think of reasons why a council might not want take such action: it might not want to hold itself up to scrutiny or make a decision that it feels carries less political weight than supporting its businesses. However, it is key that MPs take the campaign to the streets to make councils, of whatever colour or persuasion, implement a plan that can deliver savings to our businesses. That cannot be done alone.

Business rates, important as they are, will not be the only measure to help high streets, in particular, to succeed. We need a holistic approach that involves parking and encouraging a culture where people support their local shops and spend a bit of money locally where previously they might have spent it somewhere else. The one non-negotiable, however, and probably one of the most repulsive taxes on business at the moment is the fixed high charge of business rates, and local councils could do something about that now.