Amendment of the Law

Paul Goggins Excerpts

Monday 28th March 2011 Commons Chamber

[Paul Goggins (Wythenshawe and Sale East) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for City of Chester (Stephen Mosley).

I want to start by welcoming three aspects of the Budget. The first of them is the confirmation on page 54 of the Red Book of the announcement made the day before the Budget that the Government intend to fund a new system of savings accounts for children in care. The previous system was lost when the child trust fund was abolished last year. I have been campaigning with Barnardo’s and Action for Children for a new system to improve the prospects of those leaving care, and I am grateful to the Financial Secretary, who is in his place, for the constructive approach he has taken and welcome the Government’s announcement.

Secondly, I welcome the decisions to put on hold this year’s increase in air passenger duty and not to move to a per plane tax. High levels of APD are having an impact on regional airports such as Manchester airport in my constituency, including by putting off airlines from making connecting flights to regional airports. A per plane tax would be even worse, of course. I therefore welcome the consultation the Government have begun, and I encourage Treasury Ministers to look very closely at the regional variations proposal made by regional airports.

Thirdly, I welcome the announcement that Manchester’s airport city is to be one of the new enterprise zones. Politicians, and certainly Opposition Members, hold various and different opinions about enterprise zones, but I welcome the prospect of the rate reliefs that will be available and the superfast broadband. More particularly, having zone status will give airport city the energy to turn the ambitious plans that have been drawn up into reality. Airport city could certainly produce jobs—perhaps as many as 15,000 in total—when all the plans are worked out.

There are two issues on which I seek reassurance, however, and if there is not time to address them in the winding-up speech I would appreciate a letter following the debate. First, it is essential that the zone is shaped and led by its key local partners: Manchester airport, the city council and the University Hospital of South Manchester. Manchester’s international airport will clearly be an attraction for international investors, and the hospital also has an ambitious plan, known as medi-park, which would attract global players in the life sciences industry. These organisations must be allowed to define the zone for themselves, and to get on and make progress. We must hold the Secretary of State to his statement earlier that this will be bottom-up, not top-down. We need a reassurance that that will indeed be the case in practice.

Turning to the second reassurance I seek, airport city is one of the bids being considered for regional growth funding, and it is crucial that funding is made available and that we begin to put the infrastructure in place that will make the zone possible. A particular feature of the Manchester bid is the idea that public money should not simply be spent but be recycled and reinvested as the market develops and progress is made. I hope that that aspect of the Manchester bid model will find favour with Ministers.

The ultimate question about airport city is whether it will benefit the people in my constituency and the surrounding communities who still face severe hardship and disadvantage, and whether they will get the support, training and opportunities they will need to be able to connect to the jobs that will be created. I give an assurance that we at local level will do everything we can to make this a reality, but, frankly, there is little in the Budget that offers us encouragement. The growth estimates are down and the estimates for unemployment and social security spending are up, yet the message from the Chancellor is, “No change. Carry on as normal. Carry on with the cuts.” We have no prospect of new investment in social housing, and even with almost 1 million young people now out of work and on the dole he is not prepared to invest in a proper, quality jobs programme for young people such as the future jobs fund, of which I am very proud, and under which 8,000 young people in Greater Manchester found work in the last year alone, including hundreds from my constituency.

Let me give one example. It concerns the STARS—student tourist ambassador recruit—project run by Manchester airport. Out of 40 young people, 32 now have permanent employment as a result of their going through the future jobs fund, but we have no prospect of that now. All we have is the pale imitation that is on offer: the work experience scheme that will last a maximum of two months. Most worryingly of all, even now, on the eve of a catastrophic loss of jobs and public services, the Chancellor is not prepared to revisit the public spending decisions.

In the days that follow any Budget, we are treated to a mass of statistics, trends and distributional detail, but in the few seconds remaining to me I want to take Members on a journey to a small street in Benchill at the heart of my constituency, so that they can learn what the Budget and this Government’s policies mean for communities such as those I represent. Benchill is a community that knows real poverty through experience, but through previous investment in schools, community infrastructure and housing the trend has been reversed. I recently met the mother of a 14-year-old boy who was destined to be on a programme that would have given him work experience leading to an apprenticeship, but that has now gone because of the cuts. I also met a man who has worked for 25 years in the youth service in Manchester, and who was given his redundancy notice last Friday, and a young woman who works at the local Sure Start centre, and whose job goes in September.

That is the reality of what is happening. The Conservatives think that when the economic prospects improve, all communities will benefit, but that is not true. Particular communities need particular help, and I urge a rethink on the Budget in that respect.