Policy for Growth
Debate between Sam Gyimah and Pat McFadden
Mr Pat McFadden (Wolverhampton South East) (Lab)
This is a timely debate. We have learned that my hon. Friend the Member for Glasgow North East (Mr Bain) was making speeches about growth when he was but eight years old, so we know that there has been significant interest in this matter across the House for some time.
We meet here today at the same time as the G20 meets in Seoul, and I wish to contrast the role that Britain played when the G20 met in London with what is happening at the current meeting. At the London meeting, the then Prime Minister, my right hon. Friend the Member for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath (Mr Brown), led the debate, shaped the debate and helped to pull the leading economies of the world together on an agenda that helped to prevent recession from turning into depression. What is happening at this meeting? Britain is playing no leading role, and the leading economies of the world are gathering together in an atmosphere of tension over exchange rates and trade imbalances. What a contrast between the London meeting and the one currently taking place.
Of course we all want to see economic growth, but it is also crucial for growth to be evenly spread throughout the country. We enjoyed many years of economic growth before the recession, and Labour put in place a determined and active sub-national policy to ensure that that happened.
Mr McFadden
If the hon. Gentleman wants to talk about outcomes, I would remind him that the action that the Labour Government took helped to ensure that the level of repossessions, business failures and unemployment during the recession that we are just coming out of was about half that in the recessions when his party was in power.
As I said, growth has to be spread evenly throughout the country. This is not just an economic question; it is a social and political one too, because if parts of the country are left out of the country’s economic future, there is a profound disaffection that affects all of us. So what policies might we look to so as to ensure that such growth occurs? Of course, finance for industry is essential. We have reached a point where there is a dialogue of the deaf between banks and businesses. Businesses say that banks will not lend to them or will do so only on usurious terms, whereas banks say, “There’s a lack of demand, and look at all the billions we’re lending.” The present Government say that the banks ran rings around the Labour Government, but the more they ramp up the rhetoric the more they expose their own weakness, and their impotence to do anything about the situation. After six months of this Government, we have heard nothing that will increase bank lending to business.
I suggest that we should have a proper contract in place that goes something like this: the taxpayer rescued the banks from financial collapse, so we need a new consensus on the role of banking, which is that, as that rescue had to take place, the banks must play their proper role in putting forward finance for businesses to invest and grow. The truth is that we can have all the debates that we like about growth in this House, but unless the banks play their proper role we will not see the economic growth that we need.
Secondly, we need proper financial support for industry. We have been too hidebound by a fear of talking about picking winners. This has inhabited Governments—I include my Government in this—from playing their proper role in the economy. Of course that has to be done with care and with discerning judgment, but if we want to take advantage of the economic opportunities of the future—the transition to low carbon, the opportunities presented by the digital economy and other such matters—Government must play their role. As my hon. Friend the Member for Leeds West (Rachel Reeves) said, what happened at Sheffield Forgemasters was not just a lost opportunity for one company but a lost opportunity for the country, because it could have made us a world leader in civil nuclear supply.
Let me say one more word about that project. The Government, having run out of excuses, now say, “It is a good project, but it’s unaffordable,” while in the same breath boasting about having a regional growth fund of £1.4 billion. If they really have that regional growth fund, why was its first decision not to reverse that mistake and grant the loan to Sheffield Forgemasters? I approve of the action taken on AgustaWestland, but I do not see the difference between the two proposals.
Thirdly, we must do better on sub-national economic growth and development. The Government have abolished eight regional development agencies and we now have what the director general of the CBI calls “a shambles” coming to replace them. The process appears to be being run not by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills but by the Department for Communities and Local Government. It has to be rescued, or it will do real economic damage.
More points could be made in the debate, but they will have to be made by others given the time limits. There is a profound difference in our view: the Government are engaged in faith-based economics, stepping out of the way, whereas we believe in an active role for Government in securing economic growth.