Trade, Exports, Innovation and Productivity

Stewart Malcolm McDonald Excerpts

Wednesday 13th January 2016 Commons Chamber

[Stewart Malcolm McDonald (Glasgow South) (SNP)]

Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

[Huw Merriman]

I give way to my colleague on the Select Committee.

[Stewart Malcolm McDonald]

The hon. Gentleman is a fine member of the Select Committee. On high-speed rail, will he say from the Government Benches that it would greatly benefit Scotland if we had such a connection to London, our closest global financial hub?

[Huw Merriman]

My colleague has put that matter on the record on more than one occasion in the Select Committee and in the House.

As our regeneration report will show, the new rail link would unlock economic growth in our community, increase productivity and allow for new business expansion to pay for, among other matters, the higher than average adult social care bill that East Sussex faces. However, Network Rail’s decision about whether to invest in this project will be solely determined not on the boost to economic productivity it would undoubtedly bring, but on rail-user feasibility. In addition, another bar to productivity is that the bill for the project has increased because of the number of licensing and planning consents required from numerous agencies and authorities and because of the enhanced regulation brought in for new rail projects.

If we are to enhance our productivity, we must commission public projects on the basis of which ones can, to employ the term used by my hon. Friend the Member for North Dorset (Simon Hoare), deliver the best bang for the buck, and we must hammer down costs by making the building process simpler. In a similar vein, I implore the Government not only to make a decision this year on which airport will be expanded, but to ensure that the shovel goes in the ground immediately, rather than lying idle for years while petitions are heard in this place and in our courts.

To conclude, I welcome this opportunity to debate how the UK’s export market and productivity rates can be improved. I welcome the Government’s recognition that more can be done, and the ambitious targets that the Government have set themselves during this term to ensure that more will be done.