Manufacturing (East Midlands)

Debate between Toby Perkins and Mark Spencer

Tuesday 12th February 2013 Westminster Hall

[Mr Spencer]

I am sure the Minister is more than comfortable with his own life, but should any Member decide to purchase a sports car, I highly recommend one manufactured in the constituency of Sherwood.

Next door is a company called Jonam Composites, which is at the other extreme. It manufactures high-tech composite bicycle spokes that have the same tensile strength as steel but are much lighter. That is a real indication of the progress we have made in manufacturing in Nottinghamshire and the east midlands. We are going in a high-technology direction. We are at the cutting edge of what is possible in manufacturing. As a country we must acknowledge that we will probably not become the great shipbuilders of the world that we were, but there are lots of opportunities to be right at the cutting edge, as we always have been. We were at the cutting edge of the industrial revolution, and we can remain there by looking to new technologies and using our skills, so that we can once again trade with the rest of the world and ensure that we are at the right place.

One area we often overlook is food and drink. Again, Nottinghamshire has a great tradition of producing food and drink with companies such as Home Ales and Mansfield brewery, which sadly have been bought up and gone to other parts of the country. Food manufacturing makes an enormous contribution not only to the east midlands but to the UK as a whole. Mr Hollobone, I know your constituency has an interest with companies such as Weetabix.

Smaller manufacturers have been mentioned. Every butcher in my constituency adds value to their product. They produce their own burgers, pasties and pork pies. Given the issue that is right at the top of this week’s political agenda, anyone who wants a top-quality burger or pork pie and wants to know exactly what has gone into it can buy one from their local butcher. [Interruption.] The hon. Member for Leicester South (Jonathan Ashworth) tempts me to mention farm shops, but I would have to declare an interest if I did. By going down the chain to smaller manufacturers, people can get the high-quality products that consumers are keen to purchase.

However, we can do more. The east midlands is ideally placed. We hear a lot about our country’s north-south divide, but the east midlands are smack bang in the middle. Geographically, we are ideally positioned to trade with the rest of the country. We have great connections with the A1 and M1, fairly good railway links, the possibility of High Speed 2, and East Midlands airport and Robin Hood airport. We have lots of good communication links and the ability to get products in and out.

[Toby Perkins (Chesterfield) (Lab)]

I congratulate the hon. Gentleman on securing this debate. He, like the rest of us, will be aware of the Smith Institute report showing that the east midlands fares the worst of any area in being awarded regional growth fund money. Given what he is saying about the great strengths of the east midlands—I entirely concur—why does he think the region fares so badly when it comes to Government support from the regional growth fund?

Local Government Financing

Debate between Toby Perkins and Mark Spencer

Tuesday 29th June 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mr Spencer]

It was widely recognised—globally—that this country’s finances were in dire straits. Global economic markets were betting against our economy. We were saved only by the markets’ recognition that an election was coming, and that hopefully a Conservative Government would take over. We are in the fortunate position that the coalition has tackled those issues and saved this country from the enormous abyss it was facing.

The only way to deal with local government is to give power back to local government. Local people are much better placed to make local decisions. I welcome the decentralisation of local government and its management, and I sincerely hope that when we pass that power down the structure, better decisions will be made. I am very much encouraged by the thought that that will happen.

I am quite frustrated by the number of Opposition Members who have said that the leafy shire counties are all right thank you very much. Hon. Members should come and look at Nottinghamshire and at Sherwood. We have some challenges and some areas of real deprivation, such as Ollerton, Rainworth, Blidworth and Bilsthorpe right in the middle of Nottinghamshire county.

[Toby Perkins]

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for referring to some of those areas, many of which are former pit villages. I have played cricket in a lot of them. The hon. Gentleman fails to understand that the areas he is on about are precisely the areas that are going to suffer from the cuts that his Government are making. We are talking about rich, southern shire counties such as Surrey, not his constituency. The hon. Gentleman is arguing for cuts that will greatly affect those mining villages.

[Mr Spencer]

The simple fact is that those areas of Nottinghamshire face enormous challenges. I am glad that the hon. Gentleman recognises that some of the shire counties face the issues that many hon. Members claim exist only in Labour seats. We are going to have to deal with the enormous mess that the Labour Government left and tidy up some enormous problems. That will be a really big challenge, make no bones about it. Conservative Members recognise that it will be a big challenge. I do not think that Labour Members recognise what an enormous problem that is going to be.

Nottinghamshire county council was under the control of Labour for 28 years. In the last 10 years of that Labour control, the council tax doubled. That is the sort of pressure that Labour-controlled county councils put on people in the villages I mentioned—on pensioners and vulnerable people. That was a great shame. Fortunately for the people of Nottinghamshire, the Conservative party took control of Nottinghamshire county council. The increase in the council tax this year under Conservative control was 0%. I am proud of that, and the council will attempt to deliver it again next year. It is about protecting and reducing the cost imposed on pensioners and vulnerable people in those areas.

The hon. Member for City of Durham (Roberta Blackman-Woods) mentioned Building Schools for the Future—a good example of how bureaucracy is built into policies. BSF was quite a good scheme. Two schools in my area—Dukeries college and Joseph Whittaker school—are desperate to be rebuilt. The county council had to spend £5 million to get itself to a position in which it could bid, and we have not laid a single brick. That £5 million could have been spent on improving the schools rather than jumping through the hoops that the previous Government required.

Fortunately, the county council is now able to prioritise and use the money available to it. One of the statistics that sticks in my mind is that for every £7,000 of Government spending available locally only £350 is not ring-fenced and is available for local authorities to spend in the direction that they want. That is a shocking indictment of the centralisation and control and ring-fencing that has taken away local autonomy and the ability of local people to make local decisions. Fortunately, some councils under Conservative control are able to make the most of that £350 and prioritise things such as new pavements, filling potholes and trying to recover some of the damage done by previous administrations. I very much welcome that.

The one thing that has really impacted on my constituency is the removal of the regional spatial strategy, and I am particularly grateful to the Minister for doing that straight away. It put enormous pressure on the green belt of Nottinghamshire in my constituency. I am grateful that we can now have a grown-up debate in Sherwood about where housing is to go and what sort of housing it should be. The sort of housing is just as important. In areas of my constituency we have had to build large houses where they are inappropriate. We would be better building social housing so that vulnerable people could be housed and younger people could get on the housing ladder. In other areas, pensioners who live in four or five-bedroom houses on their own would like to move but cannot because there is nothing suitable locally. I welcome the fact that we can now have a grown-up debate about what sort of housing we put into Sherwood and where. We are desperate for the correct sort of housing and for the employment that goes with it.

Before the right hon. Member for Southampton, Itchen (Mr Denham) left his place, he referred to Ashfield, my neighbouring constituency, and I would have welcomed his coming to look at the town. I was at a manufacturing company that falls under Ashfield district council in the town of Hucknall, called F. J. Bamkin and Son, which made socks for the Ministry of Defence for many years until the previous Government passed the contract to a far eastern supplier and, sadly, put enormous pressure on the company.

The most important thing that we can do is to remove some of the ring-fencing from the money that is passed to local government, and remove the enormous amount of bureaucracy that local authorities find in their way and the hoops that they have to jump through in order to tap into that money. Then, just maybe we can not only ensure that local people make the right decisions for their local areas, but protect the vulnerable people who were so badly let down under the previous Administration.