Oral Answers to Questions

Tom Blenkinsop Excerpts

Thursday 17th March 2011 Commons Chamber

[Tom Blenkinsop (Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland) (Lab)]

Does the Secretary of State believe that reducing funding by nearly a third to the national parks, such as the North York Moors national park in my constituency, is good for promoting tourism and helps small and medium-sized businesses in Guisborough and east Cleveland?

[Mrs Spelman]

I can give the hon. Gentleman an assurance. I visited the Lake District national park last week as part of launching the uplands policy and the park authority expressed itself quite capable of making savings, which are pro rata across the Department because we have to repair the finances after what was left behind by his Government. I am therefore confident that it can protect the front line while making savings in the back office. That park, in conjunction with many national parks, is setting about doing that constructively.

Public Forest Estate (England)

Tom Blenkinsop Excerpts

Wednesday 2nd February 2011 Commons Chamber

[Tristram Hunt]

I thank my hon. Friend for making that point. The Conservatives have, as they say, previous in this field.

Since the announcement of this Opposition debate, the internet and other social networking sources have come alive with people hoping to save their local forests. Cannock Chase, near my constituency, now has a Facebook site with 2,500 supporters. A YouGov poll suggests that 84% of people oppose the sale. The Secretary of State says that people simply do not understand the proposals and have been misled by the media, but we do understand the Government’s plans and we do not like them, because they will limit public access. The hon. Member for Manchester, Withington spoke about access being allowed to a forest in his constituency, but as my hon. Friend the Member for Brent North (Barry Gardiner) says, that was because of principles and legislation that Labour put in place to make sure that access was preserved.

[Tom Blenkinsop (Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland) (Lab)]

The issue is not only the potential private ownership of woods, but the nationality of the private company that might own those woods.

[Tristram Hunt]

The matter becomes difficult when we think about where many of our trees have come from. I take my hon. Friend’s point, but the forests and woodlands have come into this country from many sources across the world .

I shall touch briefly on something mentioned by my hon. Friend the Member for Bishop Auckland (Helen Goodman): the forests and woodlands are a great matter with regard to our national identity. The Government are striking at something very particular to English identity and British identity. In the 18th century the idea of the British heart of oak recurred on pub signs and in pamphlets. It was a bulwark against Catholic absolutism. According to Simon Schama the very idea of Britain, which was new in the late 18th century, was planted with acorns. In 1763 Roger Fisher—a disciple of John Evelyn, the great 17th-century arboreal enthusiast —published “Heart of Oak, The British Bulwark”, in which he argued that empires rose or fell depending on the dearth of the sovereign hardwood.

As Government Members have pointed out, this Government are not the first to try to offload our national forests. King Charles I, in the 1630s, tried to do the same. Again, it was an attempt to limit public ownership: with the forests went the common lands, the moorlands and the wetlands of East Anglia. This is a tradition in Toryism that Opposition Members recognise and do not like. The point of this history is to suggest that this is a shared inheritance, and we are particularly worried about access in the context of the Government’s plans.

Oral Answers to Questions

Tom Blenkinsop Excerpts

Thursday 4th November 2010 Commons Chamber

[Richard Benyon]

I am interested in that process, which fulfils part of the greater democratic accountability that the Government are talking about for decisions such as the one in my hon. Friend’s constituency, about which I know she feels strongly. That is why we are abolishing the IPC and replacing it with an organisation within the Planning Inspectorate that will have much more democratic accountability. I hope that as many of her constituents as possible can contribute to the consultation before 19 November, but I will discuss her views with colleagues elsewhere in government.

[Tom Blenkinsop (Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland) (Lab)]

12. What assessment she has made of the likely effects of the abolition of the Agricultural Wages Board on wages and working conditions in the farming and food production sectors.

[The Minister of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Mr James Paice)]

Abolition of the board will allow modern employment practices within the agricultural and food packaging industry, which will help the industry develop and provide more job opportunities. Workers will retain any existing contractual rights in place at the time of abolition. New workers will be protected by general employment legislation, including the national minimum wage, as with workers in all other sectors of the economy. A full impact assessment and equality impact assessment will be made available during the legislative process.

[Tom Blenkinsop]

How does abolishing an organisation that ensures that workers get 2p above the national minimum wage support growth in rural communities such as mine in east Cleveland and in the rural economy?

[Mr Paice]

The hon. Gentleman puts his finger on the nonsense. What is the point of having the whole superstructure of the Agricultural Wages Board simply to provide a 2p-an-hour premium over the minimum wage? That is part of the justification for saying that the board is not necessary. I stand with the hon. Gentleman and other Opposition Members in wanting to see all farm and agricultural workers treated properly and receive a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work, but we need to bring agricultural wages regulations into the present day so that the modern, efficient businesses in my constituency and his can grow, expand and provide more job opportunities, not fewer.

Oral Answers to Questions

Tom Blenkinsop Excerpts

Thursday 9th September 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mr Paice]

I entirely follow my hon. Friend’s concerns. The dairy industry has fallen back dramatically over the past few years, but I am delighted to say that in the past few months there has been a small upturn in production, which is good. It is quite clear that the industry has a long way to go in some quarters. What concerns me most is the huge range of prices being received by dairy producers—in the liquid retail trade, prices are very high but for those in the processed area of trade, they are very low. The role of Government is to help farming to become more competitive, and that is what we are determined to do.

[Tom Blenkinsop (Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland) (Lab)]

Do the Government intend to extend their big society ethos by keeping the previous Labour Government’s commitment to completing the English coastal path?

[Richard Benyon]

We have said that we will continue the cross-party agreement that we had during the progress of the Bill to develop the coastal path. We have identified four areas in which it is being proceeded with, one of which is close to the Olympic site in Weymouth. Inevitably, it is a 10-year proposal and £50 million has been put into the budget for that over those 10 years. We will see which priorities exist over that 10-year period.