Policy for Growth

Tom Greatrex Excerpts

Thursday 11th November 2010 Commons Chamber

[Tom Greatrex (Rutherglen and Hamilton West) (Lab/Co-op)]

Like others, I congratulate the right hon. Member for Wokingham (Mr Redwood) on securing the debate. Like my hon. Friend the Member for Edinburgh South (Ian Murray), I enjoy listening to the right hon. Gentleman’s contributions and—I have to admit—occasionally reading them on his website. I do not often agree with him, but they are enlightening none the less.

What has been good about today’s debate is that, with a couple of exceptions, speeches have been made and issues have been raised that do not necessarily follow the scripts that people get from time to time. People have discussed some real and serious matters and there has been agreement across the Chamber on a number of issues. In particular, I was struck by the speech of the hon. Member for Northampton South (Mr Binley), who I know has a strong interest in manufacturing. In the couple of minutes I have available, I want to make a few points about manufacturing and that part of industry.

The Government frequently talk about rebalancing the economy and they are right to do so. It is crucial that we learn some of the lessons of the past. One of the lessons, frankly, despite the amount of wealth that the financial services sector might create, is that being over-exposed in one sector causes immense damage. We need to rebalance the economy and we need to do that by looking for export markets. That is why I am quite pleased that the Government have taken the initiative in going to India and China to develop those markets. I hope that they will go to other places, too.

Crucially, we are not the only country trying to do that. Every developed economy is looking to the developing economies and BRIC economies—those of Brazil, Russia, India and China—to develop export markets. We need investment in the technology to get the products that people want and to develop the skills that we need and the technology that people want to buy. That is crucial and brings us to the points made in this debate about levels of investment in particular.

Anyone who was in the Chamber during Energy and Climate Change questions earlier will have heard Ministers waxing lyrical about the huge potential of the green economy. That potential can be realised only with the right investment, including from banks. The green investment bank should be up and running as quickly as possible and should be running as a bank, not as some grant-giving body. I hope that the relevant bits of the Government—whether that is the Treasury, the Department of Energy and Climate Change or the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills—get on with that as quickly as possibly because it is crucial. It is particularly crucial in constituencies such as mine, which has had a proud manufacturing past and deserves to have a future. Economic growth and our growth in manufacturing cannot be driven towards just one part of the country. As others have said, it needs to take place across the whole country and that is why it is very important that we get the green investment bank up and running.

[Ian Murray]

I know we are tight for time, but this is a crucial point. Is it not strange that no Members from the Scottish National party have been in the Chamber for the entirety of this wonderful debate on growth and how the UK economy should grow?

--- Later in debate ---

[Tom Greatrex]

I thank my hon. Friend for his intervention. Given the amount of time left, I shall say only that I am disappointed but not surprised by that.

Other Members have referred to the recent PricewaterhouseCoopers report. I am sure that the Minister has read it a number of times, but I draw his attention to a specific part of it, which calls on the Government to tackle the “financing gaps” by focusing investment

“in areas where it will have a catalytic role in growth.”

As my right hon. Friend the Member for Wolverhampton South East (Mr McFadden) has said, there is a place for the Government, as well as banks and other sources of investment, in getting that investment right, developing industries and getting the skills and jobs that will save the public purse money in terms of benefits and other payments, so that communities and constituencies across the UK have a stake in the future of the economy. We should not be tied to any particular sector; we should be looking across the whole country and getting people into skilled jobs and into export markets that will benefit us all in the long run.