Directors’ Pay

Debate between Tony Lloyd and Vince Cable

Wednesday 20th June 2012 Commons Chamber

[Vince Cable]

That is absolutely right, and I congratulate shareholders who have become actively engaged in issues of pay policy for the first time in many years. I think one reason why they have been active is that they knew legislation to cement their position was coming.

[Tony Lloyd (Manchester Central) (Lab)]

The Secretary of State was quite right to castigate previous Governments for their complacency on top pay, which is now not simply a practical issue but a moral one. However, if he is honest I think he knows that his statement was timid. Is it not time that we had a high pay commission to consider how we begin to dismantle the obscenely high pay of the top-paid at a time when the poor are getting poorer?

[Vince Cable]

I have seen the work of the existing High Pay Commission, which I think is a voluntary body and which has made some good suggestions, many of which we have taken on board. If the community of investors, think-tanks and others were to come together to examine top pay, I would look with great interest at what it suggested.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Tony Lloyd and Vince Cable

Thursday 15th March 2012 Commons Chamber

[Vince Cable]

A great deal of progress is being made in developing British supply chains that were whittled away to a disastrous extent with the decline of manufacturing under the last Government. If the hon. Lady looks at what is happening in the car and aerospace industries, for example, she will find that a lot of supply chains are coming back to the UK. As for her last point, on the nuclear industry, I think she is aware that the company that she represents is a regional growth fund recipient.

[Tony Lloyd (Manchester Central) (Lab)]

19. The Secretary of State will not know this, but a high-tech company in my constituency that spawned out of Manchester university was told by its would-be venture capitalists that unless it moved from Manchester to within the golden triangle of Oxbridge and London, it would not obtain finance. Will he look into that financial gap, which has been around for a long time and prevents the dynamic growth of industry, particularly in the northern regions?

[Vince Cable]

As it happens, I was in the hon. Gentleman’s constituency yesterday, and I met groups of businesses with similar concerns. He is right that there is a long-standing financing gap, particularly for small and medium-sized companies looking for risk capital. The business growth fund, which is a private sector initiative rather than Government money, is already beginning to fill that gap. It is headquartered in Birmingham but, I think, has substantial outreach into Manchester.

Executive Pay

Debate between Tony Lloyd and Vince Cable

Monday 23rd January 2012 Commons Chamber

[Vince Cable]

Yes, and that is why operational decisions must remain with the company so that it can make a judgment on the matter. Through these recommendations we are trying to ensure that investors are properly informed, and we are, through transparency, giving them the power to make the judgment that the hon. Lady described, and act accordingly.

[Tony Lloyd (Manchester Central) (Lab)]

Does the Secretary of State accept, as a number of his Back Benchers do not, that this is fundamentally a question about what type of society we want to be, and that when we see executives being paid 75 times more than the lowest-paid people in the company, that is not about economic efficiency or incentives, but immorality?

[Vince Cable]

Yes, this is about different types of society, but of course there are many wider issues than the remuneration policies of public listed companies and many aspects of fairness and inequality. I simply make the point that many other private enterprise economies —Germany, the Scandinavian countries, Japan—have a much more disciplined approach to executive pay than has been the case in the UK, and many of their companies do very well commercially.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Tony Lloyd and Vince Cable

Thursday 14th July 2011 Commons Chamber

[Tony Lloyd (Manchester Central) (Lab)]

19. What the outcomes were of the second round of applications to the regional growth fund; and if he will make a statement.

[The Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills (Vince Cable)]

Bidding for round two of the fund closed on Friday 1 July and we were pleased with the positive response. There appear to have been just over 500 applications for round two, with a total ask of £3 billion. We are currently processing the detail of the bids and will release summary information on the bids later in the month.

[Tony Lloyd]

Given that the Secretary of State is not yet in a position to give a full account of the regional growth fund, will he give a commitment that investment in basic science and engineering, and research thereon, will be at the forefront of the regional growth strategy? In particular, will he break the establishment view that only the triangle of London, Oxford and Cambridge should get that investment, so that other parts of the country can benefit?

[Vince Cable]

The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right that there has to be regional rebalancing of the economy, and that manufacturing and associated industries are at the core of any revival. It happens that the share of manufacturing is particularly high in areas such as the north-east, so they will benefit from a manufacturing recovery. I remind him that in the first round of the regional growth fund there were nine successful bids in the north-west, generating about 7,500 jobs, including at Bruntwood in Manchester, which I think is in his constituency but is certainly in the city.