Police Grant Report
Debate between Andrew Selous and Kevan Jones(2 years, 2 months ago)
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Andrew Selous
The hon. Lady is right; time spent taking offenders to custody suites is time when those officers cannot be on the streets doing their job. However, we cannot spend the same pound twice. I would like to see a 24/7 first responder response, and there are ways we can do that. We have a large public estate, and I think we need to be a bit more imaginative about how and where we base our police officers, because the primary focus is on having officers on the beat in our large centres of population 24/7.
On the police funding formula review, I have been asking every Policing Minister about this since I was elected in 2001, and I was pleased to have confirmation from the Prime Minister recently that we are moving forward and are going to deliver on this. I also received a letter from the Minister himself, in which he said that the consultation on the police funding formula review would take place this summer—so I have it in writing in an official letter from the Home Office. I was very pleased indeed to read that. It sounds as if the train has left the station. This is about being fair to Bedfordshire and those other forces that have been left out, and I look forward to swift implementation. The Minister talked about effective transition arrangements for that review. I want it to be effective but I do not want it to take too long, and I hope he will bear that in mind.
Mr Kevan Jones (North Durham) (Lab)
This is welcome news, but it will be interesting to see when the train actually arrives. Does the hon. Gentleman agree that part of that review has to involve the fundamental question of what the split should be between central Government funding and what is raised locally?
Andrew Selous
The right hon. Gentleman is right, in that no one likes paying council tax—I have often called it the most unpopular tax in the UK. The primary focus for us in Bedfordshire is to have a well-funded force, to have enough officers and to have them in the right places, and our greatest issue is the resolution of the funding formula issue. This Government have committed to that, and they have done so very publicly. We will have the consultation this summer. It needs to deliver, and deliver quickly.
Defence Reform Bill
Debate between Andrew Selous and Kevan Jones(10 years, 5 months ago)
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Mr Kevan Jones (North Durham) (Lab)
I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for giving way and I pay tribute to the work he has done over the years on the reservists. Can he explain why, when the Opposition tabled an amendment in Committee that asked for figures to be—
Andrew Selous
A lot of sorrow and anger has been expressed on both sides of the House this afternoon about the fact that it has been sadly necessary to make reductions in the Regular Army. We all understand that, but we all also understand that it was a necessary reaction to the £160 billion deficit with which this Government were confronted on taking office and the £38 billion black hole in the defence budget that there was at the same time.
We have heard a lot of praise for the reserves and for the Territorial Army throughout the debate, and that is right and proper.
Andrew Selous
Not at the moment.
As a former Territorial soldier, I extend that praise to the regular forces alongside whom I have had the pride to serve. There are wonderful people in both the regular and reserve forces of whom this Parliament can be justifiably proud. It is absolutely right, however, that the Government have agreed to new clause 1. Like many others, I pay huge tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Canterbury (Mr Brazier) for tabling it. Indeed, I went to see the Secretary of State yesterday to lobby for new clause 1 and I am delighted to see that it has been accepted by the Government.
New clause 1 is important because, in spite of the praise we have heard for the reserve forces and specifically for the TA from Members on both sides of the House, all Territorials will say that a certain amount of antipathy exists between regular and reserve forces as they serve our country together. It is absolutely right that the new clause should put into law independent scrutiny and independent control over what is happening to our reserve forces and the reserve forces estate, as well as the progress in recruitment and so on.
The Government had to take very difficult decisions, and they decided to move towards a Regular Army of 82,000 and an Army Reserve, as we will soon call it, of 30,000, making a total Army strength of 112,000. Incidentally, we would still have the fourth largest defence budget in the world and a considerable list of new equipment to go with those armed forces.
The point that has been made, first and most clearly by the Chair of the Select Committee on Defence, is that the reductions in the regular forces have already been made and are in place and on track to happen. There is no proposal to increase the number of regular soldiers from any quarter of this House. A prescient intervention by the Secretary of State on the shadow Secretary of State led the shadow Secretary of State to say that the Labour party had no plans to increase the number of regular soldiers. The question before the House is therefore how to press on and ensure that the reserve recruiting plan works and is successful. That is at the heart of what we need to do this afternoon, and the question is what will best help and bring about that recruitment effort. I listened to the wise words of my hon. Friend the Member for Canterbury, who said that any legislative impact that would put a halt to the plans to increase the reserve forces would be a hammer blow to the morale of the TA. We need certainty, and for everyone in this House to get behind the plans and ensure that we can successfully increase the strength of the Army Reserve from 19,000 to the 30,000 that we want.
We must remember that as recently as 1990 we had 72,000 Territorial soldiers, so it is entirely possible for us to move up to 30,000. It is an increase of only 20 extra Army Reserve recruits by parliamentary constituency and is an entirely achievable objective. I believe that we can bring that about. We need employers’ help, and I am encouraged by the fact that companies such as Carillion, Barclays and BT are very much getting behind the measures to make sure that we get the reserves that we need.
We will have full parliamentary scrutiny of the process; of that there is no doubt. We do not need new clause 3 to have proper parliamentary scrutiny of it. That is what the House is providing this afternoon, and that is what happens every month at Defence questions. It is also the role of the Select Committee on Defence to make sure that we have proper scrutiny.
Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation
Debate between Andrew Selous and Kevan Jones(11 years, 1 month ago)
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Andrew Selous (South West Bedfordshire) (Con)
We have heard significant news today that we had not heard before. The first piece of news is that the deficit has been cut not by a quarter, but by a third. We know that the conditions are tough, but that is further proof that the Government are making progress with clearing up the absolute mess that we inherited from the Labour party.
We also heard that the economy has created not just 1 million net new private sector jobs under this Government, but 1.25 million. That is six extra private sector jobs for every job that we have unfortunately had to lose in the public sector. We learned that in the west midlands, more private sector jobs have been created in the three years of this Government than were created in the last 10 years of the Labour Government. When Opposition Members talk about unemployment, which Government Members are desperately concerned about, they should recognise that this Government are delivering jobs in the face of considerable economic adversity.
It is this Government who understand that we need to be an aspiration nation. Some Opposition Members laughed when the Chancellor used that phrase in his Budget speech, which was desperately sad. Government Members understand that nations rise when people rise. We are in a global race and no one owes us a living. That is why we have to make ourselves competitive in the world markets.
Mr Kevan Jones (North Durham) (Lab)
I am very impressed with the hon. Gentleman’s whipped speech. What is aspirational about the situation of a constituent of mine who has just been made unemployed, has gone out and got himself a part-time job in a local petrol station, and will be hit by the bedroom tax?
Andrew Selous
The Government have created 1.25 million net private sector jobs. The hon. Gentleman’s constituent will probably be able to do two extra hours a week at the minimum wage to deal with that situation. He could also let out his room or downsize to an appropriate sized property. There are a number of things that his constituent is able to do.
I praise the Government hugely for abolishing stamp duty on AIM and ISDX shares. I do not believe that any other Member has mentioned that. Members from all parts of the House talk about the difficulties that businesses have in raising loan finance. We all recognise that, but that is only one of the two ways in which businesses can get money to grow. The other is to get share capital. Every school knows that if it has a good nursery underneath it, it will have a good supply of children. Exactly the same is true of stock markets. If we can help our small and growing companies, which provide so much job creation, to raise share capital, which means that they do not have to pay back money in a fixed period and can decide when to pay as well as the level of dividends to pay, that is hugely helpful, so the change for AIM and the junior ISDX market is incredibly important and very welcome. The stock exchange estimates that there will be between 40 and 50 initial public offerings in high-tech businesses as a result of the move and Deloitte has estimated that that will create some 38,000 jobs.
The second measure for which I want to praise the Chancellor is that on ultra-low emission vehicles. In just one small sentence in the Budget speech, the Chancellor said that he would support the manufacture of ultra-low emission vehicles with new tax incentives in this country. That is absolutely right. We make the Nissan LEAF in this country, in Sunderland, but the Vauxhall Ampera is made in the United States. I want electric vehicles and other ultra-low emission vehicles to be made in this country to help British workers stay in jobs. I do not think anybody in this House anticipated the scale of the change as we move to ultra-low emission vehicles. I want those jobs in this country and do not want to see the industrial advantage going to China, Denmark, Israel or any of the other countries that are making major moves in this area.
I hugely welcome the announcements on shale gas. It is disappointing that in the time it has taken Cuadrilla to get one exploratory rig up and going in Lancashire, 72 have been got going in Argentina. I know that the excellent Minister of State, Department of Energy and Climate Change, my hon. Friend the Member for South Holland and The Deepings (Mr Hayes), who is on the Front Bench, understands that and will drive the policy forward with the passion for which he is well known and well regarded across the House.
The Government understand the importance of business competitiveness. As I said, no one owes this country a living, which is why I hugely welcome the decrease in corporation tax. Is it not good to look through the Budget book and see that the United Kingdom will have the lowest rate of corporation tax of all our major G20 competitors? By 2015, it will be lower than that of South Korea, Germany, France, China, India, Brazil or the United States of America. That is exactly what we need to do to keep business successful in this country.
The employment allowance that the Chancellor announced at the end of his speech is unbelievably well targeted. It will take off the tax on jobs, which the Opposition, had they been elected at the last election, would have increased. Think of the damage that would have done. It is the Government who understand that we get more people into work if we tax jobs less, so that move is to be welcomed. My colleagues on these Benches have mentioned the KPMG report that said that this country is the most competitive in the world in which to set up, start and run a business. That is hugely to be welcomed.
The measures in the Budget on home ownership are excellent and hugely to be welcomed. Government Members understand and support the desire of people to own their own homes. That is a thoroughly Conservative aspiration and it is one we want to see extended to as many of our constituents as we possibly can. The Help to Buy scheme and the mortgage guarantee scheme are excellent in that regard and I am pleased that my local authority, Central Bedfordshire council, is rising to the challenge and looking to build some 6,000 houses to the north of Houghton Regis in my constituency. That is exactly what it should be doing.
I am hugely pleased to see the Chancellor support the proposals in the Heseltine review. The document contained 89 proposals, 81 of which are being supported by the Government. That is excellent. Local authorities have a lot to add in this regard, as do local further education colleges and university technical colleges. I am proud to have one of those colleges in my constituency. For example, Central Bedfordshire council has worked out where unemployment is slightly higher and where the new jobs are and will be setting up transport between the two with the wheels to work scheme. It will not just leave it to bus companies and so on but will take practical measures to get unemployed people to where the jobs are further to drive down unemployment. I am pleased that unemployment is lower in my constituency than it was at the general election.
My constituents will also hugely welcome the significant increase in the personal allowance to £10,000, brought in by a Conservative Chancellor. It is hugely welcomed by Government Members. It clearly makes sense: rather than taxing people and giving them back some of their own money in tax credits, we believe in letting people on low incomes have more dignity by letting them keep more of the money that they earn in the first place. That is absolutely right.
The measures on fuel duty will be hugely welcomed and I refer the House to what I said earlier about ultra-low emission vehicles. I know that pubs in my constituency will be delighted with the measures on beer duty.
The one area to which I would like the Government to attend before too long is the transferable tax allowance, and I will conclude with a quote from the Prime Minister:
“What is so backward looking in a country where we have social breakdown and social problems of saying that committed relationships, encouraging people to come together and stay together is a bad thing? Of course it isn’t, it’s not outdated if you look around the European Union, if you look around the OECD, we’re almost alone in not recognising marriage in the tax system. And why do we think, why do we think that with our appalling record of family breakdown that somehow we are in the right position and everyone else is in the wrong position…they’ve got it right and we have got it wrong.”
We need to change that. The Prime Minister was right then, and he is right now.
Europe
Debate between Andrew Selous and Kevan Jones(11 years, 2 months ago)
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Andrew Selous (South West Bedfordshire) (Con)
It was Winston Churchill who said that we should learn to trust the people. For far too long, the British people have believed that European matters are decided by a cosy political elite from which they feel completely excluded.
Let me say to Labour and Liberal Members that they have nothing to fear from putting their arguments to the British people. Listening to some of the speeches made by Labour Members today, I wondered whether they lived in the same country as I do. I hear what the British people are saying, and they have said to us regularly, for a very long time, that they want their say on European matters.
I have enormous trust in the good sense and wisdom of the British people, and in their ability to know what is in the British national interest. Conservative Members are proud to be sending this question back to the people, because we think that the people are grown up enough, wise enough and sensible enough to make a decision that is in the British national interest.
Mr Kevan Jones (North Durham) (Lab)
It is a matter of fact that every increase in our integration with Europe has come about under a Conservative Government. We joined under a Conservative Government, and we signed the Single European Act under Margaret Thatcher. What has changed in the Conservative party in terms of giving the people a say, which it clearly has not done in the past? The hon. Gentleman may recall that the Single European Act was the key piece of legislation that took powers away from Britain and transferred them to Brussels.
Andrew Selous
Treaty signing took place under a Labour Government. It was a Labour Government who promised the British people a referendum on the constitution—as did the Liberal Democrats—but transformed it into the Lisbon treaty, which they signed into law before the general election, thus denying the British public a choice. The then Conservative Opposition were drawing up legislation to offer the people a referendum, which could have taken place had the Lisbon treaty not been signed into law before the election. Conservative Members have been consistent in wanting to allow the British people to have their say on these matters.
We believe that the changes the Government want to see in Europe are in the United Kingdom’s interests, but—and this is vital—we also believe that they are in the interests of the European Union. We should bear it in mind that 47% of our trade is with the European Union, and that the ability to trade with a market of 500 million people, with a GDP of £11 trillion, is not an insignificant matter.
Car manufacturers are free from paying tariffs of £900 million because we are in the European Union. Every Range Rover that we exported to the EU would carry a tariff of £6,000 if we were outside it. One in 10 jobs—3.5 million—depend on trade with the European Union. Of course those jobs would not disappear completely if we left, but the fact remains that there are significant economic interests of which we need to be very mindful. The United Kingdom is the largest recipient of foreign investment in the European Union, and the Foreign Office believes that in 2011-12 about 111,000 jobs were either created or safeguarded because of investment in this country.
We have already heard about the Chinese, American, Japanese and Indian car manufacturers that have been moving to the United Kingdom. We also know from an analysis of 147 decisions made by finance firms that 47% of those firms said that they came here because of access to the European market. It is beyond question that half our trade is with Europe, and we recognise that that trade is vital for the UK economy.
Of course the Government are rightly determined to increase our trade with the growing markets in Asia, Africa and South America, and we have experienced some success. So far we have increased our trade with India by a third, and our trade with China by a fifth. The EU South Korean free trade agreement that we negotiated has already increased our trade with South Korea by 32%. Dorset Cereals, for instance, has experienced a sixfold increase in its trade with that country. We need to put all those developments on the record, so that the British people can make a dispassionate decision about what is in the British national interest.
The Vauxhall van factory is in Luton, very close to my constituency, and some of my constituents work there. The factory recently secured a 12-year contract with Renault to extend production of the Vivaro van. I do not believe that General Motors would have given it that contract if the United Kingdom had been outside the European Union. There are other van factories in Europe to which it could have given the business.
That is the positive side of the argument, and people need to hear it, but we also need to recognise that European regulation is hurting British business. For instance, a firm in Leighton Buzzard called ProEconomy, which does highly effective work in eradicating legionella throughout hospitals in the United Kingdom, recently experienced enormous difficulty in obtaining European Union authorisation and approval for copper and silver ionisation. The science is perfectly safe and the Health and Safety Executive is entirely happy with it, but because of the cost of obtaining EU approval and the length of time that it has taken, ProEconomy, along with a similar firm in High Wycombe, was almost put out of business. I am very grateful to the Minister of State, Department for Work and Pensions, my hon. Friend the Member for Fareham (Mr Hoban), for the action that he has taken to help those firms.
That is one example of European Union interference going too far and causing difficulties to firms. Another involves a small haulier in Leighton Buzzard who used to transport two vehicles on his trailer up and down the country, but who has been put out of business because of a transport regulation that this country did not want and the Department for Transport opposed.
I have raised both those issues with my right hon. Friend Minister for Europe, and I am grateful for his help, but I wanted to put them on the record to demonstrate that we need a balance. We must realise that there are instances in which we should say to Europe, “You are hurting business, not helping it. Your regulation is heavy-handed, and it is causing us difficulties.”