South-west England (Long-term Economic Plan)
Debate between Ben Howlett and Liam Fox
Dr Fox
Indeed, the maintenance of our countryside and the protection of agriculture is not only important in itself in terms of generating wealth and jobs; it is important in maintaining the visual environment that is intrinsic to the tourism industry. I am sure that all my colleagues will want to thank my hon. Friend for his dedication to the food and drink industry and his single-handed generation of wealth in the region.
Apart from the countryside, our region has cities with many historical attractions that we need to maintain.
Ben Howlett
I quite agree. As my right hon. Friend will know, one of the key reasons tourists do not return to Bath as a key destination in the south-west is our clogged up transport network and infrastructure. Does he agree that investment in roads and infrastructure in Bath will enable our tourism economy, which is so crucial to our city, to expand?
Dr Fox
The only city to compare with Bath in terms of difficulty of getting around, certainly as a driver, is Edinburgh. Anyone who can find a parking space in Bath is doing extremely well. These might seem like minor irritations, but they are major restrictions on a city’s ability to draw in wealth and tourists with spending power. The ability to do that is an important part of the wider economic picture.
I want to give my hon. Friend the Minister plenty of time to deal with all these issues, but may I finally raise the issue of fairer funding? It is a very sore point, not only in the south-west but in many rural areas across the United Kingdom. We have been told for such a long time that we are going to get a better formula that will reduce the discrepancy in per capita funding for those who live in the cities and those who live in the countryside. The countryside is not just where people from the cities go for their holidays or their weekends away, and the concept of rural poverty needs to be taken fully into account. There is no point in saying that the cost of living is lower in rural areas than in cities. We get lower funding per capita for healthcare, education and local government; we pay our taxes, yet our average wages are lower. We are being discriminated against in more than one way. The Government should equalise the formula much sooner than we have been led to expect. That is one of the key elements of being able to bring prosperity to our region.