Economic Development (North-East)

Iain Wright Excerpts

Tuesday 15th February 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Brown]

We all understand how difficult things are on Teesside, and I have lent my shoulder to tackling those problems, just as other hon. Members across the region have done. However, it is my strong view that we need a single, regional approach rather than allowing our efforts to become fragmented. In particular, it is a terrible mistake to say to those with the most difficult problems—I will say something about the specifics shortly—“You have to sort your own problems out without the help of the rest of us.” The great strength of our region is that we have all stood together, geographically and across party politics, public sector and private sector, including the public sector agencies that are not directly politically led. We have all stood together with the same focus, in an earnest endeavour to work together to give a coherent single voice to government for the good of the region. That is the correct approach.

[Mr Iain Wright (Hartlepool) (Lab)]

I pay tribute to my right hon. Friend, who, in his time as Minister for the North East was a real friend of Teesside, not just of Tyneside. Following on from the interventions of the hon. Members for Stockton South (James Wharton) and for Redcar (Ian Swales), we have enormous potential in Teesside and Hartlepool, with process industries, the nuclear industry and the potential of renewable energy, but that needs help and support. My constituency has 4,000 unemployed people but only 76 vacancies at the local jobcentre. Does my right hon. Friend agree that there needs to be more marrying up of that enormous potential in the private sector and central Government support, which the current Government are not providing?

[Mr Brown]

I agree, but, above all, we need to strengthen the employment base in the Tees valley, and that means focusing on the potential of the key employers—Corus, if the transition takes place, the chemical sector, the process sector, the potential in the under-utilised land at the east end of the Tees valley, the exciting opportunities in Teesport and the new distribution agreements with Tesco and Walmart. Those are exciting and significant developments, providing a whole new range of activity for the port. I wish them well, but they must be supported by the region speaking with one voice. The new job opportunities are for the whole of the north-east of England. Indeed, they are for the whole north of England, going right down to the midlands, and covering all points north, including Scotland.

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[Roberta Blackman-Woods]

We saw very early on that there was a need to invest in the future work force and that a great many future jobs in the north-east were likely to come from the development of the green economy. The north-east was the first region in the UK to be designated a low-carbon economic area and that brought with it developments in the universities and the industrial sectors. That confirmed the region’s huge potential to be a leader in the development of green energy, including green cars.

[Mr Iain Wright]

My hon. Friend has a particular passion for education and for upskilling our region so that it fulfils its potential. What impact does she think the abolition of the education maintenance allowance will have, particularly in our region?

[Roberta Blackman-Woods]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for that intervention, because it demonstrates how this Government simply do not understand the needs of regions such as ours and the needs of young people in regions such as ours. Some 67% of the young people who attend my local further education college rely on EMA and they are telling me that they do not know how they will be able to continue their courses.

The previous Government recognised that money had to be put into developing the green economy. Some good examples of that include: the £20 million invested in a printable electronics technology centre in the constituency of my hon. Friend the Member for Sedgefield (Phil Wilson); the £12 million invested in biotechnology at Wilton on Teesside; and Clipper’s development in Newcastle. I name but a few, and investment also came from the private sector, mostly through Nissan. So our Government were doing their bit and they were also putting money into universities to enable them to undertake further research. Narec, a centre of excellence, and the Durham Energy Institute also do really important work on coal gasification in our region.

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[Mr Davey]

That was a good try, but the hon. Gentleman knows that I am not the Minister responsible for that decision. I congratulate him on his attempt. I would have thought that he would welcome much of what the Government are doing on matters such as apprenticeships, which I believe give businesses in the north-east a lot of the backing that they need.

[Mr Iain Wright]

Will the Minister give way?

[Mr Davey]

No, I am going to make some progress.

The area has a proud industrial heritage, and today its firms are establishing a competitive lead in a number of 21st-century industries, as the right hon. Member for Newcastle upon Tyne East said. The north-east has a strong reputation in areas from health care to life sciences, and from micro-electronics to cutting-edge low-carbon technologies. It accounts for more than 50% of the UK’s petrochemical industry and about 35% of the country’s pharmaceutical output. It benefits from a number of other economic assets: world-class universities, good transport links, and entrepreneurial citizens who are launching new businesses in growing numbers.

This Government recognise that Britain cannot rely on one sector in one part of the country for its national prosperity and the resulting policies that we are implementing to rebalance the economy will free the north-east to unleash its full economic potential at last. This Government also understand that if balanced economic growth is to be achieved across the country, policies cannot be dictated from Whitehall. That is why we are encouraging the formation of local enterprise partnerships across the country, which will work with the grain of functioning local economies.

Local enterprise partnerships will bring together local business and civic leaders to power the economic regeneration of their communities by focusing on creating the right local conditions for private sector jobs and growth. That is real power shifting away from central Government and quangos, and towards local communities and local businesses that understand the barriers to growth in their areas. The partnerships are free to focus on infrastructure investment, transport, skills and a host of other issues. I think it is good news that the north-east has two local enterprise partnerships, one covering the Tyne and Wear area and the other the Tees valley. They are busy identifying the economic priorities for their areas. I pay tribute to all business leaders who have risen to this challenge. We have also set up a £1.4 billion regional growth fund, which is open to public-private partnerships such as LEPs, to kick-start economic expansion, especially in areas where private enterprise has not previously flourished.

The right hon. Gentleman made a number of points, and obviously he was particularly concerned about the abolition of One North East. I pay tribute to much of the work that was achieved by One North East. Anyone who analyses its record can see that it did good things in many areas. However, time moves on and we now have a huge budget deficit. We have to cut our cloth according to what we can afford—a fact that seems to be denied by Opposition Members.

Members not just of this Government, but of this whole coalition have been active in working hard with business to ensure that there are jobs in the future. I pay tribute in particular to my hon. Friend the Member for Redcar (Ian Swales) for his work, with the Secretary of State, on the problems of the Corus plant in Redcar. I hope that in due course we will have good news about the work to ensure that that plant continues and that jobs are not only saved, but extended. Much of that will be down to the work of my hon. Friend.

The Government share the right hon. Gentleman’s desire to see the north-east flourish, along with the rest of the country. That is why we are going all out to create a business environment that gives companies the confidence to invest and grow, and why local communities are being freed from central control to determine their own economic future. That is the key to achieving economic regeneration and sustainable growth, both in the north-east and elsewhere.

Question put and agreed to.