Autumn Statement

Phil Wilson Excerpts

Wednesday 3rd December 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Osborne]

As we said this week, we are giving serious consideration to the bid that my hon. Friend, his colleagues and others in the Humber estuary area put forward for major improvements in flood defences. We are already investing in flood defences this week, which was welcome news, and his proposal is a big and well-argued one to which we are giving serious consideration. As he rightly said, on top of that we have seen major improvements into the Humber and, thanks partly to his campaigning, the Humber bridge tolls came down and traffic has increased.

[Phil Wilson (Sedgefield) (Lab)]

I welcome the news that the national formulation centre will be based in Sedgefield at the North East technology park in my constituency, which was opened 10 years ago by my predecessor. Is the Chancellor aware that the chemical and other industries in the Tees valley use Durham Tees Valley airport to reach global markets and that this could be affected by the devolution of air passenger duty to Scotland? What plans does he have to ensure that small regional airports, such as Durham Tees Valley airport, in the north of England are not disadvantaged by these changes?

[Mr Osborne]

I am pleased to say that the current Member for Sedgefield probably gets a better hearing at the Treasury than the last Member for Sedgefield ever did. The formulation centre is great news for the north-east and Sedgefield, but the hon. Gentleman raises a serious point that we will have to look at. The Smith commission—and, to be fair, the Calman commission before it —recommended the devolution of air passenger duty, and we absolutely accept that recommendation. However, we will have to consider the impact, particularly on the airports in the north-east of England, which are geographically close to some of the Scottish airports. The shadow Chancellor raised the same point. I am happy to work with the hon. Gentleman and the Labour Front-Bench team, on a cross-party basis—we worked together like that on the Smith process—to see what we can do to support airports in the north-east.