Amendment of the Law

Stephen Mosley Excerpts

Monday 28th March 2011 Commons Chamber

[Stephen Mosley (City of Chester) (Con)]

Last year’s emergency Budget and the comprehensive spending review laid the foundations for rescuing our economy and restoring our public finances to balance. Now reform is needed to steer our country to prosperity, and at the heart of the reforms that are necessary is the knowledge that less interference and regulation from central Government is the natural precursor of growth and efficiency. It is essential that we make it as easy as possible for our firms to succeed, expand, and employ more people, and it is imperative that we send a clear message that this coalition Government are on the side of innovators and entrepreneurs.

I am fortunate to represent Chester, which is a successful, popular and thriving constituency. However, like most places, we could do better. I am in the enviable position of watching companies queue up to move in and invest, but our problem is that we have nowhere for them to move into. For years after the millennium, we had a planning moratorium that was designed to discourage investment in Chester and Cheshire and direct it towards Merseyside or Greater Manchester instead. I have no problem with encouraging investment in our metropolitan city centres—indeed, I welcome it—but that must be done by making them more attractive to investors, rather than simply stopping investment in other areas and hoping it will spontaneously start up elsewhere. The two-pronged approach announced by the Chancellor on Wednesday will help to solve both problems.

First, enterprise zones will create areas that are more attractive to investors, developers and those who wish to start up companies. I am delighted to note that Liverpool Waters has been selected on Merseyside. That will create jobs and investment, which will help people in the whole sub-region, including my own city of Chester. Unlike many Members over the past few days, I am not going to call for an enterprise zone in my own constituency, but I wholeheartedly support Cheshire West and Chester council’s proposal for one in neighbouring Ellesmere Port. A manufacturing-based enterprise zone there would complement the existing manufacturing industry—including Vauxhall and Shell—and because workers no longer live next door to the factories in which they work, it would create jobs for people in Chester as well.

Secondly, Chester will benefit from the relaxation of planning regulations. Planning is rightly considered to be a sensitive issue in Chester. Ours is a small historic city with a heritage and archaeology that make new development in the city centre very difficult. We are also tightly surrounded by green belt. All Members will be aware of the difficulties caused by proposed green belt development. However, that does not mean that we should have a planning system that places even more hurdles in the way of investors, developers and wealth creators. Reforms involving streamlining, fast-tracking, removing bureaucracy and time-limiting are long overdue, and they will have one simple consequence: they will facilitate growth.

I also welcome the Chancellor’s announcement that the Government will consult on the potential benefits of merging income tax and national insurance. It does not make sense that people’s earnings are subject to two separate taxes that are deducted directly from income. Let us not sit here and pretend that there is one pot of money that goes towards paying the state pension or unemployment benefits, and a completely different pot for general Government expenditure. Income tax and national insurance are contributors to the same kitty. Of course we must take great care to ensure that there is no unfair impact on those of state pension age whose earnings are not currently subject to national insurance deductions, but if the system can be simplified, it should be simplified.

Those of us who have run businesses are all too aware of the burden that the current system places on business owners, especially owners of small businesses that do not have the advantage of large payroll departments. It was obvious from the cheers on the Government side of the House on Wednesday that many of my colleagues had had such experiences, but as we cheered, the blank looks on the Opposition Benches told a different story. It dawned on me that many Opposition Members had very little idea of the difficulties involved in running a small business. They seemed unaware of the impact of this unnecessary complication on businesses up and down the country.

We should be doing all that we can to reduce the burden of bureaucracy on businesses and to help them to invest their time, energy and money in growth, ingenuity and development. That is what this proposal will help to deliver. If we want to stimulate our economy and help business and private enterprise to grow, we need to cut costs, cut regulations and cut bureaucracy.

Last week the Chancellor said:

“We want the words:

‘made in Britain, created in Britain, designed in Britain, invented in Britain’ to drive our nation forward.”—[Official Report, 23 March 2011; Vol. 525, c. 966.]

Only a simplification of regulations will allow such an overhaul of our economy, and I believe the measures outlined in the Budget are the first steps towards achieving that goal.

While the cuts in public services have been directly caused by the disastrous economic legacy of the last Government, these cuts in bureaucracy, waste and red tape are entirely our own, and will provide the foundations needed to help our economy to grow for decades to come.