East Midlands Economy

Debate between Toby Perkins and Ruth Edwards

Tuesday 7th September 2021 Westminster Hall

[Ruth Edwards (Rushcliffe) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir David, and I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Mansfield (Ben Bradley) on securing this debate.

I think those of us here in this room are all incredibly lucky because we represent a vibrant, dynamic and creative region. As other Members have said, we are the heart of the UK’s logistics and manufacturing industries; the right hon. Member for Derby South (Margaret Beckett) talked about the industrial jaws of the United Kingdom. I was fortunate to be able to visit JCB in the constituency of my hon. Friend the Member for South Derbyshire (Mrs Wheeler), and see the amazing innovation that has been taking place at its Foston plant, where it has invented the world’s first hydrogen-fuelled combustion engine.

We are leaders in food and drink; we have some fantastic companies in my constituency of Rushcliffe—perhaps too fantastic, as I do not think they did wonders for my figure over lockdown. We have fantastic stilton producers at Cropwell Bishop and Colston Bassett that, contrary to counter claims made by my hon. Friend the Member for Rutland and Melton (Alicia Kearns), produce the best stilton in the world—whatever she may say. We also have wonderful wine producers such as Hanwell wine estate and Eglantine vineyard; we have a thriving farming sector across the region; and we are leaders in so many different types of green technology. I have mentioned hydrogen at JCB, but we also have the GeoPura headquarters in my constituency, whose hydrogen generators are powering everything from festivals to film sets. We are leaders in biodiversity restoration; we have BeadaMoss in East Leake, Rushcliffe, micro-propagating sphagnum moss to be used to restore peatlands and to create new growing mediums that will replace peat in several years. The statistics back up what I am saying. We have fantastic innovators across the region; 90% of manufacturers have innovated in the last two years; 96% plan to do so again in the next two years.

We do have our problems, and they have been set out very clearly by Members on both sides of the room today. Our productivity is below the national average; we have a polarised workforce with a lot of people in very highly skilled jobs—based around our universities and our tech companies—but we also have many people in much lower paid jobs. The average income in the east midlands is £70 a week below the national level. We also suffer from low public sector investment; we have the lowest levels of public expenditure and transport spending per head.

We have also suffered, perhaps, from a lower profile than other areas of the country. The west midlands, for example, has one focal point provided by the city of Birmingham and its Mayor. Its share of funding has reached parity with the average amongst English regions in the last few years; we in the east midlands still have only 75%. We hear a lot about levelling up and we see a lot of Government Ministers going to Teesside and the west midlands; we see their Departments following them there. If levelling up is going to spread opportunity over the whole country then it is going to have to involve more places than just Teesside and the west midlands—however wonderful they may be. One of the places that really needs that focus and support from Government is the east midlands.

[Mr Perkins]

I totally agree with what the hon. Lady is saying. Is not the point I just made the reality? Areas such as the west midlands and the north-east are politically competitive. Here, the Tory party is able to take for granted that it is going to get Tory MPs elected and that is why we have failed to get the investments of some of those other regions. Is not electing more Labour MPs the answer?

[Ruth Edwards]

No, I do not agree with that. We are in a debate today that has been called by a Conservative Member and is attended by lots more Conservative than Labour Members, so I do not agree with the hon. Gentleman.

[Mr Perkins]

We haven’t got many—that is the point.

[Ruth Edwards]

Maybe that says something about how voters in the east midlands feel the hon. Gentleman’s party has taken them for granted. As a result, they have returned Conservative colleagues, who are here today fighting for more investment in the east midlands.

If everybody in every community having a fair chance at life is what levelling up is about, if it is about people being able to benefit from strong public services such as a great education and having the opportunity for a great career, wherever they live in the country, we have to focus on areas such as the east midlands that have, historically, been underfunded and have not had the Government focus that they should.

We have some great tangible opportunities right now in the east midlands to reverse that. The one I have been most closely involved in is the east midlands freeport, which would cover three sites: one in Leicestershire, one in Derbyshire and one in Nottinghamshire in my constituency of Rushcliffe, based at the Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station site, which is being decommissioned in a few years’ time. The east midlands freeport would create more than 58,000 jobs and would see investment in skills, research and development. It would see Ratcliffe-on-Soar transformed into a centre for new energy technologies and a zero carbon academy, creating those high-skilled jobs and fantastic careers that we have been discussing this morning. It will also enhance and build on existing partnerships between academia and business across the region, which we need to capitalise on. It will be the best connected freeport in the country: it will connect East Midlands airport to global markets and, in doing so, will connect the companies at the heart of our manufacturing and logistics industries to it too. It will also connect the east midlands via road and rail to the wider network of freeports across the country and, in that way, offer us a national as well as a regional opportunity.

The second opportunity is HS2. I appreciate that it is not the responsibility of the Minister’s Department, but I hope he takes away the message of frustration from colleagues on both sides of the House at the length of time it is taking to get a decision about the eastern leg. We have seen a vaccine created and rolled out across the United Kingdom in less time than it has taken to make a decision about the form in which HS2 is going to come to the east midlands, if it comes at all. I hope the rumours that it is going to be axed are not true.

HS2 has great potential. It would add £28 billion to the region’s economy every year. It would increase east-west—a well as north-south—connectivity, which is vital. Today, we talked about how connectivity and trains are important, but it is about more than trains. It is about massive redevelopment at Toton. It is about improving local transport connectivity across the region. It would send a clear signal from Government that we are investing in the east midlands, that the east midlands is not the poor cousin of the west midlands, that it will not be left behind and that we are committed to making sure that the east midlands shares in the levelling-up agenda. I hope the Minister can give us some assurance that that will be the case. I certainly hope that he will take the message back from the debate to his colleagues in the Department for Transport and I also hope that we can hear something about his support for the east midlands freeport, which is something that he knows Members on both sides have been working hard to support. We have an excellent bid now—one that capitalises on our net zero potential, our connectivity and creating highly skilled jobs and training across the region, which is much needed.