---

The Tote

I congratulate my right hon. Friend the Member for Sheffield, Central (Mr. Caborn) on securing this important and timely debate. I thank him and his successor, the current Minister, for keeping myself and my right hon. Friend the Member for Makerfield (Mr. McCartney) up to date with all the twists and turns in the saga. They have done that well both formally and informally, which has helped both of us greatly. My interest in the Tote is unashamedly one-dimensional. I have only a passing interest in racing, which is not a sport that particularly attracts me. My interest is the fact that the Tote's headquarters are in my constituency. Its financial headquarters are in my right hon. Friend's constituency. The Tote came to Wigan some 20 years ago. It was not an easy shift. It is never easy prising southerners out of Harrods and sorting them out with woad and whippets, but we managed to get them up there and they work well with the local authority. The local authority felt that it was so important to the local economy to get the Tote to come to Wigan that it evicted members of its staff from their offices to put Tote staff in there, and make it a success. The fact that the Tote is still in Wigan, and is a success, proves that that was right. We have some 600 employees in Wigan. Working relationships are extremely good, with the management, trade unions and work force working well together. That is not only because the Tote a good employer, but the nature of the work is flexible as to the times when people work; mothers can work around school times, and so on. That makes the Tote a valuable employer in the Wigan economy. A few years ago we managed to get the rest of the Tote to come to Wigan—the senior staff. They are very important to the Wigan local economy, which like many local economies in the country is in transition, from heavy industry—the steel, mining, cotton and textiles on which it used to be based—to a more modern, service industry-based economy. Getting the staff headquarters to come to Wigan was very important. We had last-minute planning difficulties and again the council evicted some staff to move the Tote into their offices. That is more proof of the importance of the Tote to the local economy, and the council's view of it. My hon. Friend the Member for Mansfield (Mr. Meale) was profoundly wrong when he implied that the matter could be left over. It is very important to get a resolution now. I have learned from discussions with the Tote that senior management are already being lost, and in a service industry of this kind it is not infrastructure such as buildings that is the most important thing—it is senior management, and the way they run the organisation. When they are lost, not only does the value of the Tote go down, but the value with respect to whatever sale is made will go down too. It is not just that we need to take account of something in the outside market; it is also a question of the nature of the industry. If it loses its senior management it will lose market value as well. The Minister and his predecessor have been pressing strongly on the future of the Tote. The leader of Wigan council, my noble Friend Lord Smith of Leigh, my right hon. Friend the Member for Makerfield and I want a resolution in the interest of our constituents who work in Wigan. We have a meeting tomorrow at the highest level—with the Prime Minister. Our one aim will be to impress on him the need to ensure that whatever resolution is reached, it is decided on swiftly, with a guarantee for a number of years that the headquarters of the Tote and its successor will be in Wigan. We are confident that if that guarantee is given, for four, five or seven years, or whatever it may be, the successor will find that Wigan is such a good place for its headquarters that it will stay there and take the opportunities in the international betting field that my right hon. Friend the Member for Sheffield, Central outlined, so that they can not only maintain job opportunities but expand them, and make Wigan a centre for the betting industry nationally and internationally. That is what we will be pressing for, and that is why it is so important and timely that we have had the debate, and that we reach a resolution as quickly as possible.