---

North-East England: Socio-Economic Prospects

My Lords, being a strong believer in one nation, I thought it entirely appropriate that someone coming from the English region that is furthest from the north-east should speak in support of my noble friend tonight, expressing solidarity from the deepest south-west of England. I greatly admire the north-east, and its greatest resource is its people—that was the note on which the right reverend Prelate ended. He was too modest to point out to your Lordships that the north-east has the highest number of Christians of any English region— something that should be celebrated. The noble Baroness, Lady Quin, mentioned regions. Regional development agencies may have a role, but I note that the very sensible people of the north-east—78 per cent of them—voted in 2004 against having the incubus of a regional assembly imposed on them by a Labour Government whom a majority of them must have voted for. That shows the great common sense of people in the north-east. As we have heard tonight, the north-east is particularly lucky to have such a powerful, persistent and eloquent advocate as my noble friend Lord Bates—truly a regional treasure in every sense of the word. In supporting him tonight, I have four questions to ask the Minister. The first is whether the fact that the north-east still has the lowest GDP of any English region is a matter of any concern to her and to the Government, and to ask whether she will pause in her speech for a moment to tell the House what the Government have done since 1997 to address this issue at the heart of the socio-economic prospects for people in the north-east. Secondly, are the Government satisfied that the region—one of their political heartlands—is getting its fair share of public expenditure and effort, whether for the modernisation of transport links—again, to which the right reverend Prelate referred—or excellence in training or whatever else? Thirdly, does the Minister share my deep concern that as Scotland and England—alas—drift further apart, any north-eastern disadvantages in socio-economic expenditure and gross domestic product are being more starkly compounded by the much greater per capita socio-economic expenditure north of the border in Scotland? This uncomfortable fact will become progressively more uncomfortable as we see the institutional frontier between our two countries becoming more entrenched. I must tread delicately here. Some, as it were, Scottish characteristics are present in the north-east, ranging from the highest rate of male heart attacks in England to the highest number of students likely to pick a university in their home region—75 per cent of students in the north-east come from that region. The figure for Scotland is 95 per cent. This is not good for one-nation mobility and people learning from as well as with each other. Fourthly and last, does the Minister feel, as we slowly come out of the recession, with capital costs and long-term interest rates being that much lower, that an energetic region like the north-east will gain most—as my noble friend Lord Bates said in his formidable speech—by exploiting its skills in software, systems engineering, clean energies and in biosciences, and by building on those firm foundations, as it once did so splendidly on coal, ships and chemicals?