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North-East England: Socio-Economic Prospects

My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Bates, for introducing this debate, which has enabled those of us who live in the north-east to blow its trumpet. Of course, we are all very aware of some of the problems. One or two themes are running through the debate. The region has the lowest GDP and is dependent on the public sector. There are transportation problems, as the right reverend Prelate said, including the ever present problem of dualling the A1 throughout the country. I have spoken about that many times before, so I shall not do so today, but I hope that the Minister is well briefed on it and can perhaps say something about it. There is also the issue of a fair deal for those in Northumberland. I live in the very north of the north-east, in north Northumberland, right up against the Scottish border, so the fair deal and the Barnett formula are very close to my heart. I want to say a little about the differences that affect us in north Northumberland. We need more help with education and training and with communication—not just the transportation on the A1 but also internet access in rural areas. I shall say more about that in a minute. We need a fair deal. Our local government has been reorganised. Under the old system, we had six districts and a county. The rural areas received extra funding to deal with their problems, and the urban south-east—the Ashington and Blyth area—got extra funding to deal with the deprivation there, too. The area has all been put together in one authority and we do not get any of that now. I ask the Minister to look carefully at that. I know that the Secretary of State, John Denham, at CLG, is aware of this, but can we please have more pressure to ensure that we have a fair deal on funding? The take-up of further education and higher education in my area is very low. We have been particularly badly hit in Northumberland by the debacle of the Learning and Skills Council and the funding for further education colleges. Northumberland is the only county not to have benefited from the substantial budget of more than £20 billion already spent on the further education capital programme. Recently, the bid from Northumberland College has fallen apart, which means that in Berwick we shall not get a £20 million skills centre. I would like to quote from a letter from the principal of Northumberland College. She wanted me to bring this to the attention of the Minister. She says: ""I do not believe Ministers are fully aware of the hugely destabilising effect the whole LSC capital funding debacle has had on individual colleges, made even worse by the subsequent announcements of a reduction in adult funding and demands for £500m efficiency savings, all at a time of economic recession. The FE sector historically has been able to help individuals and communities hit by mass redundancies retrain, finding new skills which equip them to access new employment opportunities … Ironically, the college finds itself in a position of having to make some of its own staff redundant as a result of funding cuts and the hugely challenging aim to achieve a surplus against all the odds in one of the largest, and most sparsely populated county in the country"." That sums up the problems that we have in further education, but we are miles from higher education. Berwick-upon-Tweed in north Northumberland is further from higher education than almost anywhere else in the country. A local group there are putting in a bid to HEFCE, under the auspices of A New "University Challenge". I hope that the Minister can ensure that we get some help on that front. We have already talked about the A1, but I am grateful to the Commission for Rural Communities, which has pointed out the problems that we have in north Northumberland with access to the internet. Three-quarters of rural internet users say that they use the internet for transactions, which is a larger proportion than of those who do not live in rural areas, but only 1.5 per cent of homes in villages and hamlets can access cable-based broadband services, whereas almost 60 per cent of urban homes can. That limits access to government services and to the full range of social benefits available, such as cheaper bills and healthcare diagnostics through the internet. The UK has the highest number of public services available online, but if you look at a map showing the spread of high-speed broadband in the country you will see that Northumberland has big blobs without it. That also affects people trying to get jobs. Only 31 jobcentres, out of a total of 868, are in rural areas. My time has run out and the Whip on the Front Bench opposite is indicating that I should wind up. I hope that the Minister can address some of these issues. I believe that north Northumberland is particularly disadvantaged.