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Identifying Growth Sectors in the South East Economy

By definition, we have had something of a limited debate today in this Regional Grand Committee, because of the time available. Nevertheless, hon. Members have managed to discuss a wide range of subjects. The hon. Member for Romsey (Sandra Gidley) ranged from the banks to broadband availability. The hon. Member for Oxford, West and Abingdon (Dr. Harris) talked about the need for local authorities to work together in housing projects. We heard about further education colleges from my hon. Friend the Member for Worthing, West (Peter Bottomley), and my right hon. Friend the Member for North-East Hampshire (Mr. Arbuthnot) talked about the Pyestock development. The crucial point is that people will no longer trust the planning system when such decisions are taken. The hon. Member for Southampton, Test (Dr. Whitehead) understandably spoke particularly about Southampton port. Skills and the sustainability of development were issues raised by my hon. Friend the Member for Basingstoke (Mrs. Miller). The speech that was in many ways most interesting was that of the hon. Member for South Thanet (Dr. Ladyman), who told us that he wanted us not to be partisan, having opened his speech not only with an attack on Conservative Governments of the past, but on individual Conservative Members. He went on to tell us that the situation that the county is in at the moment in terms of the economic recession is entirely global in its nature. I have to say that such comments relate to the nub of the problem and this Government’s inability to address the economic recession in this country. The Government, their Members and their Ministers are unable to recognise the role of decisions taken by the Government—particularly by the Prime Minister when he was Chancellor of the Exchequer—and how that has contributed to the depths of the recession that we now have in this country. That has meant we have seen record rises in unemployment in this country and the number of job vacancies falling to a record low. In his excellent opening speech, my right hon. and learned Friend the Member for Folkestone and Hythe (Mr. Howard) talked about ministerial complacency and referred to the delay and failure of business support schemes introduced by the Government. Of course, the Government also delayed implementing schemes to help unemployed people—as I speak, half the country is not covered by specific programmes for unemployed people. There was not a word on that from the Minister in his speech. Indeed, I thought that the Minister’s complacency was compounded by the complete lack of reference to the real problem of the recession and, again, to the role played by the Government. We all want this country to move out of recession, and we all hope that that will start to happen by the end of the year. In the short time that I had to look at the Select Committee report, however, I was struck by the comment by the Federation of Small Businesses in paragraph 88 on SEEDA’s role: ““We believe that the Government is putting too much pressure on SEEDA to demonstrate the ‘green’ shoots of recovery within the South East economy.”” I say to the Minister once again that unless the Government are realistic about the situation and recognise the problems and their source, they cannot hope to be the answer to those problems. If we are to maximise growth in the south-east in the future, we need a Government who understand the region’s role as a powerhouse of economic growth for the whole country, yet the Government’s policy fails to accept that for the south-east. Their only policy for the region appears to have been to increase housing targets. As was clear from many of the questions asked by my right hon. Friend the Member for Wokingham earlier in the debate, the Government do not understand the importance of looking at infrastructure needs before housing development takes place. In 2004, Wokingham borough council commissioned Ove Arup to look at the cost of the infrastructure work that would be needed to support the housing target in the area through to 2026, and that cost was £800 million. In my constituency, the former Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government agreed to the development of several hundred houses in Badnell’s Pit, despite the fact that the local schools cannot cope. What is worse, the Secretary of State refused to ask the developer to give any money to provide for more school development in the area, thus putting pressure on the local council. Sadly, the state of the public finances means that it will be difficult to address those infrastructure problems in the short term. The Government have ignored the infrastructure needs of the south-east, despite study after study, from multi-modal studies to regional spatial strategies, sub-national reviews and local development frameworks. They have failed to understand the south-east’s importance in the economic development of our country, and that mirrors their failure to understand the role they have played in bringing us to a recession that runs deeper here than it does in many other countries and that will be harder for us to get out of. They have failed to see the role that the south-east can play. Sadly, the south-east will only see real growth in the future with a Government who can come forward with a credible plan to deal with the public finances and reduce our national debt, and the only way that will happen is with a Conservative Government.