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Responding to the Downturn and Planning the Future Economy

It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Selby. Most of us around the Chamber would agree with a significant amount of what he said. It is a matter of getting the balance right. We are not back to the Orwellian days; we have to pick and mix what is best and allow local people to make those decisions. This is without doubt the last time I shall speak at this Grand Committee. First, I will not get another chance tonight and secondly I am retiring at the next election. It has been a pleasure to be here and to work with so many colleagues from Yorkshire and the Humber over the past 12 years. The last intervention came from the hon. Member for Hemsworth, who was also my boss when I worked in Leeds—and an excellent boss he was too. It is interesting that the Minister said that the last Grand Committee was in 1298; it is recorded in whatever the equivalent of Hansard was then that an Austin Mitchell was reporting for ye olde calendar. The important thing is organisation. There has been much talk this afternoon about the role of Yorkshire Forward, and I think that we should start to put aside some of the differences that have appeared quite falsely this afternoon. Virtually every Member in this Chamber has the interests of Yorkshire and the Humber at heart and wants to see it succeed. It is a fantastic place to work and live, so making it succeed should be our challenge. We must be honest about the fact that no one got it right in the past. During the 1992 recession, when I was the leader of Harrogate council, unemployment there went to nearly 10 per cent., which was absolutely unheard of, and not a shred of support came from the centre. It was sink or swim. I do not believe that we can let the region sink or swim in the current recession. The issue is this: if we believe that we can rebuild the old economy post-recession, we will simply be a laughing stock, not only in the UK, but in Europe. A totally different economy will emerge in the region, as in the rest of the UK. Politicians of all political persuasions must ensure that we have a climate that is right for securing the jobs and opportunities of the future. We have heard about a few of those opportunities this afternoon, such as the green economy and green jobs. When one looks at the fiscal stimulus that Obama is putting into the US economy, one sees that he is not simply throwing money at it. He is basically saying that many industries will have to be allowed to die or helped to move in a new direction. It is the green economy and green jobs that the US will lead the world on. Whether one talks about coal or renewable energy, the region is certainly uniquely well placed. The region is also well placed because it has traditionally been enormously creative in the way it approaches economic circumstances. If one looks at the history of Yorkshire and at what has come out of the region, one will see the coal and steel industries and, in north Yorkshire, farming and other industries—north Yorkshire is largely forgotten when we talk about the recession, but it has had an impact there just the same. The hon. Member for Scarborough and Whitby, who is twittering on his BlackBerry, has said clearly that some of those coastal towns are really suffering as a result of the recession. Finally, if we do not have the necessary skills base to meet the challenges of the post-recession economy, Yorkshire and the Humber will fail, and preventing that is our challenge. We talked about the spallation light source that was going to come into Selby. The hon. Gentleman made a crucial point: it is a knowledge economy that will drive the jobs of the future, so we must ensure that we have a university sector that can drive that knowledge economy, and the white rose universities are an absolute credit to the region. If I have a criticism, it is that we are not getting our fair share of what I call big science coming into the region. Big science is not even going into Daresbury and Manchester, but is all going to Rutherford Appleton and the golden triangle. We must stand up and get our vice-chancellors to work even closer together to ensure the amalgamation and collaboration that needs to happen to drive the knowledge economy. The university sector will not work on its own unless we have the other skills infrastructure as well. That is why I stressed to the hon. Member for Kingston upon Hull, North the importance of the further education sector and the need to be able to drive those intermediate and technical skills at level 2 and 3, which south Yorkshire used to be good at. It used to have highly skilled jobs in its mining and coal industry. They were not simply manual jobs. Most of them were highly skilled jobs; tradespeople did them. The Minister for Regional Economic Development and Co-ordination talks about the £1 billion that has gone into Train to Gain. I and my colleagues on what was the Select Committee on Innovation, Universities, Science and Skills know full well that much of that money could not be accessed because of the bureaucracy around it. Much of that has now been unpicked, but delivering the skills agenda in places such as south Yorkshire as well as north Yorkshire will be the answer, not only in our schools but in our colleges. Then people will be able to take advantage of the knowledge economy.