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Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation

Until the Labour party acknowledges the problems it left the country and its financial mismanagement, it will never be taken seriously by the British people. The stark reality is that the previous Government took Britain to the brink of bankruptcy—just one more move and we would have been in the same boat as Ireland, Greece and Portugal. Not everything in the Budget meets with my approval. There are things in it that I wish were not, and things not in it that I wish were. However, it is a Budget of hope, and it is pragmatic after Labour's years of hopelessness. Among the good things is the fact that I am blessed in Colchester with the most incompetent Conservative party in the east of England, which is matched in incompetence only by the local Labour party. Although I welcome the Budget, it will come as no surprise to Members on the Government Benches to hear that, having spent 40 years opposing the Conservatives, I have not changed my spots. The Budget is more Aldi than Waitrose. Some Members have referred to their constituencies, and I believe that on occasions such as these we need to remind people that national Budgets have local consequences. They affect local pride and civic leadership. In that respect, I want to state with great honour that last Wednesday Colchester borough council voted to apply for city status, a civic honour granted by Her Majesty the Queen under the royal prerogative. The qualifying guidelines for making such an application state:"““Any local authority… which considers that its area deserves to be granted the rare honour of city status on this very special occasion is welcome to enter the competition… The places to be honoured for the Diamond Jubilee should be vibrant, welcoming communities with interesting histories and distinct identities.””" On that basis, Colchester ticks every box. It is Britain's oldest recorded town and the first capital of Roman Britain. It is the home of the university of Essex, the most international university in the country, and of which Mr Speaker is a graduate. As a super garrison town, it is also the home of 16 Air Assault Brigade, which is currently serving in Afghanistan. An additional reason why I hope Colchester will become the UK's newest city is the fact that this is being driven from the ground upwards by an organisation called Destination Colchester, which is bringing together organisations, local businesses and the people of the town. This is the big society in operation. Among the aspects of the Budget that I am unhappy about are those relating to planning. I urge the Government to look again at the VAT on old buildings, because although converting old buildings to housing is welcome, the 20% VAT levy is a penalty. I hope that they will look at that again. Colleagues will recall that I intervened on the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government earlier to mention chapter 4 of the coalition programme for government, which relates to communities and local government. The third point states:"““In the longer term, we will radically reform the planning system to give neighbourhoods far more ability to determine the shape of the places in which their inhabitants live, based on the principles set out in the Conservative Party publication Open Source Planning.””" The sixth point states:"““We will… create a new designation—similar to SSSIs—to protect green areas of particular importance to local communities.””" I am delighted that the Secretary of State has agreed to visit Colchester to see the fields of west Mile End, which developers want to put under a housing estate of 2,200 dwellings, against all the wishes of the local community. I will conclude on beer duty, which was an opportunity lost by our Government. I hope that they will look again at the issue, because our towns and cities are troubled by binge drinkers, and one way to address that would be to put up the beer levy by 10p a pint or thereabouts in the supermarkets and the mega-pubs and to reduce it by 10p a pint in our community pubs, traditional pubs and village pubs. In that way, our local communities—the localism aspect of the licensing industry—would receive the boost. At the moment, the supermarkets and the mega-pubs are able to outdo the local, community pubs, and we all know that the consequence is drunkenness in town centres, so I urge the Government to look again to see whether we can have a lower beer levy for our community pubs.