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Local Authorities (Youth Expenditure)
Mr. Andrew Rowe accordingly presented a Bill to require local authorities to take into account the priorities of young people in allocating expenditure: And the same was read the First time; and ordered to be read a Second time upon Friday 7 February and to be printed [Bill 46].
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Orders of the Day
WAYS AND MEANS
Order read for resuming adjourned debate on Question [26 November].
Motion made, and Question proposed,
[Relevant document: European Community Document No. 9002/96, concerning the Council Recommendation to the United Kingdom with a view to bringing an end to the situation of an excessive government deficit in the United Kingdom, prepared in accordance with Article 104c(7) of the Treaty establishing the European Community.]
Mr. Deputy Speaker (Sir Geoffrey Lofthouse):
I must tell the House that Madam Speaker has selected amendment (d) in the name of the Leader of the Opposition to the first Ways and Means motion. It may be convenient if at this stage I also announce that Madam Speaker has selected the amendment in the name of Leader of the Opposition to motion number 2 on public expenditure which is being debated with the Budget resolutions. I call Mr. John Prescott.
Mr. John Prescott (Kingston upon Hull, East):
I do not mind speaking first, but I think it is the other way about.
The Deputy Prime Minister (Mr. Michael Heseltine):
The House has been treated to an interesting revelation by the deputy leader of the Labour party, who said that he did not mind speaking first. He will not take the slightest notice of the facts I shall put before the House. He is not interested in the truth of my arguments, because he has a propaganda handout from Walworth road that he intends to inflict upon us. It is kind of him to allow me to put the arguments and facts on the record first.
The House has now been debating the Budget proposals for almost a week, and the debate has shown starkly the difference between the successful policies of the Government and the lack of any credible alternatives from
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For example, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development says that, because of the Government's programme of structural reforms, we have
The chairman of Phillips says that the United Kingdom is the most competitive country in Europe today. The chairman of BMW described the United Kingdom as
From every quarter of the globe, the world's great companies are pouring money into the British economy. They are putting money into our economy to bolster tomorrow's industries, whether manufacturing or service. Hyundai has made a £2.4 billion investment in Scotland. Lucky Goldstar has made a £1.7 billion investment in south Wales. Siemens has invested £1.1 billion in the north-east. Fujitsu has invested £800 million in the north-east. Toyota and UPS are each investing some £800 million in the east midlands. BMW and Jaguar are each investing around £400 million in the west midlands.
The City of London is the world's largest centre for foreign exchange. It is larger than New York and Tokyo combined, with more foreign exchange banks than any other city in the world, and a stock exchange that is the world's largest centre for foreign equities.
Other industries tell the same story. The tourist industry pulled in a record 24 million overseas visitors to the United Kingdom in 1995, earning around £12.1 billion and, in the process, it arrested and reversed the decline in market share that had happened over many years. If I may borrow a phrase from one of our most successful privatised industries, we are in truth the world's favourite economy.
The biotechnology industry has sales already in excess of £4 billion, and that figure is set to more than double by the end of 1998. Our aerospace industry, to which the privatised British Aerospace is central, is going from strength to strength, with a 20 per cent. stake in US Air's decision to buy up to 400 airbuses in a deal worth £11 billion. We have an enormous new order for Hawk from Australia.
We have seen British Telecom's price for calls within the United Kingdom fall by 40 per cent. in real terms since 1984. That privatisation led to the deregulation of the industry and the explosion of activity that followed.
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Britain is the first country in the world to open its international telephone traffic to anyone who wants to provide a service. The consequences of that were accurately reflected in The Independent recently:
Every statistic that is published offers growing proof that the British people are responding to the most exciting economic prospects that we have seen for a generation. Unemployment is down by almost 1 million. Housing starts are up. House prices are up. We have heard much from the Opposition about negative equity, but the latest figures show that the number of households affected by negative equity is now down more than 80 per cent. on the 1992 peak.
In the first quarter of 1996--[Interruption.] The deputy leader of the Labour party knows that housing starts have started to rise again. I know that the Opposition are totally uninterested in any facts or figures--[Interruption.] The right hon. Member for Kingston upon Hull, East (Mr. Prescott) did not know that I was going to include this subject in my speech, but he may have time to get the figures before he gets to his feet. Housing starts are on the rise again, as shown in the last quarterly figures published.
We hear nothing now from Labour about negative equity, just as we hear nothing now about unemployment. In the first quarter of this year, the Department of the Environment estimated that about £2 billion of negative equity was outstanding. In the second quarter, that figure fell to £1.5 billion, and I can now tell the House that the latest estimate for the third quarter is that negative equity has fallen to about £600 million. Today's newspapers state that the Halifax building society is reporting that house prices have risen since the last figure was released, with the result that negative equity is now almost a thing of the past.
Mr. John Garrett (Norwich, South):
The Deputy Prime Minister has failed to mention that the Housing Corporation's budget has been cut from £1.8 billion two years ago to £600 million in the coming year. He has also failed to admit that the total number of houses built for rent will be some 20,000 in the coming year, and fewer in later years--despite the fact that the Government's own target was for 60,000 a year.
The Deputy Prime Minister:
The hon. Gentleman is fully aware that we have re-created the private rented sector in the teeth of opposition from the Labour party. Today, there is a wide range of privately available homes for people on low incomes who are supported with housing rental subsidies.
We introduced those subsidies in an attempt to change the emphasis of housing support--again, in the teeth of Labour opposition. It is no good for the hon. Gentleman to select one aspect of the housing programme from the
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It is not surprising that confidence has returned to the housing industry, as it has to the high street. Retail sales figures are up by 4 per cent. on a year ago, and we have the best growth of any major European Union economy. Let no one believe for one instant that these privileges are somehow restricted to a limited section of society. Looking at the effect of the growth in our economy and the spread of wealth in terms of what it has done to provide real opportunities for real people, the figures are startling.
In the early 1980s, 73 per cent. of households had a telephone. Today, the figure is well over 90 per cent. When the Government were elected, only 47 per cent. of the population had a freezer. Now, the figure is 88 per cent. Some 58 per cent. had central heating--it is now 84 per cent.; 60 per cent. had a car--it is now nearly 70 per cent. In 1979, 55 per cent. of dwellings were owner-occupied. By last year, that had gone up to 67 per cent.
That it is expedient to amend the law with respect to the National Debt and the public revenue and to make further provision in connection with finance; but this Resolution does not extend to the making of any amendment with respect to value added tax so as to provide--
(a) for zero-rating or exempting a supply, acquisition or importation;
(b) for refunding an amount of tax;
(c) for varying any rate at which that tax is at any time chargeable; or
(d) for any relief, other than a relief which--
(i) so far as it is applicable to goods, applies to goods of every description, and
(ii) so far as it is applicable to services, applies to services of every description.--[Mr. Kenneth Clarke.]4.42 pm
"a more flexible and less inflation-prone economy".
The International Monetary Fund says that, in the United Kingdom,
"recent economic performance has been enviable."
I accept, of course, that both the IMF and the OECD are academic economic authorities, so perhaps we should concentrate on the views of the people whose investment decisions are measured in hard terms--the bosses of the world's most enterprising companies.
"by far the most attractive place to invest in Europe."
The chief executive of Siemens has praised the pro-business environment that exists here. Those are the comments that have been made, not by some member of the Government and not even by citizens of the United Kingdom, but by people who have a totally detached view and are responsible for giving their best judgment and backing it with their money. I accept that those opinions are but quotations, so let us talk about some of the facts.
"In a world where manufacturing (and increasingly service) technology crosses national boundaries in a matter of weeks, achieving a comparative advantage in international telecommunications is the most important thing any government can do."
We have done it, and we have done it in the industries of tomorrow.
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