House of Commons Hansard Debates for 6 Dec 1996 (pt 14)

1.16 pm

Mrs. Barbara Roche (Hornsey and Wood Green): All hon. Members will agree that this has been a good, high quality debate and that many important points have been made by hon. Members on both sides of the House. I hope that the debate will have given the President of the Board of Trade food for thought on his way to Singapore today.

The President of the Board of Trade referred in his opening speech to the whole question of regulation and

6 Dec 1996 : Column 1338

how deregulation was especially important in relation to small firms, by reducing compliance costs and the burdens on business. I absolutely agree with him. What makes that all the more surprising is that at Question Time on Wednesday the Minister for Small Business, Industry and Energy, who will be winding up today's debate, had to admit that he had introduced three times as many regulations relating to the Department of Trade and Industry as had been revoked.

If we look at the Government's overall record, we find that since 1994 approximately 13 times as many regulations have been introduced as have been replaced. I remind the Minister that 19 Conservative Back Benchers, including a former Minister for Trade, have criticised the Government's laconic record--their words, not mine--on removing the burdens on business.

The Institute of Directors, in its recent report on small business and also as a result of the "Your Business Matters" conference, noted that in the past few years

"The government has talked a lot about deregulation but has not achieved enough. Around 3,000 regulations have been removed over the past few years but over 10,000 new ones have been introduced."

The Minister may like to dwell on that this afternoon, especially as it was mentioned by the President of the Board of Trade in his opening remarks.

The President mentioned the fact that Britain is a trading nation and the importance of exports, especially to small and medium-sized enterprises. That theme was also echoed in a thoughtful speech by the hon. Member for Shoreham (Mr. Stephen).

The President mentioned the work done by business links. Although we welcome their work, it is at an extremely early stage. In Britain we still have no database of exporters, unlike our competitor countries in the European Union. It will be interesting to hear what the Minister has to say about that.

The hon. Member for Shoreham made the extremely pertinent point that we needed to ensure that our high commissions and embassies abroad were using all the latest technology, were using the Internet and were acting as a selling point for British goods and services. This morning there has been much talk about the Conservative briefing paper that was made available to Conservative Members and also, by a happy coincidence, to Labour Members. In that context, I wondered whether the hon. Member for Shoreham had been privy to several things that we had said in the public arena about exports. It seemed to my hon. Friend the Member for Middlesbrough (Mr. Bell) that the hon. Member for Shoreham was parroting Labour party policy on the subject. We speak about an enterprise zone for exporters--

Mr. Stephen: I assure the hon. Lady that when a good idea appears it does not matter to me where in the House it comes from. All good ideas for the benefit of the nation should be adopted. I do not concede, however, that this idea was originated by the hon. Lady or her colleagues.

Mrs. Roche: I will respond to that intervention in the spirit in which it was made, by saying that I agree with the hon. Gentleman. We are talking about what is

6 Dec 1996 : Column 1339

in the interests of our country, and good ideas that are in the interest of the whole nation should be warmly welcomed from both sides of the House. However, we are delighted with the hon. Gentleman's endorsement of our policy on exports.

The hon. Member for Roxburgh and Berwickshire (Mr. Kirkwood) asked important questions about investment and about the Invest in Britain Bureau survey. He raised a potentially extremely important point about counterfeit trade, which I am sure will be mentioned in Singapore and which is of great interest to businesses in Britain.

The Tory briefing document was mentioned. The hon. Member for Eastbourne (Mr. Waterson) claimed only to have glanced at it, but proceeded to quote from it in detail. It is an interesting document. Later I shall talk about the skills gap. From the language in which the document is couched and its grammatical format, one might conclude that the writer would benefit from a Labour Government and what we intend to do to improve skills and rebuild our economy.

My hon. Friend the Member for Rotherham (Mr. MacShane) made pertinent points about the condition of the economy and investment from Britain abroad. The 1995 United Nations report showed that $30 million was invested in Britain by foreign firms while $38 million was invested by Britain abroad. When the Minister talks about the amount of outward investment going out from Britain, he may wish to refer to that. My hon. Friend also made some pertinent points about the scandal of child labour and the importance that the United States Government attach to that.

This has been a good debate. It has put firmly on the agenda the importance of inward investment to Britain. We pay tribute to local authorities, regional development organisations, the staff of the Invest in Britain Bureau and others who have helped to achieve the success that we have so far seen. Inward investment is important not only for the jobs that it brings to Britain but for the effect that it has on local economies, including the knock-on effect of workers investing their pay locally, improved opportunities for new and existing supply companies, many of which are small and growing companies, and the possibility of small company spin-offs. The helpful effect that investment can have on small and medium-sized enterprises--truly the backbone of the economy--can be of assistance.

There are certainly questions to be asked about Ministers' actions and record on investment. Listening to the President of the Board of Trade and his Back-Bench colleagues today, one would have no idea of the sharp divisions within the Cabinet on the policies on inward investment. Critics have described the current situation as a Dutch auction, with potential investors being offered financial incentives of as much as £37,000 per employee to move to a particular area.

In the last debate on inward investment two years ago, the hon. Member for Falmouth and Camborne (Mr. Coe)--he is certainly an honourable Member of the House because before he moved to the dizzy heights

6 Dec 1996 : Column 1340

of the Whips office he was my pair--described the experience of a potential inward investor in his constituency. He said:

"halfway through negotiations with the Department of Trade and Industry in Bristol, he finds himself the subject of an approach from a Welsh council to relocate there, supported by the Welsh Office and underpinned by the local training and enterprise council, two jobcentres and the local councils. He is now in a Dutch auction, with offer and counter-offer being made with public money."--[Official Report, 28 October 1994; Vol. 248, c. 1145.]

If we needed further proof, The Economist recently described this inter-agency rivalry as:

"A collection of bell boys tripping over each other to grasp a guest's baggage, and then tipping the customer for the pleasure of carting it to his room."

To put it kindly, Ministers have not been singing from the same hymn sheet.