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1.46 pm
The Minister of State, Department of National Heritage (Mr. Iain Sproat): I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Ribble Valley (Mr. Evans) on securing this important debate. He is exceptionally well informed on tourism matters, and always works hard to ensure that the interests of his constituents and constituency are brought to the notice of the House.
I am also pleased that the House has another opportunity to debate tourism generally as well as the particular aspects affecting my hon. Friend's constituency so soon after we last did so on 29 November. It is a measure of the importance that hon. Members now place on tourism that this is the eighth debate on the subject in the House in the present Parliament.
The Government have long recognised the economic importance of tourism. Indeed, the Confederation of British Industry recently held a major conference on the future of Britain's tourism industry, which was addressed by my right hon. Friends the Secretary of State for National Heritage and the Deputy Prime Minister.
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Tourism is set to be the world's biggest industry by the year 2000. It already generates £37 billion of income annually in the United Kingdom, and employs 1.8 million people. The UK welcomed a record 24 million overseas visitors in 1995, 1.2 million of whom chose to go to the north-west. Our earnings from overseas visitors were £12.1 billion, with £1.4 billion being spent in the north-west.
North-west trade and enterprise councils have identified tourism as one of the main sectors in the region offering good employment prospects. They estimate that the hotel and catering sector is likely to create 25,000 new jobs in the region before the millennium. That reflects the national picture--tourism has created one in five jobs over the past three years. If current trends continue, tourism will be a larger employer than manufacturing by the year 2012.
The latest World Tourism Organisation figures show that, in 1995, the UK's share of world tourism receipts rose from 4.4 per cent. to 5 per cent., reversing a 10-year downward trend. We are now in the top five in the international tourism league, and we must make sure that that improvement is sustained.
I am pleased that the north-west's tourism profile has been greatly enhanced. Former industrial areas have been transformed from derelict wastelands into thriving visitor locales, often using the area's rich industrial heritage.
There are many examples of how the region has responded positively to new opportunities for development. In Manchester, for example, the Castlefield project employs urban rangers to guide visitors and conserve the site, while the success of the Granada studio tours, which my hon. Friend mentioned, has greatly boosted the area. Liverpool's Albert dock and the King's dock have been regenerated as tourist attractions, with 5.5 million visits a year, creating over 2,000 jobs. The Hamilton quarter on the south side of the Mersey is another area in the process of regeneration. Wigan now has a heritage centre that is a shining example of the regeneration that can be achieved through tourism.
Partnership between private business, local authorities and the regional tourist boards is vital in this process. The Government have provided funding through the national lottery and the single regeneration budget. The former has provided £64 million for the new Lowry centre in Salford. Such projects will undoubtedly strengthen the tourism appeal of the north-west. Blackpool has been granted £19.3 million from the single regeneration budget, and Morecambe £4.3 million. In addition, many projects in the north-west benefit from the European regional development fund.
Although Manchester may be disappointed that Wembley has been designated as the site for the English national sports stadium, the city will certainly applaud the Sports Council's announcement that Manchester is to receive lottery awards of £60 million for a 50,000-to-60,000 capacity all-seater stadium and £20 million for a swimming pool complex. Those awards will enable the city to have the necessary facilities in place to host the 2002 Commonwealth games, which will further heighten the international profile of the north-west.
Blackpool remains the largest and most popular seaside resort in Europe. I am pleased that its central and north beaches were able to meet the EU's bathing water cleanliness standard last year.
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The Department of National Heritage spends almost £1 billion a year, much of it on museums, galleries, the heritage and the arts, all of which are important generators of domestic and overseas tourism.
We have allocated £35 million to the British Tourist Authority for 1997-98, which is a slight reduction on this year, but more than it had ever received before that. That level of funding will allow the BTA to continue its excellent work. We should not forget that the BTA has had great success in attracting funding from the private sector, raising around £16 million this year.
Funding to the English tourist board has been maintained at its previously planned level, before allowing for a reallocation of funds to the Government's new sector challenge fund, giving a net figure of £9.9 million. That will allow the board to continue its important work on improving classification schemes, looking for ways to grow the domestic market, and helping the industry to improve its product.
It may sometimes appear to people in the north-west that we concentrate too much of our effort on attracting overseas visitors to London. My hon. Friend rightly raised that important point. We have indeed given extra money to the Focus London campaign, because research clearly shows that London is our greatest asset in attracting overseas visitors to this country. If Britain is to do well in the world tourism market, we need London to do well. It is the principal gateway to Britain.
However, once visitors have been motivated to come here, we can show what the country as a whole has to offer, and encourage them to travel around and stay elsewhere. In fact, the need to spread tourism more widely has been central to the campaign. I am sure the north-west will benefit greatly from that in the long term.
There is more to the Government's support for tourism than provision of funds. We have completed the programmes set out in "Tourism--Competing with the Best" nearly two years ago. With the Secretary of State's tourism advisory forum, which brings together representatives from the tourist boards, consumer groups, local government and the industry, including the Confederation of British Industry, we are now developing the next phase of our strategy.
The strategy will concentrate on six key areas: championing and raising the profile of tourism; increasing competitiveness; improving the quality of the tourism product; improving service quality; making marketing more effective; and managing the impact of tourism. It will provide a clear statement of our objectives for tourism, and will set an agenda for future action.
For the strategy to succeed, we need the participation of all the key players--central and local government, the tourist boards and all the many sectors of the industry must work together. We will make every effort to ensure that the new strategy fully involves the industry and meets the needs and concerns of all parts of the country, including the north-west.
Tourism is dominated by small enterprise, having around 250,000 small businesses. The Government recognise the key role played by small firms in the economy, providing new ideas, new services and new jobs. Small firms need stability, a growing economy, low inflation and low interest rates. Our policies provide an environment in which they can succeed.
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Our economy is in its fifth year of sustained growth, and we have had the longest period of low inflation for almost half a century. That is particularly beneficial to tourism, because those are the economic conditions in which leisure and business travel can thrive. Over the past 25 years, average real household disposable income has risen by 45 per cent.
The Budget includes measures to help small business: in addition to the reduction in the basic rate of income tax, corporation tax on small companies is cut to 23p, the business rate on small properties is frozen next year, and the VAT registration threshold is increased. After these changes, the UK tax rate on company profits up to £300,000 will be the lowest in the EU.
We have worked with other Government Departments significantly to reduce the burden of regulation on the industry. We want fewer, simpler, better regulations. To that end, we have simplified the rules on food hygiene, fire safety and electricity in the workplace, we have created a much less cumbersome regime on signposting, and we have extended opening hours for pubs. Our many deregulatory reforms are of particular benefit to small firms. All legislative proposals that affect them now include a small firms litmus test to show the impact of legislation on the sector.
We have been looking particularly closely at the EU working time directive. The Government continue to regard its imposition as unreasonable, and we intend to insist on changes to the treaty to ensure that social measures are never again imposed on the UK in this way.
Of course we must obey the law, but we are determined that there will be no gold plating of this, or any other, European regulation when it is implemented in the UK. We have been discussing with representatives of the industry the possible effects of the directive on their business, and will ensure that their views are fully taken into account. There are derogations for tourism in the directive, and we intend to ensure that the industry receives the fullest possible benefit. No one can doubt the
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We continue to resist the imposition of the social chapter, for the same reason. It is not difficult to see why the latest survey of the UK economy by the Organisation for European Co-operation and Development records a steady drop in structural unemployment, and concludes:
The majority of research evidence supports the Government's view that a national minimum wage would lead to considerable job losses, particularly among more vulnerable young and unskilled workers. Research by the Department for Education and Employment shows that a national minimum wage set at £4.15 per hour, as advocated by some trade unions, could cost 950,000 jobs nationally if pay differentials were half restored, and 1.8 million jobs if they were fully restored. It is, sadly, significant that the EU countries with a minimum wage and the social chapter, such as France and Spain, have very high levels of youth unemployment.
Our policies aim to deliver the maximum economic and social benefits from tourism. Tourism is a major source of jobs, both now and for the future. It is a major contributor to economic regeneration, and provides valuable income to our cultural heritage, which is so important to the quality of life. Government policies are designed to ensure that Britain strengthens its position as one of the world's leading tourism destinations, and the north-west is well placed to benefit from that continued success.
It being Two o'clock, the motion for the Adjournment of the House lapsed, without Question put.
"the better jobs and inflation record reflects the UK's greater exposure to market forces and competition."
The well-being of tourism depends on the kind of flexible labour market policies that the Government pursue, which the social chapter would destroy. A study by the United States Bureau of Labour Statistics shows that the UK has the second lowest non-wage labour costs in the EU, with only Denmark's being lower. The UK is the only G7 country to have seen a fall in the rate of non-wage labour costs since 1990.
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