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Miss Geraldine Smith (Morecambe and Lunesdale): I am grateful for the opportunity to make my maiden speech and, as the newly elected Member of Parliament for Morecambe and Lunesdale, it is wholly appropriate that I do so in this important debate. My constituency is made up of the seaside resorts of Morecambe and Heysham, the Skerton area of Lancaster, the old railway town of Carnforth and rural communities stretching to the Yorkshire and Cumbrian borders.
Because of its geographical location, the constituency is widely known as the gateway to the Lakes, which is a fitting description as most of the Lakeland tourist locations are within easy reach. The area is one of outstanding natural beauty and superb scenic views, with abundant wildlife.
Morecambe bay is one of the most important sites in Europe for migrating birds and harbours more curlew, oyster catcher, turnstone and migrant waders than any other site in Britain. It holds more than a quarter of the entire British breeding population of the bittern, one of our rarest and most threatened birds. On a clear day, the superb backdrop of the Lake district makes Morecambe bay one of the most picturesque areas in the world for bird watching. The sun setting over the bay is something special to behold and I urge all hon. Members to avail themselves of the opportunity of the summer recess to see it for themselves. Please come and see my constituency--it is wonderful. The close proximity of the historic city of Lancaster, whose virtues were extolled at great length by my hon. Friend the Member for Lancaster and Wyre (Mr. Dawson) in his maiden speech, enhances the area's potential to become one of Europe's leading tourist destinations.
I pay tribute to my predecessor, Sir Mark Lennox-Boyd, who took his seat in 1979 and served the constituency as its Member of Parliament for 18 years. Among his many achievements during his long service, he had the distinction of being appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary to the then Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher. Throughout his parliamentary career, Sir Mark earned a reputation for honesty, integrity and decency. He accepted his defeat at the general election with the good grace and dignity of a true gentleman. I am sure that the House will join me in thanking him for his service and wishing him well for the future.
Earlier, I described my constituency as an area of great natural beauty, which it is. It is also my home. I am not only fortunate enough to live there, but I have the honour and privilege of serving the people of the area as their Member of Parliament.
There is a less attractive side to my constituency. Some parts of it host the highest rates of unemployment in Lancashire. In the west end and central Morecambe and in Skerton, large numbers of people live in appalling accommodation. In these areas, poverty, ill health, anti-social behaviour, drug and alcohol abuse and crime abound. After 18 years of Conservative Government, splendour and squalor sit side by side in my constituency.
Like so many other seaside resorts, Morecambe's problems began with the decline in the holiday trade. In Morecambe, this was more intense and persistent than elsewhere. Over the years, many of the resort's attractions were progressively run down and closed. At the same time, 70 per cent. of its hotel and guest house
accommodation fell out of holiday use. This massive stock of redundant hotels and boarding houses--which became suitable only for letting as cheap houses of multiple occupation, offering grossly inadequate standards of accommodation--acted as a magnet to the urban poor, the unemployed from towns and cities in close proximity such as Lancaster, Blackburn, Burnley and Preston.
The result is that once prosperous areas of Morecambe now have high concentrations of social and economic deprivation. They have a largely transient population, including the long-term unemployed, single-parent families, resettled mental health patients, old-age pensioners and single homeless persons. The strain that this has placed on welfare and social services, schools, doctors and police has reached breaking point. The cycle of decline that is blighting the lives of so many of my constituents must be broken, but it will be broken only when we find a lasting cure for long-term mass unemployment.
Despite enormous difficulties, my constituents--and, in particular, the business community--have shown a remarkable degree of resilience. They and I share a determination to regenerate the area and restore its prosperity. That regeneration process has already begun. By taking advantage of derelict land grants and single regeneration budget funding, public and private partnerships have been formed and new investment attracted into the area.
The signs of urban and economic renewal are there for all to see, but much more needs to be done. It is essential for the future prosperity of the area that the tourism industry is rebuilt. It is vital that all those interested in the industry work in harmony and co-operation and not in competition with one another. It is equally important that they seek to co-operate with other resorts around the country. I welcome the proposal from my hon. Friend the Member for Blackpool, South (Mr. Marsden) to set up a seaside resorts committee of Back-Bench Members. This would give hon. Members the opportunity to display the level of co-operation that will be needed if the British tourism industry is to be revitalised.
We must ensure that the urgent need for renewal of the infrastructure of our resorts is strongly pressed both here and in Europe. Although the problems of social and economic decay are as acute in many resorts as they are in towns and cities, they go largely unrecognised both here and in Europe. We live in a country rich in history and abounding with natural beauty. We must ensure that we have the infrastructure to match those priceless assets so that the tourism industry can compete with its counterparts in Europe and elsewhere.
Earlier in my speech, I referred to the importance that I place on the elimination of mass unemployment and in closing I wish to elaborate briefly on that. Mass unemployment, poverty pay and resultant welfare dependency are choking the life out of the economy. The current waste of billions of pounds of taxpayers' money to keep people in the poverty trap or on the dole is inhibiting our ability to develop the country's infrastructure, properly to fund the NHS and education and to restore the value of the old age pension. The ever-increasing cost of welfare dependency is hampering economic growth. That increase must be halted and reversed.
The Government must develop economic, industrial and education policies that support the creation of an inclusive stakeholder society. They must consult and
co-operate with industry and ensure that incentives are provided to encourage companies to adopt strategies that invest in people, promote training and maximise employment. They must encourage long-term investment and discourage short-term profiteering.
Mr. Quentin Davies (Grantham and Stamford):
We have heard three excellent maiden speeches today, and I would like to tell the hon. Members who made them how much I enjoyed listening to them. The hon. Member for Morecambe and Lunesdale (Miss Smith) waxed lyrical in a purple passage about Morecambe bay, and I felt that I had made a mistake in never having visited it. One learns a lot about different parts of the country from such speeches, which the House appreciates.
I was struck also by the fact that all three hon. Members said gallant things about their predecessors despite being members of different parties. One of the attractive aspects of this place--which is a civilised legislature, despite occasions when outside observers might be tempted to think otherwise--is that hon. Members can and do from time to time, when they feel that it is deserved, pay generous tributes both to the human qualities and to the service in this place of those with whom they disagree politically. All three hon. Members have shown themselves to be fully in that tradition of gallantry and courtesy in this House, and it is in that spirit that I am sure that all my right hon. and hon. Friends will welcome them here. We wish them the very best for their parliamentary careers--albeit we might not have the same hopes for the length of their careers as they may entertain for themselves.
I do not think that any of my remarks today about the Budget and the Finance Bill will have anything to do with my outside interests, but in case anybody supposes that they do, I refer hon. Members to my interests which are in the register.
There are moments in this House when one must use plain language, and this is one. This is an extraordinarily bad Budget, and an extraordinarily bad Finance Bill. It is a devastatingly bad Budget, and a devastatingly bad Finance Bill. It is so flawed that it is difficult to know where to begin an analysis of it. There are at least four fundamental fallacies on which its structure is based and these must be explored in the regrettably short time that Parliament will have to consider this important measure.
The first thing that strikes one about the Bill and the Budget from which it flows is that the Chancellor's prescription for the economy is in fundamental
contradiction to his diagnosis of the state of the economy. In my time in this place--or in the time in which I have taken an interest in public affairs--I can remember no Budget in which there was such a fundamental and obvious contradiction between the diagnosis and the prescription. According to the Chancellor's Red Book, the economy is in danger of overheating: the output gap is said to be close to zero, and that may well be the case. The service sector is said to be overheating more than manufacturing--and anecdotal evidence would suggest that that is right--and consumption is said to be increasing this year at an unsustainable rate of 4.5 per cent. If that is the rate of growth of consumer spending, and if it is likely to be even greater as a result of windfalls from the demutualisation of the building societies, it is indeed an unsustainable rate of increase.
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