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Mr. Jenkin: Whatever tensions have existed within a Government about the rules constraining Locate in Scotland, they have always been contained and resolved within government, within the constraints of collective Cabinet responsibility, behind which some fudges and discretions can be allowed to a Secretary of State for Scotland, who has all the powers and responsibilities of that post and can answer for policy in Scotland. The rules are a direct consequence of a new locus of power created in the Scottish Executive, outwith the collective responsibility of the Cabinet. The hon. Gentleman cannot have his cake and eat it: Scotland is losing out as a result of the devolution proposals.
Mr. Salmond: The concordat makes proposals not for after the devolved Parliament is established but for now, while collective responsibility still applies and the Secretary of State for Scotland retains the whole panoply of his powers and ability to fend off such attacks from his colleagues. If the Government do not want to behave in an anti-Scottish manner, as the previous Conservative Government did, all that they have to do is to stop the attacks on Locate in Scotland.
Mr. Fallon: Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
Mr. Salmond: I have given way very generously to Conservative Front Benchers. If the hon. Gentleman is persistent, he will catch Mr. Deputy Speaker's eye, but for the moment I want to make some progress.
It is a poor allegation to make of the Government that their pattern of behaviour in this matter is exactly the same as that of elements in the Conservative party over the past 16 years. I have heard some remarkable statements from the Conservative party in recent weeks. For example, on benefit cuts for single mothers, the Conservatives' main argument is that it is outrageous that the Labour Government should be doing exactly what they wanted to do in government.
The real agenda is that there has been resentment of the success of Locate in Scotland since its inception. DTI Ministers say that the emergence of new development bodies in England makes new arrangements necessary, but the real agenda is a repetition of the DTI's attempt, made many times over the past few years, to gain control of key inward investment decisions.
The DTI objective, as reported in the press--perhaps the Minister can deny it--is to gain "proportionality" throughout the country in the number of jobs attracted by inward investment. In that case, Scotland would get only half the inward investment jobs that have been achieved over the past five years. Locate in Scotland has managed to attract about 20 per cent. of the total inward investment in the United Kingdom. Proportionality would have cost Scotland about 7,500 jobs in the past year alone and would cost us about 30,000 jobs over the next five years if Locate in Scotland maintained its success rate.
Scottish Office Ministers have been complacent. I do not accuse them, or even the incoming DTI Ministers, of knowing that a plan, now re-emerging, had been
hatched in the past to threaten Locate in Scotland's ability to attract inward investment; but all expert opinion in Scotland, be it Neil Hood, James Scott or Alf Young, sees in the proposals a challenge to the success of Locate in Scotland.
Does the Minister--with the Scottish Minister for Education and Industry sitting beside her--believe that the allegations made about Locate in Scotland and the specific inward investment project in the north of England were no more than "black propaganda"? If so, what measures has she taken to bring the relevant people to book and to challenge Sir George Russell about statements that he made to the Select Committee on Trade and Industry?
Does the Minister accept that what I have cited is indeed a proposed concordat between the DTI, the Scottish Executive and the Welsh Assembly? Does she appreciate that it is difficult for us to understand how such a document can be produced before those bodies are established? There is an inconsistency in saying that an agreement will be made before the parties to that agreement have even come into being. Does she accept that that is a betrayal of the devolution process?
Does the Minister accept what I said about sections 10 and 12 of the document? Will Locate in Scotland lose the ability to promote Scotland directly to inward investors and will the responsibility be given in all cases, regardless of whether they are specific to Scotland, to the Invest in Britain Bureau? Does section 12 extend the present guidelines beyond selective assistance, to all parts of the package, and especially to those parts in which Locate in Scotland has been so spectacularly successful in recent years?
Does the Minister accept that there is a genuine reaction in Ireland from the Irish Development Agency, a body which Conservative Front Benchers might consider to be one of the most successful in Europe and that has at its disposal powers that Locate in Scotland will not have, even when there is a devolved Scottish Parliament? That reaction, as reflected in the Irish press, shows that Locate in Scotland's major rivals for investment projects see an opportunity in the DTI's plans.
Can all the concern in Scotland be based on nothing more than rumour and speculation or is there real concern in the inward investment agency itself that the DTI plans go far further than merely making agreements between Locate in Scotland and the new agencies emerging in England, and strike at the heart of Locate in Scotland's success in recent years?
Can the Minister confirm the existence of a letter from the President of the Board of Trade to the Secretaries of State for Scotland and for Wales, laying out the plans in stark detail and making it clear that she expects the industrial development unit in the DTI to take control of key inward investment decisions?
If such a letter exists, will the Minister place a copy in the Library, as I intend to do with a copy of the concordat? Does she accept that there are real concerns in Scotland about a betrayal of the devolution process, amounting to the hamstringing of Locate in Scotland's ability to attract inward investment?
Has the Minister noted the delighted faces on the Tory Front Bench because her Government are apparently bringing into being something that many elements in the Conservative party, including many of the most
anti-Scottish elements sitting on that Front Bench, wanted to do for many years? Does she not find it extremely ironic that her Government are introducing policies which even that anti-Scottish Conservative party were unable to push through in the past 18 years? Above all, can she not see that the opportunity to create new development agencies throughout England is an opportunity to release them from the control of the dead hand of the DTI and offer them the same success and opportunities that Locate in Scotland has enjoyed in the past 17 years?
In an attempt to reflect some of the attitudes that have prevailed in Scotland in the past 17 years, I should like the Minister to consider a report by Alf Young which appeared on the front page of yesterday's edition of The Herald. He wrote:
Mr. Ian Stewart (Eccles):
I am grateful, Mr. Deputy Speaker, that I have been allowed to make my first formal contribution on such an important issue. It is sad to note that not a single Conservative Back Bencher has seen fit to come to the Chamber to take part in this important debate.
I believe that tradition is an important anchor of our culture and I am conscious of the fact that it is the convention of the House that hon. Members should keep their first contribution light and complimentary to their constituency and predecessors. I intend to adhere at least to the spirit of that convention.
The constituency of Eccles consists of seven areas--Swinton, Pendlebury, Eccles, Winton, Barton and Irlam and Cadishead. Each has its own distinctive history and features. My right hon. and hon. Friends will be relieved to know that throughout my speech I shall refer to all those areas collectively as the constituency of Eccles.
I am proud to make the first maiden speech for the Eccles constituency for 33 years. My predecessor was Joan Lestor, who represented the seat with distinction between 1987 and May 1997. She had previously represented the constituency of Eton and Slough between 1966 and 1983. After a four-year sabbatical, she returned to the House with her maiden speech well behind her, and she remarked that after 17 years of Mars bars--the factory that manufactures them is based in Slough--she hoped to
have 17 years of Eccles cakes. She had 10 good years, and I hope that she thoroughly enjoyed our local speciality. I am pleased that she is now Baroness Lestor of Eccles, and I am confident that she will make a significant contribution in the House of Lords before she votes for that institution's democratic reform.
In her work with children, Joan Lestor epitomised the caring face of the Labour party and in her work for overseas development she represented our internationalist face. The Government's recently published, and welcomed, White Paper on overseas development bears proud testimony to her work as shadow Minister for Overseas Development before her retirement from the Labour shadow Cabinet in July 1996. I am pleased to say that, in common with Joan, I have an interest in both those subjects. Although I met Joan on only a couple of occasions before my selection, I have always held her in high regard and I am sure that the House will join me in wishing her well in another place.
The Eccles constituency is the geographic centre of the three seats in the metropolitan borough of Salford. The constituency is a suburban, industrial, working-class area on the north bank of the Manchester ship canal, due west of Manchester city centre. The boundary changes at this year's election significantly changed the shape of the seat. Its centre of gravity has moved outwards, south-west, away from the inner city, following the loss of the ward of Weaste and Seedley to the seat of my hon. Friend the Member for Salford (Ms Blears). It gained the more outlying wards of Irlam and Cadishead, where I have lived for 35 years, from the constituency of my hon. Friend the Member for Worsley (Mr. Lewis).
My hon. Friend the Member for Salford has highlighted some of the rich heritage of the metropolitan district of Salford which is also shared by my constituency. In addition to the examples that she gave, I can tell the House that Eccles has been at the forefront of design and technological development. For example, at Barton in Eccles we had the world's first combined aqueduct and rail viaduct over a road. Now we have the largest area of development land available in Greater Manchester at the Barton special economic zone.
Eccles also has a proud cultural heritage. The artist L. S. Lowry lived in the town of Pendlebury in my constituency. His appeal as a graphic illustrator of the grit and wit of Eccles and Salford people endures today, as demonstrated by the record price paid last week for a Lowry sold at Sotheby's. It is well known that he painted matchstick men and matchstick cats and dogs. It is possible that, if he were alive today, an urban fox or two would make it into his landscapes, and in the Eccles constituency they would be well protected. It is definitely true, however, that, if he were painting the same landscapes of my city today, much of the heavy industry and mills would have disappeared, only to be replaced by derelict corner shops and holes in the road, the size of craters.
Hon. Members should be aware that the roads in my constituency are among the oldest and most used industrial roads in the world. I see it as part of my job to ensure that the Government understand the problems faced by areas such as mine, which have suffered horrendous industrial decline and job losses in the past 25 years or more.
Having said that, Salford and Eccles folk are resilient and fine people. They have had the wit and ingenuity to devise appropriate plans that will reverse the worst of the
industrial devastation and the resultant breakdown in social cohesion which we experienced under the Conservatives.
My city and my constituents need the Government to do what the previous Government failed to do--acknowledge our problems and offer encouragement and backing to the city council and other partners who are working so hard towards a better environment and a more secure future for all our people. I congratulate Salford city council on making job creation its No. 1 priority. I fully support its strategy of partnership and I am working closely with it to attract inward investment, particularly to the manufacturing sector.
In the past quarter of a century, my constituency has suffered many industrial closures and job losses. The British Steel works at Irlam, the Royal Ordnance factory at Patricroft, Agecroft colliery, the power station at Swinton, and many more have shut their gates.
The male unemployment rate is 6.2 per cent. and female unemployment is 2 per cent. One third of all households are council tenants. The level of car ownership is 10 per cent. below the national average, at 57.6 per cent. My constituents warmly welcome the Government's initiatives to improve public transport and implement an integrated transport service and they look forward to the extension of the successful metrolink from Manchester to Eccles. In the 1991 census, the proportion of residents reporting long-term illness was 15.9 per cent.--higher than the 12 per cent. average in England. The proportion of lone-parent families, at 24.3 per cent., is higher than the UK average of 19.1 per cent. I warmly welcome the Government's planned extension of child care, but I also want there to be adequate benefit levels.
In the statistical jargon, my constituency is under-represented in the professional, managerial and technical classes, but please do not think that we have placidly accepted that situation. Salford city council and other organisations have had some success in fighting back, with a strategy based on collaboration and partnership. In line with that, a key interest of mine is education and training, and I want to help the local authority, the Employment Service and other agencies to achieve their continuing aims of boosting the aspirations of the people of Eccles, raising their achievement levels and improving access to jobs and training. I am excited about the opportunities offered by the new deal and confident that my constituents will gain skills, confidence and real employment prospect from Labour's policies--by God, people in the disadvantaged areas of my community and in others parts of the country need a way out of what we, in a sanitised way, call social exclusion but is more commonly known as poverty. Those people need and deserve a measure of positive prosperity and a safe environment in which to live.
There are two main aspects to inward investment--macro-economic issues and micro-economic arguments--but we must also remind ourselves of the importance of generating indigenous investment. I shall confine my comments to the extent of my personal experience of and involvement in working collaboratively with my local authority, the Salford city council, Salford university, Salford further education college and other agencies to secure investment in our city in general and in my constituency of Eccles in particular.
The figures on inward investment provided by the House of Commons Library show that the north-west of England, together with some other English regions, has not gained any of the large-scale inward investment projects since 1993. In 1996-97, we had 40 projects, just short of Wales's total of 45; and the investment in those projects safeguarded 2,256 jobs in Wales and 1,929 jobs in the north-west, so the figures are similar. However, there is a crucial difference in the outcomes in the two regions. In Wales, the investment led to nearly 10,397 new jobs, but in the north-west it brought only 1,402. It is the quality and not the volume of inward investment projects that is vital to the development and reskilling of our industries and our work force.
That is not an argument to deprive any other region of its success, but it is a call for the Government to adopt a more sensitive and strategic approach to the needs of bodies in the English regions that are trying to do their best for their communities in the absence of a strategic tier of regional government. A north-west regional development agency will go some way toward helping my region to champion its attractiveness and strengths to potential investors. Having said that, I welcome the statement of the Minister of State, Department of Trade and Industry, my hon. Friend the Member for Makerfield (Mr. McCartney), that the Government are working toward "common UK guidelines" for inward investment, which will
Since becoming a Member of Parliament, I have worked hard with Salford city council to generate and create "a Salford package" with other social partners. I have been negotiating with representatives of major international investors from one of the more stable areas of south-east Asia, with a view to arranging a trade delegation to Salford next spring. That early experience has taught me that English areas such as Salford are at a disadvantage when it comes to grant aid and assistance, which tends to negate any arguments about best quality. If the investor is enticed to an area that can offer more attractive and all-important start-up grants and packages, that might suck existing employment from the disadvantaged area to the more advantaged area. In the long run, that cannot be to the benefit of our country as a whole, as it raises questions of fairness, equity, waste, economic planning, social exclusion and social cohesion and, indeed, democracy and governance.
On an unusual, but related, matter, I am alarmed that few members of the business community or of the public have recognised the importance of addressing what has become known as the millennium time bomb. In simple terms,
that is the breakdown as we reach 2000 of current computer systems, because their processors cannot cope with dates falling after the turn of the century. That might lead to disasters throughout the world. I shall comment only on our Government's action in that respect and why it has potential implications for inward investment in the UK.
"Daewoo, the industrial conglomerate reportedly seeking a site for an 800-job glass plant in Scotland despite the economic circumstances engulfing its native South Korea, rejected Scotland as a location for the same project only last year.
If it is the Government's objective to neuter Locate and drag it down to the same level as the less effective inward investment agencies, is there not a real risk that the end result of that centralising process will not just be the loss of jobs from Scotland, or the transfer of them to the north of England and elsewhere, but the loss of jobs from the United Kingdom? The beneficiaries will be locations in France, Ireland and elsewhere in Europe. That is what will happen if one of the major contributors to inward investment has its activities hamstrung by the misguided, anti-Scottish actions of the DTI.
Instead, after bungled negotiations by the Department of Trade and Industry's industrial development unit which infuriated senior players in the Scottish inward investment effort, Daewoo decided to take its planned investment to France."
11.31 am
"address the concern that public money should not be used to finance competition between different parts of the country."--[Official Report, 20 November 1997; Vol. 301, c. 281.]
I agree with that statement. I do not want a wasteful Dutch auction between regions--I just want a level playing field. However, I am keen to participate in the redefinition of the shape of the playing field, as I am a firm believer in the need for a strategic tier of regional government in England. Such an authority would draw down powers from Whitehall and would operate according to the principle that local services should be decided and delivered at the most local level possible. That would reinforce the role of unitary local authorities, but allow for a regional body with responsibility for strategic issues such as the environment, transport, economic development and, of course, investment.
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