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Mr. Mike Gapes (Ilford, South): Will the right hon. and learned Gentleman confirm that the xenophobic policy that he is now putting forward, and on which his party fought the general election, led to a humiliating electoral defeat for the Conservative party? Is he looking forward to repeating that on 10 June?
Mr. Howard: I am certainly looking forward to the results on 10 June and I suggest that the hon. Gentleman holds his fire until we have seen them.
The Government's approach to the vital questions facing Europe is a million miles away from the mainstream views of the British public. To coin a phrase, it is time for a change in Europe. That change will never come from Labour, and the Liberal Democrats have given up all pretence of defending Britain's interests. Only the Conservatives believe that Britain should be in Europe, not run by Europe. Only the Conservatives will work for the kind of Europe that the British people want.
Dr. Godman:
The right hon. and learned Gentleman does not even speak as a representative of a British party.
Mr. Deputy Speaker (Sir Alan Haselhurst):
Order. The hon. Gentleman should not interrupt the debate from a sedentary position.
5.32 pm
Ms Rosie Winterton (Doncaster, Central): I am grateful for the opportunity to speak in this debate, because I wish to address what my right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary called the people's Europe and the role
that the European Union has played in economic regeneration and in creating jobs, especially in the area that I represent. It may be helpful to give some background information about my constituency and South Yorkshire.
Some 30 years ago, the South Yorkshire economy was thriving and the heavy industries of steel and coal were buoyant. Tool and railway engineering companies were large employers and unemployment was well below the national average, while male wages were well above. Indeed, they were among the highest in the country. However, over the past 30 years those traditional industries have collapsed.
In 1984, South Yorkshire had 29 working collieries, which employed more than 30,000 people. In 1998, there were only three collieries, which employed 820 people. That is the scale of the reduction. Between 1977 and 1995, the number of industrial jobs fell by 60 per cent and more than 177,000 jobs were lost. It is true that some 46,500 jobs were created in service industries, but overall the total work force was reduced by a quarter. A total of 132,000 jobs were lost.
In 1997, unemployment in South Yorkshire was 10 per cent., compared with a national average of 7.1 per cent. The effect on local communities is enormous. Many people are surprised that this once-thriving area now qualifies for objective 1 status, but it does: the effect of unemployment has been devastating.
I have a letter from Nigel Pattinson, the head teacher of Armthorpe school in my constituency. The school recently made a promotional video to highlight the school's successes and the achievements of its pupils. It was shown to sixth formers, and Mr. Pattinson writes that, afterwards, one of them said:
Yet much of what has been achieved has been accomplished despite the opposition of the previous Conservative Administration. They refused to introduce any special domestic programmes to help coal mining regions during the main pit closure period after 1984. Europe, on the other hand, listened to our problems and set up the RECHAR programme in 1989. However, even after that programme was established, the Tories tried to prevent the benefits that it brought from reaching mining areas by trying to claw back, from local authorities, the funding that was made available.
The European Commission, lead by Commissioner Bruce Millan, backed the mining areas against the Tory Government, and threatened to block all EU spending unless the Government changed the rules. Eventually, the Tory Government had to back down and European funding became genuinely additional.
However, making the European Union real to people is a big task. We need to make them understand what European funding has done towards meeting their needs.
People in South Yorkshire want to know what Europe is doing for them in terms of providing jobs, because that is what they are interested in. I shall give some specific examples of how European funding has directly benefited people in my area.
Between them, the Lakeside development project in central Doncaster and the Junction 4 employment project in Armthorpe in Doncaster have received almost £7 million from the European regional development fund. They are expected to generate more than 8,500 jobs. Local companies have benefited from the Doncaster technology centre, and more than £200,000 in European fundinghas been received. Companies such as Noel Village (Steel Founder) are accessing, through the export challenge programme, western European countries for export markets. Young people are being trained through a foyer scheme that received more than £0.5 million in funding from Europe.
Crime is being reduced through a CCTV scheme in the town centre, for which £200,000 has been received from Europe. The Doncaster College for the Deaf, a great project, received £93,000 to support residential students and promote interviewing, teamwork and personal skills, thus helping people with disabilities to get into work and live independently. In Armthorpe, European funding helped to set up a community centre, providing a focus for a community that had been devastated by pit closures. Since 1991, Doncaster alone has received £38 million in European structural funds.
Looking towards the future, we have the prospect of funding from the objective 1 programme. Approximately £90 million a year will be available over six years. It is vital that funding is used to meet the needs of local people. My right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary referred to a people's Europe, driven by people and responsive to their needs. People set the priorities, and consultation must be thorough and systematic.
I can recommend a consultation method used in Armthorpe. Instead of simply publishing a questionnaire in the local paper and hoping that people would fill it in, Armthorpe community enterprise, locally known as ACE, joined with Armthorpe school to involve pupils in saying what would improve their job prospects and the quality of life in the community. That resulted in much greater participation than ever before, creating a real sense of involvement in the use of vital European funds among local people, particularly the young.
The results of the consultation will be published soon, and I invite my right hon. Friends the Foreign Secretary and the Minister of State to come to Armthorpe to see the results. They would be able to see what happens in practice when we go down to a lower level to involve local people.
Mr. Denis MacShane (Rotherham):
They could see the great brass bands, too.
Ms Winterton:
And the great brass bands.
Mr. Robin Cook:
They could go on a race day.
Ms Winterton:
Indeed; the attractions are mounting by the minute.
Matched funding is vital to the success of the objective 1 programme.
Miss McIntosh:
The hon. Lady is giving us a picturesque overview, and she will be aware that North Yorkshire is not a million miles from South Yorkshire. Some of my constituents have benefited substantially from EU funds in the past, particularly 5b funds and the Konver programme. The farming community is in a time of crisis. I hope that the hon. Lady will also plead the case for North Yorkshire with her Front-Bench colleagues so that the whole of Yorkshire can be happy.
Ms Winterton:
The hon. Lady is well capable of pleading her own case, but lifting the beef ban is one thing that will make people happier.
The Government, in contrast to the previous Administration, are already preparing so that areas such as South Yorkshire will be able to receive the full benefit of objective 1 funding. With matched funding, the establishment of the coalfields enterprise fund and the coalfields regeneration trust has shown the Government's willingness to ensure that we can use the maximum available resources from objective 1 funding, and assurances have been given about, for example, the single regeneration budget.
"We're only kids from a pit village, you know. You seem to expect us to do better than we're meant to."
The head teacher adds:
"I can't tell you what I feel about this . . . and how damaging it is to these youngsters in reaching their potential."
That shows the scale of the devastation suffered by such communities. However, membership of the European Union has allowed South Yorkshire to access funds and establish projects that try to tackle the real problems created by mass unemployment and reverse the climate of despair that goes hand in hand with it.
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