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Mr. Graham Brady (Altrincham and Sale, West): Will the right hon. Gentleman give way?
Mr. Prescott: Not at the moment.
The House has often expressed grave concern about the deterioration of the quality of life in our countryside.The 1997 Rural Development Commission report on conditions in the countryside revealed that, after 18 years of Tory Government, 43 per cent. of villages had no post office, almost half had no school and three quarters had no bus services. Those were the consequences of 18 years of Tory Government for rural areas, according to that report. The Government have taken immediate action to deal with all those issues: we have tackled the quality of housing, provided for 1,800 rural buses and improved the local environment.
The Government have also taken a global lead on the environment by brokering for the first time, at Kyoto, a legally binding agreement to tackle climate change. We used our presidency of the European Union to develop policies to achieve that.
Mr. Oliver Letwin (West Dorset)
rose--
Mr. Prescott:
I am sorry, but the hon. Member for Altrincham and Sale, West (Mr. Brady) wanted to intervene earlier, so I must give way to him.
Mr. Brady:
The right hon. Gentleman referred to expansion of the green belt. Does he accept that there is
Mr. Prescott:
We created the concept of the green belt and we are proud of that. The issues that the hon. Gentleman mentioned will be tackled when we consider housing development and regional planning. We shall have to present some judgments on those matters--especially on brownfield sites--to the House. We have set a target for brownfield sites. The previous Administration talked about a 50 per cent. target for building on brownfield sites, yet their record was less than 45 per cent. Their target is now two thirds. We shall make changes and achieve the targets that we set. Our record contrasts vividly with that of the Opposition when they were in government.
We have integrated social and economic policy and conservation is a key theme in the Bill on the countryside, which gives added protection to sites of special scientific interest and to wildlife. When we came to power, more than a quarter of SSSIs had been seriously damaged by the previous Government's policies. In stark contrast, the Government have saved more than 100 SSSIs through our new approach to the road programme. The previous Administration would have destroyed more than 100 SSSIs through their road programme, yet now Opposition Members constantly ask, "What are the Government going to do about SSSIs?" We are unpicking the damage that their policies, especially their road programme, did to SSSIs. The advances help to improve our performance in many of the quality of life indicators that we have published, including those for birds and wetlands.
The new Bill will fulfil the aspirations of millions of people who want to enjoy the freedom of walking across some of our finest and wildest countryside. I remember the wonder that I felt as a boy on my first visit to the lake district. Its beauty has remained with me and fires my passion to preserve and enhance it for all to enjoy. I am proud that the Bill will grant a new right of access to 4 million acres of mountain, moor, heath and down to the many, not the few. That right will not be unfettered. We expect people to act responsibly when exercising it, just as landowners' rights must be balanced by their responsibility to manage their land effectively and sustainably.
The measures that I have outlined constitute the essential features of the Government's campaign for a better and fairer Britain and a better quality of life for all. We want a Britain that puts behind it the Tory years of centralisation, boom and bust and neglected public services. Our programme highlights the contrast between a Tory party that trampled on local government and a Labour party that liberates it; between a Tory party that neglected housing and a Labour party that protects leaseholding and expands housing expenditure; between a Tory party that presided over a fragmented public transport system and a Labour party that is improving it; between a Tory party that is the friend of bigotry and intolerance and a Labour party that believes that everyone has equal worth; and between a Tory party that believes that the open countryside should be the preserve of the rich and the few and a Labour party that makes access to the countryside a reality.
Mr. John Redwood (Wokingham):
I have declared my interests in the register, but I am not speaking on their behalf.
We all enjoyed the Deputy Prime Minister's contribution and it was good of him to arrive for the debate in the nick of time. We thought that he had fallen foul of his own congested transport system. He managed to prove us wrong on this occasion, although I am sure there will be others. Indeed, at a conference at which I was speaking only this week, the Labour representative was unable to turn up owing to the tremendous traffic congestion and transport chaos in London.
At business questions, the Leader of the House criticised the Opposition for not wishing to talk about agriculture during today's debate. I can reassure the House that we regard agriculture as crucial in the countryside. We have chosen the countryside as one of today's themes and, in recognition of how important we think it is, our shadow Cabinet agriculture spokesman, my hon. Friend the Member for South Suffolk (Mr. Yeo), will wind up the debate. He will have a great deal to say about the enormous damage that Labour is doing to the countryside in general and the agriculture industry in particular. We feel that Labour does not understand that a good agriculture industry is crucial to the maintenance of our landscape beyond the towns and cities, and my hon. Friend will stress that in his winding-up speech.
The Queen's Speech reveals that new Labour is guilty of deception under the Trade Descriptions Act 1968, for there is nothing new about this programme and nothing new about these Ministers. My young and active Conservative Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions team faces a--[Interruption.] Ministers should not object, as they are considerably older than the shadow DETR team. Everything is relative. My team faces tired, burnt out, worn out Ministers who already look as if they have been in office for more than a decade, and so quickly have they made mistakes and so rapidly have problems emerged that the state of the country is bad enough to imply that they have.
The Deputy Prime Minister is wallowing in the past: he is interested in the history of 10 or 15 years ago, and reluctant to talk of the future because he knows that his party has numerous problems in deciding what candidates it should field in important elections and what policies it should put before the House. The only remedies peddled by the Government to cure the nation's disorders are more laws and more taxes. Most other people in the country have already worked out that our problem is too much tax and too many laws, not a shortage of either. There is no vision in the Queen's Speech to renew great cities, to improve our schools, to sort out our hospitals or to solve the transport crisis that the Government are creating. All we get are old Labour ideas from old Labour figures dressed up from time to time in modernisers' clothes.
Mrs. Gwyneth Dunwoody (Crewe and Nantwich):
I am very interested in the right hon. Gentleman's
Mr. Redwood:
I talked about the quality of the members of our team and said that they are energetic and have many good ideas. I was contrasting an Opposition brimming with ideas to improve this country, with a tired old Government who do not know what they are doing and have lost their way. The Labour Government are gluttons for punishment. I am glad that the hon. Lady smiles at that; she knows that there is some truth in it.
In the midst of the fiasco of trying to choose a candidate for mayor of London, Labour has decided to re-enact the same scenes all over the country--it wants a Bill to bamboozle many more towns and cities into having executive mayors. Let me make a personal comment to the Secretary of State: he is ill-advised to embark on such a course and I ask him to pause and consider the pattern that is emerging. First, a Secretary of State is briefed against for not doing his job well. Then newspaper reports, from sources close to No. 10, say that he is under threat of losing his job. Then comes the dreaded phone call saying, "Alun, we want you to go to Wales and stay there. Frank, you would make a wonderful mayor--just give up the health job." The present Secretary of State has already experienced the first two parts of that worrying pattern: saturation briefing against his competence and question marks over his future.
If the Secretary of State passes such legislation, will he get a call telling him that Labour is desperate for a candidate it can trust to be mayor of Leeds or Liverpool? How many mayors does he think there will be under the proposal? Are there enough Cabinet members in disfavour to fill all those new slots? Can we be told who will be facing a merry Christmas in the Cabinet? We have a right to know. Is this Labour's new deal for Cabinet members--resign and be offered a job as a mayor?
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