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Mr. McWalter: Does my hon. Friend agree that the privatisation of the Post Office poses as great a threat to rural postal services as the privatisation of buses posed to rural bus services?
Mr. Davies: Yes, that is a key point. Even the right hon. Member for Henley (Mr. Heseltine) performed a U-turn on that policy. People in rural communities were greatly concerned about any proposed privatisation of the Post Office, so the Government will not go ahead with it.
The privatisation of bus services had an appalling impact on the environment and on competition. Small regional bus companies were ejected from the marketplace by larger companies, which initially offered discount pricing and many more routes, but then, having forced the smaller companies out of business, they abused their monopoly position by reducing services, the number of buses and the quality and training of drivers and increasing fares. The net impact outside London was that the quality and quantity of bus services plummeted. Only in London, where the market is more controlled, did bus patronage increase. I am glad that my hon. Friend the Member for Hemel Hempstead (Mr. McWalter) has given me an opportunity to restate the Government's commitment to rural buses, as demonstrated by the additional £170 million that they have provided.
Transport was one of the main themes of yesterday's debate, but it is appropriate to refer to that subject in the context of trade and industry. In 1996, the previous Government issued a Green Paper that set out many good ideas, including a presumption in favour of the introduction of congestion charging. The Opposition have changed their mind--perhaps they got cold feet or gave way to reckless opportunism--but the Government have sensibly decided to go ahead with that policy. The Conservatives also invented the fuel duty escalator, which Labour inherited. Now, it is clear that any marginal proceeds from that will be hypothecated for other transport purposes, as will revenue from congestion charging. Unlike the Opposition, the Labour Government are committed to marginal hypothecation of revenues from congestion charges and any above-inflation increase in fuel taxation.
The public will give a warm welcome to that policy and to the extra £700 million committed to local transport initiatives, £600 million to the tube, £170 to rural bus services and £50 million announced last week for London bus services. Under new Labour, there has been an increase of 1,000 in the number of trains running every day. Britain is back on the move because we are investing in public services and public transport.
Mr. Robert Syms (Poole):
Aside from their constitutional vandalism, the Government's theme so far has been to be interfering, busybodying and nannyish in their treatment of both the British people and British business, and this year's Queen's Speech displays the same themes as the preceding two. We have a Government who believe that Whitehall knows best, that the Government know best and that ordinary people do not.
In this year's Queen's Speech, people wanted a common-sense revolution. I am pleased that the Conservatives have advanced common-sense proposals and policies: I have always believed ideas are the foundation of any political debate, so I am sure that we shall have some interesting debates this Session. In the number of Bills they plan to introduce, the Government appear to have bitten off too much, so I am also sure that we shall have the same problems at the end of this Session as we had at the end of the previous Session, with guillotines imposed and Bills pushed through.
I have spent most of my life working in business, mostly small business, and I agree with the hon. Member for Croydon, Central (Mr. Davies): business does not always speak with one voice. Larger businesses, and the Confederation of British Industry, do not have the same agenda as small firms. If we are to become a successful knowledge-based, flexible economy, much of that must come from the bottom end, as it were, of the business environment--from smaller businesses rather than larger institutions.
When there is any question of social legislation and social change, it is important to listen to the voice of the small people as much as that of the big battalions, although the big battalions may be better organised, better at lobbying, better at attending dinners and better at putting their point of view. I have often heard Ministers pray in aid the CBI, but I do not think that it necessarily represents the views of all business, especially business at the bottom of the market.
The Government's record over the past two years has been one of implementing far more regulations--2,700, in fact. According to Chantrey Vellacott's business regulation index, of which we heard earlier, that is a 20 per cent. increase over those two years. Running a business is difficult. A business manager must deal with people, and they will not always be the easiest people; he
must also deal with the banks. An increasing burden of regulation will consume a disproportionate amount of time and effort, especially in the case of small firms. Business managers must attend training sessions to ensure that they will be able to apply regulations and law correctly, and while they are doing that, they are not earning a living. They are not going out and securing more customers, and they are not providing the services that they are supposed to provide.
Many small business men in Poole tell me that they are spending more and more time trying to comply with regulations and red tape, and less and less time running their businesses. I admit that they made the same complaint under the last Government, who did not do enough to restrain the natural inclination of Governments to regulate and interfere; but I think that, if anything, the situation is worsening. We should be careful. At the end of the day, people must run their businesses, make a profit and pay their workers, and any burdens that detract from their ordinary, everyday activities will create many problems.
I will not list all the Government changes, but I agree with what was said by my right hon. Friend the Member for Sutton Coldfield (Sir N. Fowler), particularly his comments about PEPs and TESSAs. Any party, when it takes office, is tempted to change or rebrand, and the present Government have changed many things that were working quite well purely for the sake of it. That is a great pity. The key is to restrain all that regulation and red tape, and throughout the current Session, Opposition Members will do all that we can to draw attention to the costs to small business and, indeed, to the country as a whole of an over-regulating, busybody Government.
At the beginning of the debate, the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry referred to the general economic situation. As usual, he attacked the Conservatives for some of the measures that we had to introduce in the last Government in order to get the economy into shape. Listening to the right hon. Gentleman, one could almost believe that everything had started in 1997, but in fact the recovery from the last economic downturn began in 1992. The present Government were fortunate enough to inherit a golden legacy of five years of growth and falling unemployment, along with an increase in tax revenue as a result of the growing economy. [Interruption.] I think that the record speaks for itself. We have heard today about the creation of 700,000 jobs since the election, and we welcome that; but it follows a trend that had already been established.
The present Government, like the last Government, are succeeding vis-a-vis Europe simply because we devote less of our gross domestic product to public expenditure than other countries, and try not to tax as much. The rest of Europe has not grown as much over the past 20 years because of the temptation both to spend more and to tax more. If I have a worry, it is that the Government have embarked on a course that will start to take us towards European levels of taxation and spending. Going in that direction will affect our economic performance, employment and all those other things.
Mr. Geraint Davies:
Does the hon. Gentleman accept that his leader and the shadow Chancellor predicted a deep and damaging recession in Britain? They blamed it on the Government, but it was rooted in the south-east Asian financial collapse. Such global economic turbulence
Mr. Syms:
Sometimes in the Chamber, we suffer from selective memory. I left school in the 1970s, when Britain was, to some extent, a basket case. I remember the previous Labour Chancellor having to turn back at the airport because of the International Monetary Fund and problems with Budgets.
There were world problems. Over 18 years, the British economy did immeasurably better. I do not say that all the Conservative party's judgments were right. We got some things wrong--perhaps the exchange rate mechanism was one--but the key point is that, overall, British economic performance, which pre-1979 was lagging behind that of our competitors, is at least measuring up to their performance. As we go into the next century, we may catch up many of the countries of continental Europe, which grew rather more in the 1950s and 1960s and which have had problems in recent years. Therefore, I do not accept the hon. Gentleman's argument.
When a party is in office for 18 years, it is easy to pick out one element of economic policy in that period. Eighteen years is a long time, as those on the Government Front Bench will no doubt testify. There may have been high interest rates, or particular difficulties, but, overall, impartial observers would say that the previous Government did make a positive contribution to the economy. I hope that the Government will continue that. I hope that we have a successful economic legacy and that we go forward with great success into the next century. I want my country to succeed, whether I sit on the Opposition or Government Benches. I believe in my country.
The key thing is that we have to be careful not to over-regulate, to over-tax and to go to European levels of taxation and interference. The Government have raised £40 billion more in taxation--some taxes by stealth, others more overtly--which works out at £1,500 per tax-paying individual. It is important to dwell on that. I believe that it is better to leave money in people's pockets. On the whole, individuals, families and businesses are better at spending money. The Government have to do some things, which we all accept, such as running the national health service, but, by and large, striking the right balance between taxation and the amount of gross national product that is taken by the Government and by individuals is important. There is a worrying trend in that regard.
The key thing is to keep the economy going. Opposition Members will express concern about the rising tax burden--I notice that the Gracious Speech contains no mention of Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development statistics on that burden--and ensure that regulation is kept to a minimum. With the Opposition doing their job and the Government perhaps listening a bit more, particularly to small business men, the country may not do too badly over the next 10 or 15 years.
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