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The Economic Secretary to the Treasury (John Healey): That is because they have a good MP.
Ms Atherton: My hon. Friend is very kind.
Another issue exercising many of my constituents also has to do with VAT—this time as it applies to church repairs. The saga has been a long one, and most hon. Members will have heard from constituents about it. The database that my office holds of constituents who have written to ask that the Government listen to their proposals about VAT on church repairs contains a list of names that runs into four figures. I suspect that that reflects Cornwall's strength of community feeling and its tradition of church attendance. People are very closely involved in their communities and parishes. The county has some fantastic churches, but they cost a huge amount of money to repair. They are a source of great pride to the community. They grew out of the mining communities and had to be big, because they had congregations of many thousands of people. Now they may serve only a few hundred people in each village, but they are still an important part of the community. I am grateful that Ministers listened on that point, too.
I also represent many pensioners. I was out in my constituency last weekend and an older pensioner said to me, "I want you to tell them up there that for the first time in my life I have some money left in my purse at the end of the week. Now we are going to have an extra £100 and I am absolutely delighted." Older pensioners are often women who did not have pension provision when they were younger. The extra help that they will get from the Government is welcomed. They do not want the extra added to their pension, as the Opposition propose. They like having a lump sum, whether in the form of the winter fuel payment or the extra £100 to address council tax rises, because it gives them flexibility. The extra £100 was warmly welcomed in my constituency. In a debate on my local radio station, pensioners said clearly that it was what they wanted.
Sir Robert Smith (West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine) (LD): Does the hon. Lady agree that
pensioners are welcoming a payment that will be paid to them all, without any need to fill in any application forms? As the hon. Member for Wycombe (Mr. Goodman) pointed out, the problem with some Government pension policy is that many people—by definition, the poorest pensioners, because they were the ones who were eligible for pension credit—do not claim pension credit and so miss out, whereas if the sum were part of their pension they would be guaranteed it.
Ms Atherton: That is the problem. There are two options. One either gives a small amount to everyone, or one targets the money on those pensioners who most need it. They must also be given the assistance they need to tackle the applications. In my area, a representative from Kerrier district council will visit pensioners' homes and fill in the forms with them. Pensioners can also apply by telephone. They do not have to stand around in front of other people in some building to fill in the form. The forms have also been significantly improved. One pensioner asked me, "Why does it ask me if I have children?" As I told her, I have a family friend who is 88 and has a 13-year-old daughter. We can debate whether 88 is the age to be charging around with a 13-year-old, but that is the reality. Our lifestyles have changed and many pensioners have child care responsibilities. The forms can be complicated, but assistance is available. Pensioners in my constituency are delighted with the Budget and I thank my Front-Bench colleagues for that.
The money for schools will also be warmly welcomed. The head of Penryn school, Marie Hunter, will use some of the extra money for her fantastic summer scheme for children in the Penryn area. Last year, hundreds of young people took part in the scheme, and as a result not one of them came to the attention of the police. She is very proud of that and it is fantastic that young people who might not otherwise have the opportunity get the chance to do things. Marie Hunter lobbied me for more money to be paid directly to schools and I am sure that she will use the extra to assist with the summer scheme.
We do have problems in Cornwall, and I must raise them with Ministers. They will know that Cornwall has achieved objective 1 status—the highest level of structural funds—to tackle its long-standing economic problems. Despite the fantastic work that has been done, we still have only 59 per cent of the European average for gross domestic product. That puts us on a par with Greek islands. We are the poorest region in northern Europe, and that is tragic. It is a challenge for all of us to tackle those longstanding problems.
I do not want give the impression that the Government have not been tackling those problems in Cornwall. We are tackling the infrastructure problems. The Government are dualling the A30 at Gossmoor. Any hon. Member who has ever come to Cornwall in the summer and has tried to go from east to west will know that that huge bottleneck has been a nightmare for many years. That work is being fast-tracked by the Highways Agency. Almost everyone except Swampy agrees that that is absolutely fantastic. The Government, through Social Research Associates, are dualling the A30, and we are using objective 1 funds to assist us in that. That work will decrease journey times by 30 minutes. That may not sound much to most hon. Members, but that makes a huge difference to a five or six-hour journey.
We have the largest number of small and medium-sized businesses in the country. I often laugh when we talk about SMEs, given that when we talk about a small business, we may be talking about one person; that when we talk about a medium-sized business, we may mean a business that employs five people; and that, to some, a business with 30 employees is a large business. The definition of an SME depends on where you come from, but the money in the Budget to help small businesses will be welcomed.
As I say, we are doing a lot. We have the Eden project, which I hope many hon. Members have visited. The maritime museum in Falmouth has the small boats collection from Greenwich. What is happening with that museum, the Tate at St. Ives and our gardens is that people are coming to the county, not for the six weeks of the bucket-and-spade season, but all year round. One hotelier told a colleague, "I've got a bone to pick with you"—as every politician knows, people stand back when someone says that—"I have had to put central heating in my hotel because I've got visitors coming all year round." I think it is a real success when hoteliers have to put in central heating because tourists are visiting the country all year round.
My constituency has one of the few urban regeneration companies in the country. It is conserving the Camborne, Pool and Redruth community. The closure of the coal mines was pretty dramatic and, as result, there were dramatic responses from the Government. The situation with tin was very different. Tin mines closed over hundreds of years. There were times when the decline was sharp, but it was usually gradual and, as result, it slipped by—no one really noticed, except for people in Cornwall. As a result, there was never a sense that we had to tackle the problem, until now. In the Budget, we have money that will help the Camborne, Pool, Redruth urban regeneration company to make a difference to the lives of the people in that community.
We have the largest amount of derelict land in the country. When people think of Cornwall, the last thing they think of is derelict land. In fact, west Cornwall is full of derelict land. The money for housing in the Budget will really help us.
We are working hard in Cornwall. We are trying to tackle the problems that we have inherited. The people are committed to working for the county. The Government are working for the country. A lot of good things are happening. I ask the Government to help us with the next round of objective 1. We want quality jobs, quality homes and quality skills. There was more for us in that respect in the Budget. I thank the Government and ask them please to keep helping us.
4.48 pm
Mr. Tony McWalter (Hemel Hempstead) (Lab/Co-op): It is pleasure to follow my hon. Friend the Member for Falmouth and Camborne (Ms Atherton) in the debate, particularly as I had the pleasure of visiting the Eden project very recently. I commend that project to all hon. Members and, indeed, all members of the public, as a marvellous place to visit.
I rise to speak as a member of the Science and Technology Committee, so I shall concentrate on the Budget's implications for science. In doing so, I want to
dwell on a general theme of whether the Budget will help to procure what might be called fair contracts between generations. Earlier, members of the Conservative Front Bench suggested that the Government have a tendency to profligacy and to consume the seed corn of future generations. The implication was that an unsustainable deficit today would have to be paid for by our children tomorrow.The Budget's vision and long-term approach to science gives the lie to that accusation. It is no accident that the Chancellor used the word "science" 13 times in his speech. Investing now in science will not simply enhance the lifestyles of tomorrow but of generations to come. I worry about whether there is in Government sufficient understanding of science and enough of a scientific culture to get that investment right. Time after time, when the Science and Technology Committee seeks out the person in a Department who ought to know about mathematical models, understand a certain third world engineering project or appreciate all the other ways in which science impacts on government, it is often the case that no one can be found to deal with such matters. When the director general of the Natural Environment Research Council addressed the Committee last week, he stated that when he tried to find someone in Government to discuss matters that concerned him, he could not find anybody sensible to address.
The Government's emphasis on science is to be greatly welcomed—as is some collateral reconfiguration of the civil service. However, that must go hand in hand with intelligence, foresight and appropriate information—to retain the expertise needed in government to protect our country's productivity and affluence for generations to come.
What prospects are there of an enhanced science budget? The Committee is worried that there does not seem to be much of a vision of how energy is to be procured in decades ahead. Laudable targets for carbon reductions by the year 2020 are all very well but we must ensure that non-carboniferous energy generating systems are in place. The Committee found that the Government must take some real risks if they are to deliver a non-carboniferous or reduced carbon energy system, and thought that wave and tidal power offers the potential for an extraordinary payoff in meeting targets and reconfiguring energy systems in a non-carboniferous, non-nuclear way.
We began to get somewhere with the Department of Trade and Industry, but—truth to tell—we need the instruments for securing huge investment in a technology that is of dubious return and which perhaps involves building something a bit like the millennium dome but on its side and in the sea. For some strange reason, such a project did not appeal to people who were asked to put their hands in their pockets now for a dubious outcome in terms of a working project in, say, 2011. That money is difficult to raise through venture capital and the private system, but a Government with a vision of how we will generate energy in future really need to look at priming the pump of such enterprises. We are not talking here of the £5 million or £10 million that the Government have vouchsafed—that money is welcome—but of an awful lot more if such ideas are to go from trial to something like empirical proof.
Apart from energy, the general issue with the science budget relates to the huge difficulties in the education system. One of the great strengths in the British economy has been the extraordinary extent to which we have been able to generate science graduates, particularly in those subjects that require a high degree of mathematical attainment. There has been an astonishing fall in the number of people doing advanced level maths and continuing to develop those skills. However, wherever one looks in the world of science, those skills have a premium. Indeed, some might say that those skills should have a higher premium in Parliament itself, and particularly in Budget debates.
Losing the trained people that we need in many sectors becomes an issue when we face a crisis, as we did with foot and mouth disease, and find that the mathematical models of disease spread are, unfortunately, ill developed and ill defined. I suppose that we have to make policy almost quite literally on the hoof. It is a bad day when this country lacks the capacity to invest in science and its future.
We have also asked the Government to consider following the Taylor report's recommendations on investment in two new nano-fabrication facilities that involve cutting-edge nanotechnology and materials that are 10–9 of a centimetre. The Taylor report says that many advanced industrial countries will make their living out of such technology for the next decade or two or more. We want the capacity for people to take an idea about a system that may, for example, replace ball bearings through to manufacture, test and experiment, to see whether it is possible to turn an idea into an industry that employs people and pays our way in the world.
I say with regret that, so far, there has been decided reticence on the part of the Government to back such initiatives, but I believe that the Budget signals, in its appraisal of science, a willingness to go beyond the hesitant pussyfooting that has sometimes characterised Government responses to recommendations such as those made by Taylor. Instead, it signals the potential to secure investment that might go wrong. After all, that is the nature of this business—things can go wrong, so one might invest and get a bloody nose. However, if several such investments are made, out of the experiments and initiatives come ideas and industries for the future. Many in our society do not give much thought to the energy supply in 2015, the industrial structure of 2015 or the extent to which global warming will damage our country in 2015, but it is nevertheless in their interests to invest now for that future.
One example of a possible investment that the inventors would wish me to mention is what is called Beagle 2A, although one might call it Beagle 3, because it will follow Beagle 2 as an effort to try to understand Mars—that is, the planet—by using robotic systems. Those systems involve tremendous ingenuity, and it is possible that they have the capacity to be developed on an industrial scale. For example, a small-scale spectrometer was an integral part of the Beagle 2 project. The new project cannot be called "Beagle 3", because someone has already appropriated the name with a view to using it as a marketing ploy. That situation illustrates in a microcosm the extent to which
we can invent things in Britain and have fantastic ideas—even though it must be said that Professor Pilkington had enormous difficulty raising the £25 million that he needed to get Beagle 2 under way—but then seem to lack the capacity to move from the idea, or spark, and relatively modest investment toward a system in which there is a real programme to develop volume, workers and capacity.I know of a nanotechnology project involving a company that remains pre-revenue after six years and is in danger of dying and being taken over by the United States because the last chunk of capital and support for its 15 workers is being denied. We must try to ensure that the tremendously welcome science budget is actually converted into projects that will be of real benefit for generations to come.
I began by saying that I would emphasise the science side of the Budget quite a lot, but I also said that I would comment on the contract between the generations. If the Budget is displaying long-sightedness about the extent to which we are trying to look after the interests of future generations, it is also vital that we look after the generation in the here and now. I did not agree with the hon. Member for Northavon (Mr. Webb) when he said that the £100 council tax contribution was a bribe. I wrote a letter to the Prime Minister before Christmas in which I said that the matter was one of the most vexatious issues in my constituency. I asked him to do something, so I do not think that the measure is a bribe—it is sheer responsiveness. It shows that if the burden of council tax has reached a stage at which it is no longer seen as fair and manageable—
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