Jim
Knight: I should be interested to know whether, from his
party’s point of view, the hon. Gentleman is committing to
reinstating that money to the transport budget. I suspect he cannot do
so. It is estimated that the scheme will cost £42 million, and
the region has allocated £20 million towards that. With the hon.
Gentleman, I would be happy to meet representatives from the region to
discuss whether they want to go further in that commitment. I would
also be happy to meet Ministers from the Department for Transport. I
hear what he says about the Cotswold improvement. It is also important
to establish whether there are links with the electrification of the
Great Western main line, as that would provide significant
opportunities to wrap in this scheme with that scheme, which will
deliver such substantial improvements across the whole
region.
Anne
Snelgrove: I, for one, welcome the Government’s
investment and promise of investment in the line, which is extremely
important for Swindon’s growth and for getting it out of the
recession. I am grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for Plymouth,
Devonport for co-ordinating the region’s response to the
Secretary of State for Transport, which elicited that letter of support
and his overwhelming support for the scheme. Will the Minister extend
such meetings, so that a cross-party group of MPs can meet the
Secretary of State and the Minister, because this is a cross-party
initiative that has cross-party
support?
Jim
Knight: Certainly. Given that the line starts in Swindon,
it would be foolish not to take a passionate advocate for the town to
such a meeting as part of such a delegation. In the spirit of consensus
that this setting encourages, we must work together to try to achieve
that for the
region.
Mr.
Robertson: I support the comments of my hon. Friend the
Member for Cotswold about the lines running to Cheltenham and
Gloucester being substandard. Although a number of trains run on those
lines, they are expensive and frequently late. The line must be
redoubled, especially as the south-west region—whatever that may
be—has refused to improve the A417/A419, which ends up as a
single track for quite a few miles. That is dangerous and acts as a
bottleneck. People travelling from Gloucestershire to London have
problems whether getting a train or driving. Some attention must be
given to that
problem.
Jim
Knight: In my view, redoubling might provide extremely
good value for money for some of the reasons given by the hon.
Gentleman. It would provide diversionary seven-day railway capacity and
route capacity that First Great Western has indicated it could take up
on a commercial basis. It would also facilitate housing growth if the
Government were to bring that forward. Good arguments can be made in
favour of the redoubling of this line and I am happy to play my part in
that
process. Transport
and Internet
Connectivity8.
Alison
Seabeck (Plymouth, Devonport) (Lab): What
recent discussions he has had with businesses in the south-west on the
effect of the availability of fast (a) transport and (b) internet
connectivity on the economy in the region; and if he will make a
statement.
[290613] Jim
Knight: I fully recognise the importance of reliable
journey times and fast internet connectivity to the success of business
in the region. The Government have announced a £1 billion
investment in the electrification programme for the Great Western main
line between London and Swansea, as we have discussed. The
“Digital Britain” report, which is central to the
Government’s Building Britain’s Future strategy, sets out
our commitment to ensuring that the UK is at the leading edge of the
global digital
economy.
Alison
Seabeck: I thank my right hon. Friend for his response.
Historically, the economic potential of the south-west has been
restricted by its size and peripherality.
We now have the tools and technology to even the playing field with
other regions. However, the north-west is already ahead of us in
getting faster broadband and the faster rail services that he
mentioned. What action is he taking to press his colleagues in the
Department for Culture, Media and Sport and the Department for
Transport—or to broker with them to use his description of his
role—to ensure that the region benefits from the cable that runs
along the south coast, past Cornwall and Devon, via links in Plymouth,
and that cable can be run along the lines during the rail improvements
that have been
mentioned?
Jim
Knight: The “Digital Britain” commitment
that everyone will be able to access broadband at 2 megabytes per
second by 2012 will help about 11 per cent. of homes nationally and 20
per cent. in the south-west. It will therefore be disproportionately
beneficial to our region. We are committed to exploring higher
bandwidth broadband access, which is what my hon. Friend is raising
with her questions on cabling. The technical work is still going on to
see how that can best be achieved. I will engage with that process and
am happy to take forward her advice and that of the Select Committee
that she so ably
chairs. Mr.
Anthony Steen (Totnes) (Con): I welcome the Minister. I
regret that he has not yet found time to visit Torquay. However, as the
Kingskerswell bypass has not yet been built, he would probably not have
got there yet had he tried to visit via the road that is currently
being used. That problem is why businesses are not relocating to the
Torbay area, just over a third of which is in my constituency. Business
parks are not being filled because it is impossible to get lorries and
other vehicles out because the Kingskerswell bypass has still not been
built or planned sufficiently for work to be started. Will he tell the
Committee what timetable the Government have for putting that matter
right?
Jim
Knight: That issue is the subject of Question 12, but
perhaps there is an assumption that we will not get to it in time. The
most recent returns received by the Government office from Devon county
council and Torbay council showed that the estimated date for the start
of construction for the Kingskerswell bypass was March 2010, and that
construction would be completed by March 2013. A public inquiry into
scheme orders commenced on 7 July of this year, and, subject to
confirmation of the orders and a final funding approval from the
Department for Transport, Devon and Torbay now expect construction to
start in October of next year and to be completed in October
2013. Richard
Younger-Ross: On fast transport links, the Minister
referred earlier to the A303. Can he clarify something he said in an
answer to my hon. Friend the Member for Somerton and Frome? The
Minister talked about the Amesbury section at Stonehenge acting as a
deterrent to further works further west. The section at Stonehenge does
need to be dualled, but in a tunnel, so that it can enhance a world
heritage site. My concern is that, by blaming Stonehenge, the Minister
is delaying the rest of the works so that a cheap overground option can
be found at Stonehenge. Will he confirm that that is not the
case?
Jim
Knight: I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for allowing
me to clarify that. I am not saying that the spending of £110
million on the improvements along the road is being prevented by the
difficulty of creating an acceptable solution because of
Stonehenge’s status as a world heritage site. Clearly, that work
will continue further on down the road, to secure the improvements
regarding both noise reduction—an issue that has been raised in
the Committee—and some of the dualling that people are
advocating, but that has to go through the regional
process. Health
and Social
Services9.
Linda
Gilroy: What recent discussions he has had
with Ministers in the Department of Health on the likely effect on the
development of health and social services in the south-west of the
proposals in the Green Paper on shaping the future of
care.
[290614] Jim
Knight: This is a critical issue for this region
because nearly 23 per cent. of its population is of retirement age.
“Shaping the Future of Care Together” outlines the
Government’s vision for a new, fair, simple and affordable
national care service for adults in England. At this stage, Ministers
are focused on promoting the big care debate, which runs until 13
November of this year. That will allow us to gather people’s
opinions on the consultation questions and on issues in the Green
Paper, and to develop a care and support system fit for the 21st
century.
Linda
Gilroy: I thank the Minister for that response. I agree
with him that the issue has important implications for the care
community and industry in our region. However, a matter has come to my
urgent attention. On returning from leave yesterday, I received a
number of e-mails saying that there are only 71 days and a matter of
hours in which to save disability living allowance and attendance
allowance from being axed, because they are going to be handed over to
social services to administer. Has the Minister come across that issue?
Can he offer my constituents, and indeed me—I am worried on
their behalf—any
reassurances?
Jim
Knight: I am most grateful to my hon. Friend for raising
that issue. I am keen to provide the reassurance that she is looking
for. We
know that there are problems with the overall support available to
people over 65 through the social care and disability benefit systems.
That is because the two systems have tended to be developed separately,
and they are therefore fragmented and can be complex to understand and
navigate. However, the Green Paper does not propose changes to
disability benefits for people who are under 65, and we have said that
people over 65 who currently receive disability benefit will continue
to get an equivalent level of support under the new system. Therefore,
no one over 65 who currently gets a disability benefit will lose out
either. The background to the campaign that my hon. Friend is talking
about is based on completely false information. If the people running
that campaign had read the Green Paper they would understand that the
campaign is based on a completely false premise.
Small
Businesses10.
Anne
Snelgrove: What discussions he has had with
small businesses in the south-west on levels of Government assistance
made available to them during the recession.
[290615] Jim
Knight: There is a strong small business representation on
the regional economic task group that I chair. Thanks to that
representation and to visits to various parts of the region—not
just to the town that my hon. Friend represents—I am fully aware
of the importance to small businesses of access to information, advice
and Government assistance to help them to meet the challenge of the
recession. A number of regional initiatives from the regional
development agency, Business Link, the Learning and Skills Council and
Jobcentre Plus have been put in place, and last week I met with a group
of employers in Taunton to promote those
initiatives.
Anne
Snelgrove: I thank my right hon. Friend for that
comprehensive list of help available. He will be aware that businesses
employing fewer than 10 people rarely have the time to seek help until
it is too late. What advice is available to south-west micro-businesses
about the resources available? In particular, how can they benefit from
the £1,000 employer
subsidy?
Jim
Knight: I am grateful to my hon. Friend for raising the
issue. In the year for which I have the most up-to-date
statistics—2007—95.7 per cent. of all enterprises in our
region had 10 or fewer employees, and more than 41 per cent. of all
people employed in our region worked in the micro-businesses that she
is
championing. The
£1,000 employer subsidy to take on people who have been
unemployed for six months or more is of course available to those
businesses and is of significant help to them in recruiting. If the
businesses join local employer partnerships, which are run by Jobcentre
Plus, they have the opportunity alongside that to take on people for
work trials, to assess whether they might be suitable or whether the
employer is suitable for the individual. Businesses can access the
£1,000 employer subsidy, and those smaller, micro-businesses
also have the priority for access to Train to Gain if those individuals
need further
training.
Mr.
Cox: Would the Minister agree with the leading businessman
in the south-west who suggested to me that the best way of setting up a
small business under Labour Governments was to buy a big one and wait?
Would he also agree that the best means of assisting small businesses
is to get government bureaucracy and layers of regulation and red tape
off their
backs?
Jim
Knight: Clearly, we are in the middle of a global
recession. Even the leader of the hon. and learned Gentleman’s
party has now admitted that it extends at least to Europe—he
might not have the perspective to see the recession across the whole
world. I used to run a small business—I was a director—in
Westbury in Wiltshire for a number of years. Virtually all of our
customers were micro-businesses. I am well aware of the pressures that
business faces. We continue to drive forward deregulation, but some
regulation is a good thing—look at the minimum wage regulation,
for example. In Torbay,
10 per cent. of the people working in that constituency benefited from
the recent rise in the minimum wage. That regulation is of real help to
constituents across our region. I would be interested in whether the
hon. and learned Gentleman’s party continues to support
it. Regional
Spatial
Strategy11.
Steve
Webb: What discussions he has had with house
builders in the south-west on the effect of the south-west regional
spatial strategy on demand for construction in the
region.
[290616] Jim
Knight: It would not be appropriate for Ministers or the
Government office for the south west to have discussions with house
builders or any other interested parties on any aspect of the regional
spatial strategy at this stage. It is with the Secretary of State for
Communities and Local Government for a decision. There would be legal
implications if we got involved in such discussions. Issues of
deliverability were considered during the examination in public, in
which house builders
participated.
Steve
Webb: That is an interesting answer, because earlier on
the Minister described the RSS process as fundamentally sound. The
process began with a regional assembly that at least had some semblance
of election, but is it not grotesquely undemocratic that the strategy
should proceed for consideration to a panel that no one elected and to
a Secretary of State who has no regional accountability? As the right
hon. Gentleman said, that strategy is now with the Secretary of State,
so we cannot even talk about it, yet local authorities in our region
are being told to give weight to the emerging RSS—before it is
finalised—when they are making planning decisions now. Is that
not a mockery of democracy? The Minister cannot talk about it because
the RSS is with the Secretary of State, but counties and local
authorities are being asked to take account of it
already.
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