23/06/2013 Sunday Politics East

ahead to the spending review, and once again, it is all eyes on the

A14. Will the Chancellor finally find the money for a toll road

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 2100 seconds

politics is in the East. Coming up - the spending review, will there be

anything in it for us? Upgrading the A14 through Cambridgeshire would be

the big prize. The business community is desperate for it to get

the green light. We want it to happen, it has got to happen. If it

does not, the planning will fall apart. We have asked business

leaders in the region for their wish list. Better roads topped the bill.

Also there were calls for improved railways and housing. First, the

latest examples of MP power in the region. On Friday, ahead of

children's services at Norfolk County Council stepped down

following damning criticism from all nine of the county's MPs. Lisa

Christensen has been under pressure over the quality of schools and the

protection of children in Norfolk. Earlier in the week, five all

members from the East of England Ambulance Service were named, whom

some MPs want to see resigned over the poor quality of service. Those

board members should be in no doubt whatsoever that we are disgusted

with what has happened. We are deeply distressed on behalf of our

constituents, members of the public, who have suffered. The current

status is not good enough. Let's meet our guests, the Conservative MP

for by recent Edmonds, David Ruffley Tom baroness Angela Smith, a Labour

peer. David, starting with you - do you echo those calls for those

people to stand down? I certainly do. There needs to be more

accountability in public life, and people should stand or fall by their

record. This is a set of non-executives on the trust who have

been there for quite a while and they should do the decent thing and

resign. Priti Patel is absolutely right. And this has been a big issue

in Basildon as well? It certainly has. The public have their

representatives in Parliament, and they expect them to speak for them.

If members of Parliament are not speaking to their constituents,

their constituents lose faith in the MPs. I do not think anybody is happy

with the service we are getting from the do you know service. If you

speak to staff there, they are under great for pressure because they

want. It is bad management. We are not talking about the staff on the

front-line. Is it right that MPs should join together and play

hardball like this? Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't. Shooting off

quickly is wrong, but when there is hard evidence of wrongdoing, with

accountability which has not been fulfilled, then I think it is right

to call for accountability. Conservative MPs wrote at the

beginning of this month to David Cameron, that we were not up for

Syrian intervention, and I was one of them, and it certainly put a

check on the Prime Minister's enthusiasm for Syrian intervention.

So you can see hunting as a pack working. I am called a rebel, but I

say, I represent my constituents and reflect their views in Parliament.

It is collective action. Thank you for now. The big talking point next

week will be the Chancellor's spending review. Spending reviews

are more rare than budget and Autumn statements. The last one was in

2010, the one before that, 2007. The aim is to set targets for government

departments, normally for a number of years, but this time, just for

one year, 2015-16. It is mainly about cutting budgets, but the

Treasury says it wants to send a powerful message about

infrastructure. Good that mean that at last, we get the go-ahead for a

toll road on the A14? A road goes from Felixstowe to the Midlands, but

it is the stretch from Huntingdon to Cambridge which is the main problem.

Improving it has been on and off the agenda of successive governments for

years. The plan for a toll road has the backing of nearly all of

Cambridgeshire's MPs, with the exception of the MP for Cambridge.

But there is growing frustration about how long it is taking to get

anything done. Deborah McGurran has been on a road trip. Here we are on

the A14, on the stretch that is proposed for development, just north

of Cambridge, all the way up to Huntingdon. We pulled into the busy

Boxworth Services to see how bad the problem was. It means wasted time,

missed appointments, which have to be rescheduled. Generally, it puts a

drag on being able to plan your day if efficiently. The cost of

congestion is huge. It really is an issue which has to be addressed. We

are delighted that there is now some prospect of light at the end of a

very long tunnel. The cost of the scheme here to widen the carriageway

between Milton and Huntingdon is �1.5 billion. And that is why the

road could become a toll road. What would you think if they did that?

No, no, definitely not. No. It is a main road. We are already paying

taxes. There is a lot of taxes already. Our main headlines... I

would probably pay it, to make sure I could get to work on time. As a

business user, I probably would use it, when they name it the road from

hell, that is right. Traffic is very slow on the opposite carriageway,

not great on ours. The A14 is critical as the centre of growth for

the whole of the Cambridge area and beyond. I think we are now at the

point where it needs to happen. It has been going on for so long. This

time, if it does not happen, this country, which is relying on

Cambridge to a certain extent to get it got its feet through the research

cluster, will not be able to work properly. Despite its importance as

an engine of the UK economy, the man who has been at the forefront of the

A14 campaign still is not convinced that the Government will deliver.

am very pessimistic that we will get a firm commitment, because I write

regularly to ministers regarding the A14, and the latest correspondence

from them indicates that the real decision on the funding of the main

part of the A14 will not be made until after the next election. I do

not think that is good enough. do the 75,000 vehicles who use the

A14 every day. But after so many disappointments, will this

government finally bring an end to all this? Well, the MP for

Huntingdon, Jonathan Djanogly, has been at the forefront of the

campaign. Earlier this week I asked him what if any progress was being

made. About one year ago, the Government said they were minded to

support an A14 project, based on what had been consulted upon in the

past. What they said that firstly, a toll road element, and secondly,

they would want a significant contribution from the local economy,

from the region. Now, over the last six months, a lot of work has been

going on with local councils and local business representatives in

order to put a deal together. We have just heard last week, and this

is really good news, but they have struck a deal to put in �100 million

- half of that would in effect come from local businesses, through the

mechanism, and half would come from the local councils. But apparently

ministers have said there is still not enough money available, is that

right? We have the spending announcement in one week, and let's

hope that the Government is going to make that commitment. That is what

all of the Cambridgeshire MPs, - that is quite damning, isn't it? I

hope not. I am not holding my breath, but at the same time, I am

very hopeful. A lot of this, of course, comes down to lobbying.

Debates have been held about the A120, and similarly, the A11 - what

have you been doing? Let me add, the Afour to eight, where I, together

with Andrew Lansley and Alistair Burt in Bedfordshire, have been

lobbying. -- A428. On the A14, I have been regularly lobbying the

Government for changes, and dealing with the local media and organising

local people to have our voice heard. As far as I know, there have

not been any debates about the A14, there have not been any questions

about it in prime ministers questions - I wonder if you feel you

and the Cambridgeshire MPs have done enough to fight for this? I suppose

one could always do more, but I am regularly writing to the Treasury,

and other departments, to support the A14, and I can assure you that

it remains a very high local priority, for all of the MPs into

Bridget, bar the MP for the city of Cambridge. -- in Cambridgeshire.

Will it come next week? I certainly hope so, and we shall have to wait

and see. But the A14 seems to be mentioned every Autumn Statement and

any budget, so will we see something concrete? I think the Government's

position has changed, I think they now realise that austerity, in terms

of cutting government spending, is not to be matched in terms of

infrastructure, so they have realised that they do need to invest

in infrastructure, at the same time as pruning spending in Whitehall.

But even if we get an announcement next week, it could still be many

years before we see anything being built? I think the pressure is now

really building for those roads to get it is an important point to make

that the money which has been pledged from the region last week is

conditional full stop in one of those conditions is that the road

starts being built by 2016. I think that will put an element of pressure

on government, that they really have to get on with it. So there is only

a small window of opportunity? the current deal David Ruffley, it

runs through your constituency - what are you hearing? I would be

surprised if George Osborne does not give some more detail this week. I

have heard him say it is a priority, out of all of the infrastructure

projects nationally. He wants to see this happening. We do need a toll

road element to make it affordable, but I would also say that there are

concerns in Felixstowe docks that this could in a sense be a poll tax

on access to Felixstowe, further down the A14. I think there will

need to be discussions to make sure that whatever tolling we have does

not kill off Felixstowe, and I do not think it will. Jonathan Djanogly

was saying that we only have a small window of opportunity now - do you

accept that? I had stepped that, I agree, yes. -- I accept that. Rather

sensibly, they have put this time limit on how long this commitment

will be available, and if the Government does not give the green

light, then that money disappears. So, it is good to see local business

leaders putting the pressure on ministers. It is a very good bit of

news. From a South Essex perspective, how important is the

A14 do we obsess about it too much? From where I am, we would have to

negotiate on loads of others, even to get to the A14. It may we -- it

may be with the new Thames Gateway ports that it will become more

important in the future. But if you are asking for a wish list, from my

part of the country, it would not be the A14 first. We would have a

similar list, I think, from the Essex area, with huge problems.

Labour put a lot of money into the M25 in Essex - did it make a lot of

difference? It has, we have not got the same congestion problems which

we did have, one problem is that if you build more roads, you bring more

traffic in. From my point of view, we would have to look at the A127,

where we have been asking year after year, and the county council will

not make it a priority. If we got the money, then we could deal with

this huge problem. Of course, the A14 is far from the only item on

people 's wish list 's. We have spoken to local enterprise

partnerships and Chambers of commerce across the region to find

out what would be top of their wish list. Roads featured heavily. There

were calls to upgrade the A120 and the A12 in Essex. In Norfolk, the

focus was on the A47 and the A10. Link roads to the A1. The vote in

Bedfordshire and ginger. New bridges across rivers relieving town centre

congestion, we were told, in Lowestoft, among others. And also,

we were told about wishes for an extra track onto the line into the

Chelmsford area, to ease the commuter crush into London. A wafer

transport, there were calls for better housing, better broadband,

even better water storage support these -- water storage facilities.

You know a bit about lobbying, you successfully fought for a jewel

carriageway on the A11, but looking at that list, it always seems to be

roads first? I think that is because of the sheer number of people who

make use of roads. Pretty much everyone has a car, and the road

network is everywhere, or at least it should be. Rail infrastructure is

important, but lobbying for particular rail lines has always

been challenging. The green lobby would say we concentrate too much on

cars. Yes, and I think a lot of people would include public

transport improvements on their wish list as well. We have included

public transport on our publications this week. Also, cycling routes, and

also, using your own shoe leather. But looking at that list, which you

published, it included six T5 schemes, but you are not going to

get those funded for ages. Will you have to think about the private

sector? It is accommodation. -- 65 schemes. We have to be realistic -

infrastructure, there is a lot of it needed, and it is really about

prioritising. Our focus is about what delivers the best economic

return, rather than just hobbyhorse projects, what are the priorities

which really deliver jobs. We have been speaking about lobbying today,

but how do you actually do it, is it all about long lunches? It is a lot

more subtle than that. It is really about building and evidence case,

building a consortium of MPs, of business leaders, all around a case

which is strong, which shows that if you make the investment, that this

is the economic return and the jobs that it will deliver. On Fort,

having of all the MPs are singing from the same hymn sheet, does that

really help? In Norfolk and Suffolk, it has been tremendous. Over the

past few years, the work that the MPs are doing together, uniting

around common issues which do not necessarily benefit their own

constituency, at which benefit the area generally, has been

tremendous. It could be argued that this is all the fault of your party,

because we had very little investment in the East during 13

years of Labour government. We have lots of investment in hospitals, in

housing and transport, but there is always more needed. In my area, the

A14 would not figure in the same way. I was interested in those list

being put up by those enterprise partnerships, and very few of them

were affecting South Essex. If we want to have a cohesive region, we

need to look across the region. We are not the kind of region which has

a regional identity, we are like three regions in effect, and I think

that is a problem for us. We punch below our weight as a region,

because we do not have a regional centre, we do not have that

identity. If you lick -- look at Yorkshire, Wales or the south-west,

they respond very differently. is an interesting point, it is very

hard to say what this region is, when it comes to lobbying? I have a

working definition - the Golden Triangle, which is Norfolk, Norwich,

Ipswich, Cambridgeshire, which is clean tech... That means you have

left out Essex. Absolutely, and no disrespect to Angela, but that is

what East Anglia and MPs understand as the engine of growth, that golden

triangle. I think they have done a good job in arguing for roads and

public transport. This is the point, we are arguing for part of the

region, rather so, when we talk about the region, there are three

different sets of lobbying to go on. Except, of course, if you

improve the A11 or the A14, it will benefit Essex, won't it? In the

longer term, but if you speak to people in Essex, they will say, our

priorities would be slightly different. I think you are never

going to get across the Eastern region one coherent view of what

benefits the region, it will be three views. We all know that we are

pushed for money, so are you more optimistic or less optimistic for

the future? Well, it is a tough time, but the Government does

recognise that investment in infrastructure is important, and we

have to keep watching the coherent business case for our area. Yes,

there is still more to do, but there is still this overall problem of how

we lobby as a region. George Osborne understands the Golden Triangle and

I think he will put money into help us. Let's take a look at what has

been happening this week, in our political round-up in 60 seconds. We

will start on the railways, and plans to improve the Thames Link

service, with more trains. Not every MP has confidence over the

timetable. Civil servants have a tendency to elongate contract

management, to get procurement wrong, to take an enormous amount of

time to do the things that they think they can do very quickly.

Next, the long-running argument over plans to build an incinerator in

King's Lynn. It has been put off again, but it was the right result,

according to Labour. Corby Council had a rap on the knuckles over how

it handled big regeneration projects like The Cube. Significant failings

and poor management, said the auditors. Finally, AstraZeneca gave

us more details about its move to Cambridge and its new headquarters.

We will be able to take the knowledge which comes from our

laboratories, and we will be able to convert that knowledge into better

patient outcomes. That announcement about the city, it is a big coup for

the region. I think it is, and the engine of growth in the East of

England will be around Cambridge and the great science facilities we have

up in Norwich. It is a real driver. No disrespect to Essex, because they

have got the Thames Gateway. I think we are quite a vibrant region, with

huge potential. I think this is just a symbol of how forward-looking we

are. The science base here is world-class, which is wily city have

come. You have both been representing this region for many

years, and the region is changing a lot, isn't it? It is, and for the

better, in many ways. David has spoken about the science, but also,

if you look across Essex, you can see the cardiac unit we have got,

and the research which goes on there, in Basildon. We have got the

new port developments in Thurrock, as well as logistic developments. It

is a vibrant region, while it may not be a cohesive region, and that

vitality adds to our strength. I think we are punching below our

weight and we could do better. quite exciting, isn't it? It is, and

it always has been, but it is a region which attracts people with

skills. The danger is now that the Government has been so focused on

cutting the deficit and debt, and we have lost out a bit on growth.

Hopefully we will now see some emphasis put on growth. We are not a

backwater any more? As somebody said, we could be the California of