:01:22. > :01:24.$:/STARTFEED. In the East, how much bottle do our Local Enterprise
:01:24. > :01:34.Partnerships have? And the Labour leader in Bedford echoes another
:01:34. > :01:34.
:01:34. > :36:56.Apology for the loss of subtitles for 2122 seconds
:36:56. > :37:04.leader's historic speech, but is he $:/STARTFEED. Hello and welcome to
:37:04. > :37:06.the local part of the programme, I'm Andrew Sinclair. Coming up:
:37:06. > :37:10.Have our Local Enterprise Partnerships got the bottle to
:37:10. > :37:13.deliver growth in the region? They're being asked to do a very
:37:13. > :37:17.big task by the Government, but with one hand tied behind their
:37:17. > :37:21.back. And why the Labour leader thinks
:37:21. > :37:24.Bedford speaks for Britain. Far from never having it so good,
:37:24. > :37:32.millions of people think, are we going to ever have it so good
:37:32. > :37:34.again? But first, let's meet our guests,
:37:34. > :37:39.the Labour MP for Luton South, Gavin Shuker, and Julian Huppert,
:37:39. > :37:43.the Liberal Democrat MP for Cambridge. And I guess the main
:37:43. > :37:46.talking point this week has to be that we're getting all these new
:37:46. > :37:48.ambulances for the East of England ambulance service. 15 extra
:37:48. > :37:53.ambulances, 75 new paramedics, 124 more emergency care assistants
:37:53. > :38:03.across the region, and this follows a long campaign by MPs. This must
:38:03. > :38:08.be very welcome, Julian Huppert. is fantastically welcome. I have
:38:08. > :38:14.had trounced -- tragic cases of constituents, one who died because
:38:14. > :38:18.a number this did not get there in time, and I used to be in ambulance
:38:18. > :38:23.crew with St John Ambulance, so I have dealt with some of these
:38:23. > :38:31.ambulance cases. I vividly remember my first blue light run-up to
:38:31. > :38:36.Addenbrooke's. They have listened to the pressure and the outcry?
:38:36. > :38:43.They have also realised they were not hitting the target. There were
:38:43. > :38:50.too many cases of people being left too long with no treatment. Have
:38:50. > :38:55.you are also had issues in towns about response times? New also her
:38:55. > :39:00.-- in the rural areas it has been particularly acute. I have been out
:39:00. > :39:05.with my own ambitions technicians, and I think we need to properly
:39:05. > :39:11.resource these technicians as they go about their jobs. How is all
:39:11. > :39:15.this going to be funded? Go as always the devil is in the detail,
:39:15. > :39:18.but the trust have responded to the concerns being raised by MPs and
:39:18. > :39:23.different communities, and they need the backing to get on and
:39:23. > :39:26.improve those response times. Talking about money, have we got
:39:26. > :39:29.the right mechanism in place to get our businesses to grow, and help
:39:29. > :39:32.the region back on its feet? The Government's grand plan was to
:39:32. > :39:35.scrap the Regional Development Agency that used to be in charge of
:39:35. > :39:39.stimulating business growth in the East, and replace it with Local
:39:39. > :39:42.Enterprise Partnerships, or LEPs. They were set up 18 months ago, but
:39:42. > :39:52.questions are now being asked about whether they're really up to the
:39:52. > :39:56.job. The economy is lacking fizz, but
:39:56. > :40:02.here in Northampton they are investing big to get things going.
:40:02. > :40:08.�60 million to revamp Carlsberg's UK headquarters. A new bottling
:40:08. > :40:13.plant in the Northampton Enterprise Zone, run by the local LEP. It is
:40:13. > :40:19.one of four the commission has created to boost growth. Some
:40:19. > :40:24.Carlsberg has been created across Europe, now we will be able to
:40:24. > :40:29.produce everything we need here in Northampton. We have brought 30
:40:29. > :40:33.people in from the jobs zone. That would not have perhaps happened
:40:33. > :40:38.without that confidence the Enterprise Zone creates.
:40:38. > :40:45.The Government has shaken up the economic development. Long overdue
:40:45. > :40:54.say some, lousy timing, say others. But is this new framework working?
:40:54. > :40:59.Out went Labour's East of England Development Agency, and in came six
:40:59. > :41:03.Local Enterprise Partnerships or LEPs. They bid for cash from the
:41:03. > :41:10.new Regional Growth Fund. So far the East has backing for seven
:41:10. > :41:15.projects, fewer than most other regions. The LEPs also won our for
:41:15. > :41:22.enterprise zones. -- they run our for enterprise zones.
:41:22. > :41:27.The zone in Yarmouth aims to cash in on the wind energy boom.
:41:27. > :41:31.Seajacks has bought -- built new offices in the zone. There were no
:41:31. > :41:38.real restrictions on planning. It enabled us to move in and build
:41:38. > :41:42.some were without a long drawn out planning process. We needed to act
:41:42. > :41:49.and move quickly, and we were able to do that.
:41:49. > :41:55.More George VI had an annual budget of �140 million. -- East of England
:41:55. > :42:00.Development Agency. LEPs get money towards their staff costs. Our am
:42:00. > :42:06.doing my best to support local Enterprise Partnerships, but when
:42:06. > :42:10.you add up the cost of them, they have still got less money and fewer
:42:10. > :42:14.personnel banner the smallest of the old development agencies. You
:42:14. > :42:17.can see how they are being asked to do a very big task by the
:42:17. > :42:22.Government, but doing so with one hand tied brinded -- behind their
:42:22. > :42:28.back. LEPs get more money for a specific
:42:28. > :42:32.things. But they have struggled to raise money from the private sector.
:42:32. > :42:37.The Cambridge and Peterborough LEP says it lacks the cash to carry out
:42:37. > :42:44.its role properly. The Northampton LEP is better placed. It says it
:42:44. > :42:50.has created 1000 jobs in 18 months. We are lucky that the local County
:42:50. > :42:57.Council funded us �2 million per annum over three years. Do you
:42:57. > :43:00.think the new structure is working? It works for us. We work at a very
:43:01. > :43:06.local level and understand our patch incredibly well. We know
:43:06. > :43:12.where we can make the most impact. LEPs may make more -- get more
:43:12. > :43:21.money if the Government accepts a report by Lord Heseltine and the
:43:21. > :43:24.vaults the Budget to the regions. - - divorced national budget to the
:43:24. > :43:27.regions. -- defaults.
:43:27. > :43:30.So, although our LEPs are in their infancy, how effective are they
:43:30. > :43:33.really? Research by this programme has found that the six LEPs in our
:43:33. > :43:37.region have received a total of �125 million from the Growing
:43:37. > :43:39.Places Fund, but more than a third of that money is yet to be
:43:39. > :43:42.allocated although various projects, we're told, are in the pipeline.
:43:42. > :43:45.The Northamptonshire LEP has a �1.9 million underspend, the South East
:43:45. > :43:50.Midlands �18.5 million. New Anglia, which covers Norfolk and Suffolk,
:43:50. > :44:00.has a �2.2 million underspend. The South East LEP, which Essex is in,
:44:00. > :44:04.
:44:04. > :44:08.And the Hertfordshire LEP has a �6.2 million underspend. That's a
:44:08. > :44:11.total of �45.8 million waiting to fund schemes in the East. We also
:44:11. > :44:13.found that none of the LEPs, except for the one in Northamptonshire,
:44:13. > :44:16.have created any new businesses. Local Enterprise Partnerships also
:44:16. > :44:19.came in for criticism from Lord Heseltine in his report on economic
:44:19. > :44:24.strategy. He called for changes, because, he said, "LEPs at the
:44:24. > :44:26.moment do not have the authority or resources to do what is needed."
:44:26. > :44:29.And the Greater Cambridge and Peterborough LEP told MPs recently
:44:29. > :44:35.that it was finding it hard to attract funding in the present
:44:35. > :44:38.climate. Well, earlier this week I put some of these points to the
:44:38. > :44:41.Business Minister Suffolk MP, and I began by asking him if he was
:44:41. > :44:51.disappointed that only one of our LEPs has so far created any new
:44:51. > :44:52.
:44:52. > :45:00.businesses. It is not the job of the Government
:45:00. > :45:05.to launch new businesses. It is the job of people. Let me explain my
:45:05. > :45:09.point. The way that you create wealth in this country, in fact all
:45:09. > :45:13.across the world, it is for the Government to help create the
:45:13. > :45:18.conditions for new businesses to start, and then it is people who
:45:18. > :45:24.have ideas about how to start a business, how to create jobs, had
:45:24. > :45:27.to create wealth. You do not want the Government going round starting
:45:27. > :45:34.businesses left, right and centre. That has been tried in the past and
:45:34. > :45:39.does not work. My call Heseltine refers to the fact that you are
:45:39. > :45:41.expecting LEPs to do a lot more without much money. A I am in
:45:41. > :45:45.favour of things running efficiently, but where they are
:45:45. > :45:50.asked to do more, of course there needs to be the appropriate
:45:50. > :45:55.financing, but we also have to make sure that we get every bit out of
:45:55. > :46:00.every pound that we spend on other behalf of taxpayers' right across
:46:00. > :46:06.the East of England. Michael Heseltine says they need more money.
:46:07. > :46:10.Will they get it in the budget? his report he both proposes a more
:46:11. > :46:15.things the LEPs can do it and at the same time he says that in order
:46:15. > :46:20.to do those things they need more financing. That is why the report
:46:20. > :46:25.is written... They will get more money in the Budget, them? You will
:46:25. > :46:30.have to wait and see what is in the Budget. He isn't one of the big
:46:30. > :46:33.problems that we had a perfectly good system beforehand, we had the
:46:33. > :46:40.East of England Development Agency, and you replaced it with all these
:46:40. > :46:46.LEPs. Could we not have kept the old EEDA? De Gaulle is to make sure
:46:46. > :46:52.money is spent efficiently -- the goal. And that it reflects the
:46:52. > :46:58.economic activity on the ground. we now have six LEPs, not one
:46:58. > :47:02.Development Agency. That is more bureaucratic, is it not? We have
:47:02. > :47:07.had at a regional development agency that borders inefficient in
:47:07. > :47:14.the wake that it spent Monday, and it cost a lot more money to get
:47:14. > :47:16.support to businesses, and did not particularly reflect the economic
:47:16. > :47:21.geography - macro economic geography is, what happens on the
:47:21. > :47:29.ground. The East of England covers all the way from Britain through to
:47:29. > :47:34.Norwich, and instead LEPs of focused as I said on the areas
:47:34. > :47:39.where the economic geography is on the ground, the areas where -- are
:47:39. > :47:45.the areas where business is done, and at the same time they are one
:47:45. > :47:47.efficiently to make sure that money is not wasted. Regional development
:47:47. > :47:51.agencies were widely recognised, including East of England
:47:51. > :47:56.Development Agency, for being inefficient in the way public money
:47:56. > :48:01.spent -- was spent, and for not particularly reflecting any
:48:01. > :48:07.particular look -- particular geography. Matthew Hancock, thank
:48:07. > :48:11.you. Julian Huppert, are LEPs really a
:48:11. > :48:17.better replacement than the East of England Development Agency? I had a
:48:17. > :48:20.bit to do with EEDA as it was, scrutinising what it did for the
:48:20. > :48:25.regional assembly, and it could be extremely bureaucratic. There were
:48:25. > :48:30.some very good people there, but a lot of things was stuck in
:48:30. > :48:34.bureaucracy. So I like the Loch list idea of saying, we know that
:48:35. > :48:39.the different parts of the East of England do behave differently Andy
:48:39. > :48:44.DEFRA help. He in Cambridgeshire and Peter Brooke, they are somewhat
:48:44. > :48:48.different. So I like the idea of having local areas which can push
:48:48. > :48:54.local priorities. But we are talking about the delay in getting
:48:54. > :49:00.project started. In dismantling EEDA, surely that led to the delays
:49:00. > :49:04.in bidding for the money and spending the money? It is alarming
:49:04. > :49:09.to see that a lot of the LEPs have not yet spent the money they have
:49:09. > :49:13.been given. And there are interesting things that LEPs can do
:49:13. > :49:17.which are not just taking money from Government and taking them to
:49:17. > :49:21.businesses. In Cambridge and Peterborough we have a science
:49:21. > :49:29.innovation council which tries to make sure we do the creative things
:49:29. > :49:33.as well. They make things happen. But you happy with LEPs? Our local
:49:33. > :49:39.LEP is doing some great work, and we need some regional structure
:49:39. > :49:44.that works at unlocking growth. I don't personally think it is as
:49:44. > :49:48.effective as the system we had before. We had some good
:49:48. > :49:52.experiences of EEDA, but the one thing you did not want to do at the
:49:53. > :49:56.last general election is coming in and rip up the one infrastructure
:49:56. > :50:02.delivery structure that could get things growing across the region.
:50:02. > :50:08.It will be a long time before these LEPs settle in.
:50:08. > :50:15.What more do these LEPs need so that they can be more effective?
:50:15. > :50:19.More Michael Heseltine was correct that the quality of LOCOG -- local
:50:19. > :50:24.leadership is key. I would like to see George Osborne accumulating
:50:24. > :50:29.more money for these LEPs, because if we can invest locally we can
:50:29. > :50:34.make a difference across the East. My Julian Huppert, the bidding
:50:34. > :50:41.process is far more competitive. Can our region, which is largely
:50:41. > :50:47.rural, compete with the large LEPs in at Manchester and Newcastle, the
:50:47. > :50:51.large urban LEPs? You do not want to go too far down a competitive
:50:51. > :50:54.group of people putting in pointless bits, but the idea that
:50:55. > :51:00.you find things that are good where ever they are, seems the right
:51:00. > :51:04.thing. Rather than just handing out money in a not very efficient way.
:51:05. > :51:09.There are extremely exciting projects, I think some of the Local
:51:09. > :51:14.Enterprise Zones like Alconbury and Peterborough will make a difference.
:51:14. > :51:19.There is the potential to show just how creative the East of England
:51:19. > :51:24.can be. The bottom line is we have a flatlining economy, and we have
:51:24. > :51:28.to get resources in, infrastructure projects. Let us use the
:51:28. > :51:31.infrastructure that is there, by stimulating the local economy
:51:31. > :51:36.through spending money through these LEPs.
:51:36. > :51:41.It was the pound in your pocket or the lack of it that was on Ed
:51:41. > :51:46.Miliband's mind during a visit to the region. He went to Bedford to
:51:46. > :51:51.announce his plans for 10p tax rate and to remind us about another
:51:51. > :51:58.important speech made by the then Conservative Prime Minister Harold
:51:58. > :52:04.Macmillan. Mr Miliband decided to attend his speech on its head.
:52:04. > :52:09.talked about higher wages, great opportunities that people had had.
:52:09. > :52:15.And the speech became known as the speech where he declared, you've
:52:15. > :52:20.never had it so good. Now, today in Bedford, and today in Britain,
:52:20. > :52:26.things feel very different. Small business people including many
:52:26. > :52:31.people gathered here, of working harder than ever before. People are
:52:31. > :52:37.working harder than ever before. But for far too many, wages are
:52:37. > :52:42.falling, and prices are rising. And they feel worse off, not better off.
:52:42. > :52:49.Far from feeling they have never had it so good, millions of people
:52:49. > :52:54.are thinking, will we ever had it so good again? Is he right? I spoke
:52:54. > :52:58.to Robert Joyce, as Senior Research economist at the Institute of
:52:59. > :53:05.Fiscal Studies. I asked him how for living standards have fallen
:53:05. > :53:11.recently. There has been an unusually long period in which both
:53:11. > :53:15.the earnings of those in work have been falling, and also there has
:53:15. > :53:20.been a large fiscal consolidation in the post-recession period, so
:53:20. > :53:25.that means takeaways from households in the form of tax rises
:53:25. > :53:33.and benefit cuts. They will be about to have 0.5% of national
:53:33. > :53:36.income. So we are worse off than when, ten years ago, 15 years ago?
:53:36. > :53:41.At least in the middle of the last decade if not towards the beginning
:53:41. > :53:46.of the last decade. Even before the recession, although incomes was
:53:46. > :53:52.still growing, they were growing relatively slowly. The Government's
:53:52. > :53:58.official measure of household incomes, incomes again at the media
:53:58. > :54:03.and crewed by an average of just 0.5% in real terms, whereas over
:54:03. > :54:08.the last 50 years it has been more like 2%. But a combination of quite
:54:08. > :54:12.slow growth in living standards to the recession and the sharp fall
:54:12. > :54:16.during the recession, and the slow recovery we have now, all combined
:54:16. > :54:20.to create this unusually long period in which living standards
:54:20. > :54:25.will not overall be growing. there any sign that things will get
:54:25. > :54:30.better? The period of fiscal consolidation is due to continue
:54:30. > :54:37.for some time, at least another four or five years and possibly
:54:37. > :54:43.more, to paint -- depending on how the economy evolves. So will it
:54:43. > :54:47.will be 2020, at this rate. could well be the latter half of
:54:47. > :54:52.the decade. Be a sun, if the new campaign
:54:52. > :54:57.strategy is to talk about the fall in living standards -- Gavin Shuker,
:54:57. > :55:04.you will get rid of the little confidence that is out there.
:55:04. > :55:10.a reality for many families. When I talked about a lost decade, I
:55:10. > :55:16.thought I was scaremongering. The reality now is that it is more or
:55:16. > :55:21.less certain. The economy should have grown by 13 or 14%. This
:55:21. > :55:26.Government said they would grow the economy by six or 8% by the time of
:55:26. > :55:31.the next election. Without that, it is impossible to raise living
:55:31. > :55:37.standards. If you were in power, you would be making similar cuts.
:55:37. > :55:40.we recently talk about all the pieces being thrown into the air
:55:40. > :55:45.because the Conservative Government thought they could go back to
:55:45. > :55:49.Thatcherite policies. We need a new set of policies which is what Ed
:55:49. > :55:55.Miliband was talking about. macro, this has happened on at your
:55:55. > :56:01.watch. -- Julian Huppert. We saw slow increases on house called
:56:01. > :56:06.incomes, and then a catastrophic collapse. It was a heart attack in
:56:06. > :56:11.the British economy because of the massive problems in the banks, ask
:56:11. > :56:17.anybody who is trying to recover from surgery in Papworth Hospital.
:56:17. > :56:26.I am pleased that Pete -- Weber has acknowledged the areas that they
:56:26. > :56:32.have worked in. They took a our mansion tax idea, and... What do
:56:32. > :56:37.you think are signs of hope at the moment that things may get better?
:56:37. > :56:44.In Cambridge we have unemployment going down, youth unemployment down,
:56:44. > :56:49.in fact it has never been as high as it was at the time of the
:56:49. > :56:54.general election. There is lots of excitement happening, and I think
:56:55. > :56:59.LEPs and all these things can make a big difference. But if we do what
:56:59. > :57:03.we can to help people and lift them out of income tax, to make sure
:57:03. > :57:07.they have better jobs. That will make a big difference. A in this
:57:07. > :57:12.region we have the highest rate of employment in this country. Surely
:57:12. > :57:16.this must be good for living standards? Were we are probably
:57:16. > :57:19.more insulated than many, but there are parts of the region such as
:57:19. > :57:23.Luton where we are really struggling. What I would say is
:57:23. > :57:28.that by acknowledging the problems that we have had in the past,
:57:28. > :57:33.mistakes such as over 10p or whatever, really people want us to
:57:33. > :57:37.come together and come up with a solution. But is not working for
:57:37. > :57:44.people right now, and we need a new set of policies. When will things
:57:44. > :57:49.get better? In the next Parliament. Big depends what happens in the
:57:49. > :57:51.United States and Europe. -- it depends what happens.
:57:51. > :57:56.Well, politicians commemorated, cold shouldered and criticised. The
:57:56. > :57:59.political week has got the lot this week. Here's our 60 second round-up.
:57:59. > :58:04.New runways at Stansted Airport are still one of the Mayor of London's
:58:04. > :58:07.favoured options, he told a committee of MPs this week. $YELLOW
:58:07. > :58:10.Stansted is really replete with potential. Meanwhile, Basildon
:58:10. > :58:16.Council thinks its Craylands Estate is a potential site to erect a
:58:16. > :58:20.statue of Margaret Thatcher. think it's really silly, cos it
:58:20. > :58:23.won't last five minutes in Craylands. And after her stay in
:58:23. > :58:27.the jungle, no good news yet for MP Nadine Dorries, who's waiting to
:58:27. > :58:31.have the Conservative whip restored. My constituents don't really care
:58:31. > :58:34.whether I have the whip or not. And whereas I've been working very hard
:58:34. > :58:37.in the constituency, I've been keeping a low Westminster profile.
:58:37. > :58:41.A spat's broken out between two Essex MPs vying for Europe's
:58:41. > :58:47.Capital of Culture Award. Southend should be the City of Culture.
:58:47. > :58:51.Colchester is clearly the cultural capital of Essex. And Speaker John
:58:51. > :58:54.Bercow was forced to intervene over a question from Dr Julian Huppert.
:58:54. > :59:04.Order! It's very discourteous of the House to issue a collective
:59:04. > :59:08.
:59:08. > :59:18.Gavin Shuker, why is there a collective groan that when he
:59:18. > :59:19.
:59:19. > :59:23.speaks? I do not express one. seemed to come from your side!
:59:23. > :59:27.was there speaking about the fact that Cambridge as goals have been
:59:27. > :59:33.underfunded for decades. It was a shame that the house did not want
:59:33. > :59:37.to listen. -- Cambridge it scrolls. There is far too much of this
:59:37. > :59:45.bullying in the house. I wish we would have a more grown-up adopt