Browse content similar to 17/02/2013. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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$:/STARTFEED. In the East, how much bottle do our Local Enterprise | :01:22. | :01:24. | |
Partnerships have? And the Labour leader in Bedford echoes another | :01:24. | :01:34. | |
:01:34. | :01:34. | ||
Apology for the loss of subtitles for 2122 seconds | :01:34. | :36:56. | |
leader's historic speech, but is he $:/STARTFEED. Hello and welcome to | :36:56. | :37:04. | |
the local part of the programme, I'm Andrew Sinclair. Coming up: | :37:04. | :37:06. | |
Have our Local Enterprise Partnerships got the bottle to | :37:06. | :37:10. | |
deliver growth in the region? They're being asked to do a very | :37:10. | :37:13. | |
big task by the Government, but with one hand tied behind their | :37:13. | :37:17. | |
back. And why the Labour leader thinks | :37:17. | :37:21. | |
Bedford speaks for Britain. Far from never having it so good, | :37:21. | :37:24. | |
millions of people think, are we going to ever have it so good | :37:24. | :37:32. | |
again? But first, let's meet our guests, | :37:32. | :37:34. | |
the Labour MP for Luton South, Gavin Shuker, and Julian Huppert, | :37:34. | :37:39. | |
the Liberal Democrat MP for Cambridge. And I guess the main | :37:39. | :37:43. | |
talking point this week has to be that we're getting all these new | :37:43. | :37:46. | |
ambulances for the East of England ambulance service. 15 extra | :37:46. | :37:48. | |
ambulances, 75 new paramedics, 124 more emergency care assistants | :37:48. | :37:53. | |
across the region, and this follows a long campaign by MPs. This must | :37:53. | :38:03. | |
be very welcome, Julian Huppert. is fantastically welcome. I have | :38:03. | :38:08. | |
had trounced -- tragic cases of constituents, one who died because | :38:08. | :38:14. | |
a number this did not get there in time, and I used to be in ambulance | :38:14. | :38:18. | |
crew with St John Ambulance, so I have dealt with some of these | :38:18. | :38:23. | |
ambulance cases. I vividly remember my first blue light run-up to | :38:23. | :38:31. | |
Addenbrooke's. They have listened to the pressure and the outcry? | :38:31. | :38:36. | |
They have also realised they were not hitting the target. There were | :38:36. | :38:43. | |
too many cases of people being left too long with no treatment. Have | :38:43. | :38:50. | |
you are also had issues in towns about response times? New also her | :38:50. | :38:55. | |
-- in the rural areas it has been particularly acute. I have been out | :38:55. | :39:00. | |
with my own ambitions technicians, and I think we need to properly | :39:00. | :39:05. | |
resource these technicians as they go about their jobs. How is all | :39:05. | :39:11. | |
this going to be funded? Go as always the devil is in the detail, | :39:11. | :39:15. | |
but the trust have responded to the concerns being raised by MPs and | :39:15. | :39:18. | |
different communities, and they need the backing to get on and | :39:18. | :39:23. | |
improve those response times. Talking about money, have we got | :39:23. | :39:26. | |
the right mechanism in place to get our businesses to grow, and help | :39:26. | :39:29. | |
the region back on its feet? The Government's grand plan was to | :39:29. | :39:32. | |
scrap the Regional Development Agency that used to be in charge of | :39:32. | :39:35. | |
stimulating business growth in the East, and replace it with Local | :39:35. | :39:39. | |
Enterprise Partnerships, or LEPs. They were set up 18 months ago, but | :39:39. | :39:42. | |
questions are now being asked about whether they're really up to the | :39:42. | :39:52. | |
job. The economy is lacking fizz, but | :39:52. | :39:56. | |
here in Northampton they are investing big to get things going. | :39:56. | :40:02. | |
�60 million to revamp Carlsberg's UK headquarters. A new bottling | :40:02. | :40:08. | |
plant in the Northampton Enterprise Zone, run by the local LEP. It is | :40:08. | :40:13. | |
one of four the commission has created to boost growth. Some | :40:13. | :40:19. | |
Carlsberg has been created across Europe, now we will be able to | :40:19. | :40:24. | |
produce everything we need here in Northampton. We have brought 30 | :40:24. | :40:29. | |
people in from the jobs zone. That would not have perhaps happened | :40:29. | :40:33. | |
without that confidence the Enterprise Zone creates. | :40:33. | :40:38. | |
The Government has shaken up the economic development. Long overdue | :40:38. | :40:45. | |
say some, lousy timing, say others. But is this new framework working? | :40:45. | :40:54. | |
Out went Labour's East of England Development Agency, and in came six | :40:54. | :40:59. | |
Local Enterprise Partnerships or LEPs. They bid for cash from the | :40:59. | :41:03. | |
new Regional Growth Fund. So far the East has backing for seven | :41:03. | :41:10. | |
projects, fewer than most other regions. The LEPs also won our for | :41:10. | :41:15. | |
enterprise zones. -- they run our for enterprise zones. | :41:15. | :41:22. | |
The zone in Yarmouth aims to cash in on the wind energy boom. | :41:22. | :41:27. | |
Seajacks has bought -- built new offices in the zone. There were no | :41:27. | :41:31. | |
real restrictions on planning. It enabled us to move in and build | :41:31. | :41:38. | |
some were without a long drawn out planning process. We needed to act | :41:38. | :41:42. | |
and move quickly, and we were able to do that. | :41:42. | :41:49. | |
More George VI had an annual budget of �140 million. -- East of England | :41:49. | :41:55. | |
Development Agency. LEPs get money towards their staff costs. Our am | :41:55. | :42:00. | |
doing my best to support local Enterprise Partnerships, but when | :42:00. | :42:06. | |
you add up the cost of them, they have still got less money and fewer | :42:06. | :42:10. | |
personnel banner the smallest of the old development agencies. You | :42:10. | :42:14. | |
can see how they are being asked to do a very big task by the | :42:14. | :42:17. | |
Government, but doing so with one hand tied brinded -- behind their | :42:17. | :42:22. | |
back. LEPs get more money for a specific | :42:22. | :42:28. | |
things. But they have struggled to raise money from the private sector. | :42:28. | :42:32. | |
The Cambridge and Peterborough LEP says it lacks the cash to carry out | :42:32. | :42:37. | |
its role properly. The Northampton LEP is better placed. It says it | :42:37. | :42:44. | |
has created 1000 jobs in 18 months. We are lucky that the local County | :42:44. | :42:50. | |
Council funded us �2 million per annum over three years. Do you | :42:50. | :42:57. | |
think the new structure is working? It works for us. We work at a very | :42:57. | :43:00. | |
local level and understand our patch incredibly well. We know | :43:01. | :43:06. | |
where we can make the most impact. LEPs may make more -- get more | :43:06. | :43:12. | |
money if the Government accepts a report by Lord Heseltine and the | :43:12. | :43:21. | |
vaults the Budget to the regions. - - divorced national budget to the | :43:21. | :43:24. | |
regions. -- defaults. | :43:24. | :43:27. | |
So, although our LEPs are in their infancy, how effective are they | :43:27. | :43:30. | |
really? Research by this programme has found that the six LEPs in our | :43:30. | :43:33. | |
region have received a total of �125 million from the Growing | :43:33. | :43:37. | |
Places Fund, but more than a third of that money is yet to be | :43:37. | :43:39. | |
allocated although various projects, we're told, are in the pipeline. | :43:39. | :43:42. | |
The Northamptonshire LEP has a �1.9 million underspend, the South East | :43:42. | :43:45. | |
Midlands �18.5 million. New Anglia, which covers Norfolk and Suffolk, | :43:45. | :43:50. | |
has a �2.2 million underspend. The South East LEP, which Essex is in, | :43:50. | :44:00. | |
:44:00. | :44:04. | ||
And the Hertfordshire LEP has a �6.2 million underspend. That's a | :44:04. | :44:08. | |
total of �45.8 million waiting to fund schemes in the East. We also | :44:08. | :44:11. | |
found that none of the LEPs, except for the one in Northamptonshire, | :44:11. | :44:13. | |
have created any new businesses. Local Enterprise Partnerships also | :44:13. | :44:16. | |
came in for criticism from Lord Heseltine in his report on economic | :44:16. | :44:19. | |
strategy. He called for changes, because, he said, "LEPs at the | :44:19. | :44:24. | |
moment do not have the authority or resources to do what is needed." | :44:24. | :44:26. | |
And the Greater Cambridge and Peterborough LEP told MPs recently | :44:26. | :44:29. | |
that it was finding it hard to attract funding in the present | :44:29. | :44:35. | |
climate. Well, earlier this week I put some of these points to the | :44:35. | :44:38. | |
Business Minister Suffolk MP, and I began by asking him if he was | :44:38. | :44:41. | |
disappointed that only one of our LEPs has so far created any new | :44:41. | :44:51. | |
:44:51. | :44:52. | ||
businesses. It is not the job of the Government | :44:52. | :45:00. | |
to launch new businesses. It is the job of people. Let me explain my | :45:00. | :45:05. | |
point. The way that you create wealth in this country, in fact all | :45:05. | :45:09. | |
across the world, it is for the Government to help create the | :45:09. | :45:13. | |
conditions for new businesses to start, and then it is people who | :45:13. | :45:18. | |
have ideas about how to start a business, how to create jobs, had | :45:18. | :45:24. | |
to create wealth. You do not want the Government going round starting | :45:24. | :45:27. | |
businesses left, right and centre. That has been tried in the past and | :45:27. | :45:34. | |
does not work. My call Heseltine refers to the fact that you are | :45:34. | :45:39. | |
expecting LEPs to do a lot more without much money. A I am in | :45:39. | :45:41. | |
favour of things running efficiently, but where they are | :45:41. | :45:45. | |
asked to do more, of course there needs to be the appropriate | :45:45. | :45:50. | |
financing, but we also have to make sure that we get every bit out of | :45:50. | :45:55. | |
every pound that we spend on other behalf of taxpayers' right across | :45:55. | :46:00. | |
the East of England. Michael Heseltine says they need more money. | :46:00. | :46:06. | |
Will they get it in the budget? his report he both proposes a more | :46:07. | :46:10. | |
things the LEPs can do it and at the same time he says that in order | :46:11. | :46:15. | |
to do those things they need more financing. That is why the report | :46:15. | :46:20. | |
is written... They will get more money in the Budget, them? You will | :46:20. | :46:25. | |
have to wait and see what is in the Budget. He isn't one of the big | :46:25. | :46:30. | |
problems that we had a perfectly good system beforehand, we had the | :46:30. | :46:33. | |
East of England Development Agency, and you replaced it with all these | :46:33. | :46:40. | |
LEPs. Could we not have kept the old EEDA? De Gaulle is to make sure | :46:40. | :46:46. | |
money is spent efficiently -- the goal. And that it reflects the | :46:46. | :46:52. | |
economic activity on the ground. we now have six LEPs, not one | :46:52. | :46:58. | |
Development Agency. That is more bureaucratic, is it not? We have | :46:58. | :47:02. | |
had at a regional development agency that borders inefficient in | :47:02. | :47:07. | |
the wake that it spent Monday, and it cost a lot more money to get | :47:07. | :47:14. | |
support to businesses, and did not particularly reflect the economic | :47:14. | :47:16. | |
geography - macro economic geography is, what happens on the | :47:16. | :47:21. | |
ground. The East of England covers all the way from Britain through to | :47:21. | :47:29. | |
Norwich, and instead LEPs of focused as I said on the areas | :47:29. | :47:34. | |
where the economic geography is on the ground, the areas where -- are | :47:34. | :47:39. | |
the areas where business is done, and at the same time they are one | :47:39. | :47:45. | |
efficiently to make sure that money is not wasted. Regional development | :47:45. | :47:47. | |
agencies were widely recognised, including East of England | :47:47. | :47:51. | |
Development Agency, for being inefficient in the way public money | :47:51. | :47:56. | |
spent -- was spent, and for not particularly reflecting any | :47:56. | :48:01. | |
particular look -- particular geography. Matthew Hancock, thank | :48:01. | :48:07. | |
you. Julian Huppert, are LEPs really a | :48:07. | :48:11. | |
better replacement than the East of England Development Agency? I had a | :48:11. | :48:17. | |
bit to do with EEDA as it was, scrutinising what it did for the | :48:17. | :48:20. | |
regional assembly, and it could be extremely bureaucratic. There were | :48:20. | :48:25. | |
some very good people there, but a lot of things was stuck in | :48:25. | :48:30. | |
bureaucracy. So I like the Loch list idea of saying, we know that | :48:30. | :48:34. | |
the different parts of the East of England do behave differently Andy | :48:35. | :48:39. | |
DEFRA help. He in Cambridgeshire and Peter Brooke, they are somewhat | :48:39. | :48:44. | |
different. So I like the idea of having local areas which can push | :48:44. | :48:48. | |
local priorities. But we are talking about the delay in getting | :48:48. | :48:54. | |
project started. In dismantling EEDA, surely that led to the delays | :48:54. | :49:00. | |
in bidding for the money and spending the money? It is alarming | :49:00. | :49:04. | |
to see that a lot of the LEPs have not yet spent the money they have | :49:04. | :49:09. | |
been given. And there are interesting things that LEPs can do | :49:09. | :49:13. | |
which are not just taking money from Government and taking them to | :49:13. | :49:17. | |
businesses. In Cambridge and Peterborough we have a science | :49:17. | :49:21. | |
innovation council which tries to make sure we do the creative things | :49:21. | :49:29. | |
as well. They make things happen. But you happy with LEPs? Our local | :49:29. | :49:33. | |
LEP is doing some great work, and we need some regional structure | :49:33. | :49:39. | |
that works at unlocking growth. I don't personally think it is as | :49:39. | :49:44. | |
effective as the system we had before. We had some good | :49:44. | :49:48. | |
experiences of EEDA, but the one thing you did not want to do at the | :49:48. | :49:52. | |
last general election is coming in and rip up the one infrastructure | :49:53. | :49:56. | |
delivery structure that could get things growing across the region. | :49:56. | :50:02. | |
It will be a long time before these LEPs settle in. | :50:02. | :50:08. | |
What more do these LEPs need so that they can be more effective? | :50:08. | :50:15. | |
More Michael Heseltine was correct that the quality of LOCOG -- local | :50:15. | :50:19. | |
leadership is key. I would like to see George Osborne accumulating | :50:19. | :50:24. | |
more money for these LEPs, because if we can invest locally we can | :50:24. | :50:29. | |
make a difference across the East. My Julian Huppert, the bidding | :50:29. | :50:34. | |
process is far more competitive. Can our region, which is largely | :50:34. | :50:41. | |
rural, compete with the large LEPs in at Manchester and Newcastle, the | :50:41. | :50:47. | |
large urban LEPs? You do not want to go too far down a competitive | :50:47. | :50:51. | |
group of people putting in pointless bits, but the idea that | :50:51. | :50:54. | |
you find things that are good where ever they are, seems the right | :50:55. | :51:00. | |
thing. Rather than just handing out money in a not very efficient way. | :51:00. | :51:04. | |
There are extremely exciting projects, I think some of the Local | :51:05. | :51:09. | |
Enterprise Zones like Alconbury and Peterborough will make a difference. | :51:09. | :51:14. | |
There is the potential to show just how creative the East of England | :51:14. | :51:19. | |
can be. The bottom line is we have a flatlining economy, and we have | :51:19. | :51:24. | |
to get resources in, infrastructure projects. Let us use the | :51:24. | :51:28. | |
infrastructure that is there, by stimulating the local economy | :51:28. | :51:31. | |
through spending money through these LEPs. | :51:31. | :51:36. | |
It was the pound in your pocket or the lack of it that was on Ed | :51:36. | :51:41. | |
Miliband's mind during a visit to the region. He went to Bedford to | :51:41. | :51:46. | |
announce his plans for 10p tax rate and to remind us about another | :51:46. | :51:51. | |
important speech made by the then Conservative Prime Minister Harold | :51:51. | :51:58. | |
Macmillan. Mr Miliband decided to attend his speech on its head. | :51:58. | :52:04. | |
talked about higher wages, great opportunities that people had had. | :52:04. | :52:09. | |
And the speech became known as the speech where he declared, you've | :52:09. | :52:15. | |
never had it so good. Now, today in Bedford, and today in Britain, | :52:15. | :52:20. | |
things feel very different. Small business people including many | :52:20. | :52:26. | |
people gathered here, of working harder than ever before. People are | :52:26. | :52:31. | |
working harder than ever before. But for far too many, wages are | :52:31. | :52:37. | |
falling, and prices are rising. And they feel worse off, not better off. | :52:37. | :52:42. | |
Far from feeling they have never had it so good, millions of people | :52:42. | :52:49. | |
are thinking, will we ever had it so good again? Is he right? I spoke | :52:49. | :52:54. | |
to Robert Joyce, as Senior Research economist at the Institute of | :52:54. | :52:58. | |
Fiscal Studies. I asked him how for living standards have fallen | :52:59. | :53:05. | |
recently. There has been an unusually long period in which both | :53:05. | :53:11. | |
the earnings of those in work have been falling, and also there has | :53:11. | :53:15. | |
been a large fiscal consolidation in the post-recession period, so | :53:15. | :53:20. | |
that means takeaways from households in the form of tax rises | :53:20. | :53:25. | |
and benefit cuts. They will be about to have 0.5% of national | :53:25. | :53:33. | |
income. So we are worse off than when, ten years ago, 15 years ago? | :53:33. | :53:36. | |
At least in the middle of the last decade if not towards the beginning | :53:36. | :53:41. | |
of the last decade. Even before the recession, although incomes was | :53:41. | :53:46. | |
still growing, they were growing relatively slowly. The Government's | :53:46. | :53:52. | |
official measure of household incomes, incomes again at the media | :53:52. | :53:58. | |
and crewed by an average of just 0.5% in real terms, whereas over | :53:58. | :54:03. | |
the last 50 years it has been more like 2%. But a combination of quite | :54:03. | :54:08. | |
slow growth in living standards to the recession and the sharp fall | :54:08. | :54:12. | |
during the recession, and the slow recovery we have now, all combined | :54:12. | :54:16. | |
to create this unusually long period in which living standards | :54:16. | :54:20. | |
will not overall be growing. there any sign that things will get | :54:20. | :54:25. | |
better? The period of fiscal consolidation is due to continue | :54:25. | :54:30. | |
for some time, at least another four or five years and possibly | :54:30. | :54:37. | |
more, to paint -- depending on how the economy evolves. So will it | :54:37. | :54:43. | |
will be 2020, at this rate. could well be the latter half of | :54:43. | :54:47. | |
the decade. Be a sun, if the new campaign | :54:47. | :54:52. | |
strategy is to talk about the fall in living standards -- Gavin Shuker, | :54:52. | :54:57. | |
you will get rid of the little confidence that is out there. | :54:57. | :55:04. | |
a reality for many families. When I talked about a lost decade, I | :55:04. | :55:10. | |
thought I was scaremongering. The reality now is that it is more or | :55:10. | :55:16. | |
less certain. The economy should have grown by 13 or 14%. This | :55:16. | :55:21. | |
Government said they would grow the economy by six or 8% by the time of | :55:21. | :55:26. | |
the next election. Without that, it is impossible to raise living | :55:26. | :55:31. | |
standards. If you were in power, you would be making similar cuts. | :55:31. | :55:37. | |
we recently talk about all the pieces being thrown into the air | :55:37. | :55:40. | |
because the Conservative Government thought they could go back to | :55:40. | :55:45. | |
Thatcherite policies. We need a new set of policies which is what Ed | :55:45. | :55:49. | |
Miliband was talking about. macro, this has happened on at your | :55:49. | :55:55. | |
watch. -- Julian Huppert. We saw slow increases on house called | :55:55. | :56:01. | |
incomes, and then a catastrophic collapse. It was a heart attack in | :56:01. | :56:06. | |
the British economy because of the massive problems in the banks, ask | :56:06. | :56:11. | |
anybody who is trying to recover from surgery in Papworth Hospital. | :56:11. | :56:17. | |
I am pleased that Pete -- Weber has acknowledged the areas that they | :56:17. | :56:26. | |
have worked in. They took a our mansion tax idea, and... What do | :56:26. | :56:32. | |
you think are signs of hope at the moment that things may get better? | :56:32. | :56:37. | |
In Cambridge we have unemployment going down, youth unemployment down, | :56:37. | :56:44. | |
in fact it has never been as high as it was at the time of the | :56:44. | :56:49. | |
general election. There is lots of excitement happening, and I think | :56:49. | :56:54. | |
LEPs and all these things can make a big difference. But if we do what | :56:55. | :56:59. | |
we can to help people and lift them out of income tax, to make sure | :56:59. | :57:03. | |
they have better jobs. That will make a big difference. A in this | :57:03. | :57:07. | |
region we have the highest rate of employment in this country. Surely | :57:07. | :57:12. | |
this must be good for living standards? Were we are probably | :57:12. | :57:16. | |
more insulated than many, but there are parts of the region such as | :57:16. | :57:19. | |
Luton where we are really struggling. What I would say is | :57:19. | :57:23. | |
that by acknowledging the problems that we have had in the past, | :57:23. | :57:28. | |
mistakes such as over 10p or whatever, really people want us to | :57:28. | :57:33. | |
come together and come up with a solution. But is not working for | :57:33. | :57:37. | |
people right now, and we need a new set of policies. When will things | :57:37. | :57:44. | |
get better? In the next Parliament. Big depends what happens in the | :57:44. | :57:49. | |
United States and Europe. -- it depends what happens. | :57:49. | :57:51. | |
Well, politicians commemorated, cold shouldered and criticised. The | :57:51. | :57:56. | |
political week has got the lot this week. Here's our 60 second round-up. | :57:56. | :57:59. | |
New runways at Stansted Airport are still one of the Mayor of London's | :57:59. | :58:04. | |
favoured options, he told a committee of MPs this week. $YELLOW | :58:04. | :58:07. | |
Stansted is really replete with potential. Meanwhile, Basildon | :58:07. | :58:10. | |
Council thinks its Craylands Estate is a potential site to erect a | :58:10. | :58:16. | |
statue of Margaret Thatcher. think it's really silly, cos it | :58:16. | :58:20. | |
won't last five minutes in Craylands. And after her stay in | :58:20. | :58:23. | |
the jungle, no good news yet for MP Nadine Dorries, who's waiting to | :58:23. | :58:27. | |
have the Conservative whip restored. My constituents don't really care | :58:27. | :58:31. | |
whether I have the whip or not. And whereas I've been working very hard | :58:31. | :58:34. | |
in the constituency, I've been keeping a low Westminster profile. | :58:34. | :58:37. | |
A spat's broken out between two Essex MPs vying for Europe's | :58:37. | :58:41. | |
Capital of Culture Award. Southend should be the City of Culture. | :58:41. | :58:47. | |
Colchester is clearly the cultural capital of Essex. And Speaker John | :58:47. | :58:51. | |
Bercow was forced to intervene over a question from Dr Julian Huppert. | :58:51. | :58:54. | |
Order! It's very discourteous of the House to issue a collective | :58:54. | :59:04. | |
:59:04. | :59:08. | ||
Gavin Shuker, why is there a collective groan that when he | :59:08. | :59:18. | |
:59:18. | :59:19. | ||
speaks? I do not express one. seemed to come from your side! | :59:19. | :59:23. | |
was there speaking about the fact that Cambridge as goals have been | :59:23. | :59:27. | |
underfunded for decades. It was a shame that the house did not want | :59:27. | :59:33. | |
to listen. -- Cambridge it scrolls. There is far too much of this | :59:33. | :59:37. | |
bullying in the house. I wish we would have a more grown-up adopt | :59:37. | :59:45. |