17/02/2013 Sunday Politics East


17/02/2013

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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,

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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,

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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

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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

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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

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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?

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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.

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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

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can see how they are being asked to do a very big task by the

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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

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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

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vaults the Budget to the regions. - - divorced national budget to the

:43:21.:43:24.

regions. -- defaults.

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So, although our LEPs are in their infancy, how effective are they

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really? Research by this programme has found that the six LEPs in our

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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.

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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."

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And the Greater Cambridge and Peterborough LEP told MPs recently

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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.

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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.

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