:01:30. > :01:33.Here in the North East, the rights and wrongs of wonder. MPs react to
:01:33. > :01:43.the new football sponsors. Is the region losing up to Scotland in the
:01:43. > :01:43.
:01:43. > :37:54.Apology for the loss of subtitles for 2170 seconds
:37:54. > :37:59.Hallow and a warm welcome to your local part of the show. Coming up,
:37:59. > :38:03.online shopping giant Amazon was going to bring hundreds of jobs to
:38:03. > :38:08.North Tyneside but they ended up in Scotland instead. We will be asking
:38:08. > :38:17.if we can compete with our economic rivals north of the border. My
:38:17. > :38:23.guests will chew over that. I am joined by Nick Brown. You were at
:38:23. > :38:26.the Conservative conference when David, and launched his speech.
:38:26. > :38:29.think it will strike a chord with voters across the country. People
:38:29. > :38:33.who are out there trying to get on with their job and do well for
:38:33. > :38:36.their families and build a better future for them, at think the
:38:36. > :38:41.message I hear more than anything in the North East is I want better
:38:41. > :38:45.for my children. That is the challenge that David Cameron wants
:38:45. > :38:49.to crack, to make sure that the framework is there for families to
:38:49. > :38:54.get the best out of whatever it is they want to do with their lives.
:38:54. > :38:57.He is on your side is in't? If he means it, a has to get that
:38:57. > :39:02.practical effect. There are people in this region who want to work but
:39:02. > :39:05.cannot find jobs. He has to help the region rebuild the private
:39:05. > :39:11.sector economic base so that there are jobs for people who can do them
:39:11. > :39:16.and for people who want to do them. Thank you very much. Let us move on
:39:16. > :39:19.to one of the biggest changes ever made to policing, the election of
:39:19. > :39:23.new police and crime commissioners. For the first time, voters will be
:39:23. > :39:27.able to elect the person leading the police forces. They will set
:39:27. > :39:31.spending priorities and hire and fire at the Chief Constable. The
:39:31. > :39:40.government is standing accused of not doing enough to tell people the
:39:40. > :39:44.elections are taking place. On 15th November, you will have the vote.
:39:45. > :39:49.You might have spotted this advert on television this week, it is an
:39:49. > :39:53.attempt by the Home Office to encourage us to vote on 15th
:39:53. > :39:58.November, but how many people know about the next date with the ballot
:39:58. > :40:04.box. Do you know what is happening on 15th November? Have not got a
:40:04. > :40:09.clue. I know I have not missed anyone's but they. What is
:40:09. > :40:13.happening on 15th November? Were do not know. It is the Police and
:40:13. > :40:18.Crime Commissioner elections. have heard about it. I did not
:40:18. > :40:23.realise it was that day. It is the election for the Commissioner for
:40:23. > :40:28.the police. That is right. How much do you know about it? I have not
:40:28. > :40:34.seen any flyers or anything. Do you think there has been enough
:40:34. > :40:40.information? No. Up knowledge is a little bit hazy, but that is not
:40:40. > :40:45.really surprising. There are no free postal drop so we will not get
:40:45. > :40:49.information about candidates unless they pay for it themselves. In a
:40:49. > :40:53.large rural county like Cumbria, it is difficult if not impossible for
:40:53. > :41:00.campaigners to visit every street, so it seems it might not just be
:41:00. > :41:05.the weather putting people off next month. Information about the
:41:05. > :41:10.selection is mainly based on-line, but if you live in an internet
:41:10. > :41:15.blackspot like this area, forming an opinion is a bit tricky. This
:41:15. > :41:20.particular election, we cannot get any access to it, we cannot get the
:41:20. > :41:25.internet and I must admit I was unaware that there was an election
:41:25. > :41:29.because of the lack of news. We just cannot get on the internet to
:41:29. > :41:33.access any information about who is up for election or to put our votes
:41:33. > :41:36.in or anything. Team voters like this man can phone at the Home
:41:36. > :41:40.Office and asked for a candidate information to be posted to them,
:41:40. > :41:43.but the information will not be sent out until November and there
:41:43. > :41:48.are concerns that the lack of publicity now could have a lasting
:41:48. > :41:53.impact on our police forces in years to come. The it is a huge
:41:53. > :41:59.change in the dynamic of policing with the public having a stake in
:41:59. > :42:02.someone who is holding the police to account. These areas are huge
:42:02. > :42:06.compared to my MP's constituencies. If the turnout is low, less than
:42:06. > :42:11.one in five people know this is taking place, and if we get an 18%
:42:11. > :42:15.turnout, then it really will cause doubt in terms of the hold
:42:15. > :42:25.principal of represents a -- of selecting people to represent the
:42:25. > :42:31.community. This is your party's flagship policy on policing, but it
:42:31. > :42:34.does not have been publicised. agree, I think we need to raise the
:42:34. > :42:40.profile so that all our candidates will have the chance to be heard
:42:40. > :42:44.and to show why they are standing. Was it a mistake in not to allow
:42:44. > :42:50.free postal drops? A I have not had that discussion with the Home
:42:50. > :42:54.Office. I think it would be a hugely difficult challenge. Our
:42:54. > :42:59.candidate has got 2 million people to talk to so finding ways to do
:42:59. > :43:05.that in a short space of time is difficult. The government had
:43:05. > :43:11.agreed to fund a free postal drop, it would have been simple. It would.
:43:11. > :43:15.There is a case for that. We need to make sure that we can sell the
:43:15. > :43:21.whole idea which is accountability and making sure that you can have a
:43:21. > :43:30.stake in how you -- your area is being policed. I hope the BBC will
:43:30. > :43:35.give us all the opportunity to hear our candidate speak. Here we are.
:43:35. > :43:39.You can see the government's., spending �30 million on a mailshot
:43:39. > :43:42.does not sound like a good use of money. Most of the candidates are
:43:42. > :43:47.from political parties, the parties can fund them count they? They
:43:47. > :43:51.cannot, they do not have the money. I would have preferred to see a
:43:51. > :43:57.mail drop if we were going to have... Even though it would cost
:43:57. > :44:01.�30 million? You either agree with having add directly elected police
:44:01. > :44:05.commissioner and the functions of the old police committee being done
:44:05. > :44:09.by a single person that the public have chosen, or you do not. If you
:44:09. > :44:12.do agree with it, you have to agree that the people will know the
:44:12. > :44:16.election is on and understand what it is they are being asked to
:44:16. > :44:21.decide and will get some information about it, democracy
:44:21. > :44:26.does not come cheap, and other forms of government are more
:44:27. > :44:31.expensive. It is even tougher for an independent to try and leaflet
:44:31. > :44:38.people. That is more generally true and I think that is a good thing. I
:44:38. > :44:39.think the political parties to a good service in choosing a
:44:39. > :44:48.candidate that members of the political parties have confidence
:44:48. > :44:55.in. A ensure you have an excellent candidate! I am going to move on.
:44:55. > :45:00.If turnout, as some predict, is barely 20%, it will be a disastrous
:45:00. > :45:04.combination of the whole idea. think there is a real risk, getting
:45:04. > :45:09.people out to vote will be a challenge, there is no doubt about
:45:09. > :45:12.that. I would have much rather have seen it in May with the local
:45:13. > :45:16.elections across the country. I am told that there was a battle within
:45:16. > :45:25.the coalition on that and that the November date was the one that was
:45:25. > :45:29.fixed. How higher turnout would be acceptable? Assuming our local
:45:29. > :45:33.councils are around 20 to 30%, that would be a starting point. I'd will
:45:33. > :45:36.certainly be out and about all the time, talking to people and getting
:45:36. > :45:41.people to understand what it is about but you cannot talk to 2
:45:41. > :45:46.million people individually. There is a challenge there. To get any
:45:46. > :45:49.sense that there is it any public interest in these elections? There
:45:49. > :45:55.is no real understanding of what the new commissioner will be doing
:45:55. > :46:00.and what the powers are and what they can expect. When he or she
:46:00. > :46:04.tell police what to do? Can they give instructions to the chief
:46:04. > :46:09.Constable? The answer to that is No. The public will say well what do
:46:09. > :46:12.they do? You have to explain that they are carrying out the functions
:46:12. > :46:16.of the old police committee. The Labour party consulted on a similar
:46:16. > :46:20.idea about collecting the whole of the Police Committee and we
:46:20. > :46:24.consulted on it and there was a lot of resistance to it. I actually
:46:24. > :46:27.think the old way of doing it was probably better. We are stuck it
:46:27. > :46:33.that way amid will have to see how the elections go.
:46:33. > :46:38.If you want to know more about the elections, there is a way, you need
:46:38. > :46:43.to go to this website. They will be a growing amount of information. On
:46:43. > :46:46.the show next week, we will have candidates being questioned by
:46:46. > :46:50.victims of crime. It is always a fierce battle when
:46:50. > :46:52.it comes to attracting jobs and investment to the North East and
:46:52. > :46:57.Cumbria and one of our biggest competitors lies just north of the
:46:57. > :47:02.border. Scotland has its own parliament and a powerful economic
:47:02. > :47:07.development agency, but does it have an unfair advantage? Our
:47:08. > :47:10.correspondent reports on the jobs that a region has missed out on. At
:47:10. > :47:17.North Tyneside Industrial Estate, plenty of empty offices, it might
:47:17. > :47:21.not have been that way. Amazon was considering bringing 900 jobs here,
:47:21. > :47:27.instead they went north after Scotland offered a �1.8 million
:47:27. > :47:30.grant. A gut reaction at the time was the devastation. A lot of
:47:30. > :47:34.people had worked very hard to bring the jobs here but it suddenly
:47:34. > :47:38.felt as though our hands were tied and we feel that at the moment the
:47:38. > :47:42.way that all of the funding is under way that the economic
:47:42. > :47:46.development programmes have been run, Scotland have an unfair of
:47:46. > :47:48.vantage which makes it very difficult for us here in the North
:47:48. > :47:52.East when we see more happening down into the South East rather
:47:52. > :47:57.than here, so we are being pulled in both directions and missing out
:47:57. > :48:02.in the middle. The Conservative mayor of North Tyneside was so
:48:02. > :48:07.incensed at the decision she took the issue to the top. We have made
:48:07. > :48:13.this an issue to government. I have written to the Financial Times I
:48:13. > :48:17.have spoken to the ministers myself and we need to have the access to
:48:17. > :48:21.government which we do. independent Scotland will
:48:21. > :48:29.inevitably get extra economic powers, where does that leave the
:48:29. > :48:32.North East? We would have to make a our case to Government and say this
:48:32. > :48:37.is what we would like. If that is what you are doing and you are
:48:37. > :48:43.going to allow that, then we would like some of that money to give us
:48:43. > :48:46.in level playing field. This is what North Tyneside could have had.
:48:47. > :48:52.Amazon it came to Dunfermline and the fact that they are here has
:48:52. > :48:57.given the local economy is vital boost. In the town centre, you can
:48:57. > :49:00.see the differences made, streets are full of shoppers, all told
:49:00. > :49:07.Scottish Enterprise funds encouraged Amazon to open centres
:49:07. > :49:12.here and in Edinburgh. The result is 1,600 new jobs. We are in the
:49:12. > :49:19.middle of the coalfields which have been decimated completely, so it to
:49:19. > :49:23.see my home town flourished, albeit in a new type of work, has to be a
:49:23. > :49:27.positive thing. But what is positive for Dunfermline and any
:49:27. > :49:34.number it might not be for the North East. Overall enterprise and
:49:34. > :49:40.economic development here is �184 and Scotland compared to �134 per
:49:41. > :49:45.head in the North East. Scotland can offer regional grants worth
:49:45. > :49:51.�306 million last year, they are not available in the North East. So
:49:51. > :49:55.here at the Scottish Parliament, what do the SNP say? Scotland
:49:55. > :49:59.contributes more to the Exchequer than it gets back out. What you are
:49:59. > :50:02.talking about really is the success of Scottish development
:50:02. > :50:09.internationally, that has been so successful in securing money in
:50:09. > :50:15.from abroad. It is a competitive market. It is unfair! All markets
:50:15. > :50:21.or unfair. The North East has had a hard times, so has Scotland and it
:50:21. > :50:27.has to adapt. The differences are that we have a degree of devolution
:50:27. > :50:32.that allows us to do certain things, a degree of economic freedom.
:50:32. > :50:35.still some North East office blocks lie empty, increasingly we're after
:50:35. > :50:41.the same business as Scotland but are we being given a fair chance to
:50:41. > :50:45.compete? Let us get the view of the chair of the development agency
:50:45. > :50:50.that was abolished earlier this year. If the North East have the
:50:50. > :50:55.financial cloud at this time, could it have persuaded Amazon to come to
:50:55. > :50:58.the North East? Quite possibly. Certainly we had a very successful
:50:59. > :51:02.time at attracting businesses to this region and you can see them in
:51:02. > :51:06.North Tyneside which is why the Amazon jobs would have been, the
:51:06. > :51:10.Tesco bank there, you can see the developments of Nissan and the new
:51:10. > :51:15.jobs there, so yes we did create a lot of jobs and it is disappointing
:51:15. > :51:18.to see them going elsewhere. Presumably when this happened,
:51:18. > :51:24.someone will come in with a bigger incentive, there is no way you
:51:24. > :51:29.could have guaranteed this? And so that the not. This is a very
:51:29. > :51:32.competitive market. We are missing the point a little bit. It is a
:51:32. > :51:36.global market, international investors are looking at a series
:51:36. > :51:39.of different locations. The issue we have here is not that Scotland
:51:39. > :51:46.is doing what we would have done in exactly the same circumstances, it
:51:46. > :51:49.is the fact that the UK now actually has a view that all
:51:49. > :51:56.they're interested in is bringing jobs to the UK and anywhere in the
:51:56. > :52:01.UK. There is no specific mandate to create jobs in the region. As long
:52:01. > :52:09.as they hid their numbers of new jobs in the UK, they get a pat on
:52:09. > :52:19.the head. What we need to have is some form of regional influence
:52:19. > :52:23.into the UK system. Let us focus on Scotland, how well to think the
:52:23. > :52:27.region is equipped to compete with Scotland? The Enterprise Agency is
:52:27. > :52:31.very successful as was the one and the North East. What we have put in
:52:31. > :52:35.place in the UK are a local enterprise partnerships which we
:52:35. > :52:39.support holy. The problem is that they are just a really getting
:52:39. > :52:43.started. They are trying to find their feet and raise funds and we
:52:43. > :52:47.have got a difficult time here, where what is happening at the
:52:47. > :52:51.moment it would not have happened if there had been something in its
:52:51. > :52:56.place, it is now a two year since the election and we are now only
:52:56. > :53:00.really getting our act together in the North East. Thank you. There is
:53:00. > :53:05.a lot of justifiable anger here. Hundreds of jobs heading to
:53:05. > :53:08.Scotland that would have come here if you're government had not
:53:08. > :53:12.abolished the regional development agency potentially. A do not think
:53:12. > :53:16.that is how you should look at it. The private sector is growing and
:53:16. > :53:20.we are seeing new jobs. What we have seen and we had been very
:53:20. > :53:23.effective in getting this influence is to get two really good
:53:23. > :53:28.enterprise zones here which I hope in the next five to ten years will
:53:28. > :53:33.see a huge influx of private investment into the North East.
:53:33. > :53:36.you St that those partnerships will be able to compete with his big
:53:36. > :53:39.Scottish Development Agency and stop something like Amazon
:53:39. > :53:43.happening again? I have that issue with Manchester and the Midlands
:53:43. > :53:48.and we will always be the relatively small region fighting
:53:48. > :53:52.for business. I believe our transport infrastructure is really
:53:52. > :53:55.poor compared to some of the other regions and we have to fight hard
:53:55. > :53:59.to make sure that the Department of Transport understands that and
:53:59. > :54:06.starts to see that we need better investment in this region. This is
:54:06. > :54:11.the kind of competition for jobs that happens all the time.
:54:11. > :54:17.Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. That is true of course, but
:54:17. > :54:20.we are not all at the same starting point. The enterprise zones and the
:54:20. > :54:25.new partnership arrangements that the coalition government have
:54:25. > :54:29.brought in just do not have the resources behind them to make a
:54:29. > :54:39.sufficiently persuasive countervailing offer to the sort of
:54:39. > :54:39.
:54:39. > :54:43.things... You spend all the money! If the current financial crisis
:54:43. > :54:49.started as a debt crisis in the United States and went around the
:54:49. > :54:55.world... And there is still a shortage of money. A you could not
:54:55. > :54:59.fund it as she did in the past. You could fund a countervailing force
:54:59. > :55:04.to the natural market forces that shot economies to the centre and in
:55:04. > :55:07.the case of our country, that is London and the South East. It is
:55:07. > :55:13.wrong to highlight Scotland as the competition when we had our own
:55:13. > :55:15.well-funded Development Agency and a Minister, me, that could punch
:55:15. > :55:21.our weight right at the heart of government. We were able to get our
:55:21. > :55:26.case put forward with the same effectiveness as the Scots and
:55:26. > :55:30.Welsh and Northern Ireland. interviewed Ed Miliband and he
:55:30. > :55:34.would not commit to recreating a development agency saw it is not
:55:34. > :55:37.necessarily that Labour would have that solution. I am happy for you
:55:37. > :55:43.to get Ed Miliband on your programme and ask him to set out
:55:43. > :55:47.his policy. I tried to! I think the development agency worked well for
:55:47. > :55:51.the region and there is a strong case for this region having a
:55:51. > :55:56.regional Minister and his own development agency with its own
:55:56. > :56:00.dedicated funds and that would enable us to make their offers to
:56:00. > :56:05.Scotland. It is true that be the private sector companies make their
:56:05. > :56:09.own choices, but they do want to see that there is a regional offer
:56:09. > :56:17.if they come in and create jobs and make this their home. I asked the
:56:17. > :56:21.Prime Minister about this and he backed up what my guess just said.
:56:21. > :56:25.As the Prime Minister, that is very much his position. The should also
:56:25. > :56:29.take a look that the economy here. We must make sure we develop a
:56:29. > :56:32.clear voice. I am pleased that Lord Adonis set up his commission to
:56:33. > :56:36.bring together that important strategic Messaging from the North
:56:36. > :56:40.East which the Prime Minister is keen to hear about. We want to see
:56:40. > :56:44.what we consider as a region is the most important thing. He does not
:56:44. > :56:49.want a list of begging letters, he wants to know what the North East
:56:49. > :56:52.needs to be at the top of its game. I think he believes that he has
:56:52. > :56:56.supported and his department had supported quite a lot of
:56:56. > :57:03.development into the private sector and he is open to hearing what we
:57:03. > :57:06.want for the North East so we can be as good as Manchester or better
:57:06. > :57:12.a week ago the more financially secure of us have probably never
:57:12. > :57:22.heard of Wonga, now people seem to talk of little else.
:57:22. > :57:27.
:57:27. > :57:31.He was a look at the rest of the news. Ministers say it is giving
:57:31. > :57:33.parents more choice, but the National Union of Teachers and the
:57:33. > :57:38.North East say setting up a free schools is creating too many
:57:38. > :57:42.surplus places and an MP has pledged to will not set foot inside
:57:42. > :57:52.Newcastle United's ground after it signed a sponsorship deal with
:57:52. > :57:53.
:57:53. > :57:56.payday loans company Wonga. He says it is a disgrace. It is a Wonga, it
:57:56. > :58:01.is based on the millions made from people in our region who are
:58:01. > :58:07.desperate and have not got the money to get into St James' Park
:58:07. > :58:12.let alone anything else. Shutting this company with the loss of 500
:58:12. > :58:15.jobs has done little to help the environment, that Tory MPs said
:58:16. > :58:25.similar plans are being set up in Canada were emissions will be just
:58:26. > :58:33.
:58:33. > :58:37.as high. It is a long way, but is not a... Let us talk about Wonga,
:58:37. > :58:41.would you go and what Newcastle United after they are sponsored by
:58:41. > :58:46.then? I do not go often, but it would not stop me from going. I do
:58:46. > :58:49.share the reservations about the arrangement, ultimately it is two
:58:49. > :58:57.private sector organisations and sponsorship is very important to
:58:57. > :59:07.football. We understand that, but Wonga's interest rates, over 40,000
:59:07. > :59:07.
:59:07. > :59:12.%, if you annualised a, it is double the rates of other companies.
:59:12. > :59:18.The fact that they can afford to sponsor a Newcastle United show the
:59:18. > :59:22.returns they are making. Ahead huge reservations about the way they are
:59:22. > :59:27.doing it, charging very large sums of money to people who are pretty
:59:27. > :59:32.desperate. And I am sure they would defend themselves if they were here.
:59:32. > :59:37.Is he right to be concerned? Should football clubs be thinking about
:59:37. > :59:41.the community? I share the reservations with any organisation
:59:41. > :59:45.that is using sponsorship through a business like that, but we do not
:59:45. > :59:48.use smoking companies any more to advertise racing, but alcohol
:59:48. > :59:52.companies are still sponsoring things, I do not think there is a
:59:52. > :59:56.moral question. I am pleased that investment will go into the
:59:56. > :00:00.football academy. Newcastle United and the North East will benefit
:00:00. > :00:06.from that, so there is an upside. My mother-in-law is a football
:00:06. > :00:09.fanatic and she is not impressed. I will just share that. For me, we
:00:09. > :00:13.should be seeing the support for credit unions and those sorts of
:00:13. > :00:20.things were people who have financial problems can be supported.
:00:20. > :00:24.Thank you very much. This week's programme was recorded before the
:00:24. > :00:28.announcement that Stuart Bell had died aged 74 from pancreatic cancer.
:00:28. > :00:33.He had been Middlesbrough's MP for 29 years, paying tribute to the