25/03/2012 Sunday Politics North West

And in the North West: A decade of dreams. As proud Preston marks ten

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 1833 seconds

years as a city, we ask what's Welcome to Sunday Politics North

West. Coming up, as Preston marked 10 years as a city we wonder about

its future. My guests this week are Alison McGovern, David Nuttall, and

Bill Winlow. They will be commenting on our stories over the

next 20 minutes. The MP for Tatton delivered his third Budget this

week. George Osborne stuck to the plan, cutting the deficit. While

the national headlines were dominated by changes to income tax,

some specific measures affected the North West. The biggest

announcement was upgrade in the railways. �130 million is to be

spent improving speed and capacity. Manchester becomes the second city

in the UK to get a so-called city deal, extra powers devolved from

London. It will also get super-fast internet to support businesses, but

Liverpool has missed out. There are moves towards regional pay that

could mean public sector workers in the region getting paid less than

other parts of the country. He our political editor has more details.

GlaxoSmithKline, already a major employer in Ulverston, now it has

plans to create hundreds of new jobs and says it is down to changes

jobs and says it is down to changes in taxation. We will make the drugs

in Britain. The simple dynamic is we will get a lower tax rate is we

do more work in Britain. No wonder at the Prime Minister was visiting

the pharmaceutical company in search of a tonic. If we are

friendly to business, weaker manufacturing business -- we can

manufacture in Britain. Some of those ingredients were in the

Budget box. The Chancellor announced the upgrading of three

railway lines. Manchester to Sheffield, Manchester to Bradford,

and pressed into Blackpool. years, transport investment in the

North of England was neglected. Not under this Government. Greater

Manchester is getting a so-called city deal, the Treasury will return

as much as �30 million a year to invest in the regional economy.

Good intentions are blighted by the reality of rising unemployment and

a flat economy. It is clear it is not a budget for this area. We have

seen today, and the leader of the opposition make this point very

clear, cutting the tax break is helping millionaires. -- cutting

the 50p tax rate. The Chancellor is cutting more than he is investing.

The debate is whether this will make things worse.

He looks a bit lonely walking into the distance. David Nuttall, how

does this Budget demonstrate that the coalition has the right

economic strategy for this region? I think you have to set the budget

in the context of the overall national position. We mustn't

forget we are in a dire economic position. The last Labour

government let this country in a terrible economic state. �1 item

every �4 being spent was being borrowed. That is not sustainable.

The coalition government had set out a path that will take several

years to complete it actually start to enable this country to balance

its books. You are already shaking your head. David Nuttall would say

that. The Tories have to blame it on Labour, and you have to explain

why George Osborne is now borrowing more. We have to ask ourselves, how

much more money can we see taken out of our economy before things

start to get even worse? Of course we can all have a political

bunfight, but my constituents say to me the average family know that

prices are going up in the shops and they have less money coming in.

What was in the Budget to tackle that? There was a �220 tax cut for

those on basic income tax. Then there is the VAT hike, tax credits

changing so people pay more, the majority of people know that times

are hard and they do not see much getting better. That worries me

because it takes money out of the economy. Surely the Government is

in debt in -- injecting money into the economy by raising the tax

threshold. That is an important move. You must look at the net

position people around. You cannot give with one hand and take away

with the other. My constituents are finding times pretty tough. The VAT

tax hike is still hitting people in the shops. We have the news of tax

on older people rising. You must welcome some of the measures in

there, the ones I mentioned in the beginning. The Budget does seem to

be investing in the private sector, which they hope will then boost the

economy. The GlaxoSmithKline announcement is welcome and I would

pay tribute to the local MP who championed that. Do you agree the

private sector needs to be boosted? The news we saw there is they took

the decision some time ago and this is about where the investment is

going to go, it is fantastic to year. I do not think anybody really

thinks that is an overnight announcement in response to the

Budget. I think it is a sign of the fact that Britain is open for

business, and I am sure that were it not for the fact this government

has announced a reduction in corporation tax they would not have

made this decision. When I speak to businesses in my constituency, they

are still really worried about finance, not seeing projects

managed well... All these investments, is it enough to

counter what is region has been put through regarding for instance

public sector worker jobs going? Since the coalition came in,

something like 40,000 public sector workers have lost jobs. Fortunately

in Lancashire we have not had to sack anyone. How many have taken

redundancy? 7,000. There must be a rebalancing of the economy, we need

to get the private sector moving, and start making things again in

Britain. You know yourself, local government have taken the biggest

cuts of any government department. Howard is that hit the economy in

the north-west? -- how is that hitting? I want you to answer

whether you agree in principle with what the coalition have done by

priding -- by boosting the private sector in this region? Nobody is

private than me of the strides that have been made by the private

sector in my part of the world. People bought Liverpool would be

down and out when the recession came and we were not. The private

sector has stayed pretty strong and robust. That is the approach I want

to see. That too many years of hard work. There was lots of investment,

and one of the biggest problems we have had in Merseyside is we had

the North West Development Agency working very hard alongside the

private sector to build up the economy of the north-west. All

those projects were stalled over night when the new government came

in and swept away the North West Development Agency. They have next

to no resources. They have just been given an extra �31 million.

have got a project in my own constituency where we had to �0.5

million that should have been invested in the project, delayed

for 18 months because of politics. The Lancashire Enterprise Zone is

up and running and going well. We will attract further business into

the area. It is important that we get engineering concerns into those

areas. That is where I come back to the fact we have to build things.

We have to sell things to the rest of the world. As a Liberal Democrat,

how comfortable are you with some of the things in the Budget? Mostly

comfortable, some things are clearly hours and some things are

the Conservatives. The granny tax does not exist, that is nonsense.

In a year, we will have extra pensions for people. Are you aware

of that? You cannot deny that those people in that generation are

unhappy. Of course I cannot because they are being told that through

the media. I can see the logic of it, because it was not efficient.

The 50p tax rate was also not a vision, it did not bring in much

money. Politically speaking, was this not a gamble? It was not a

gamble. The measures that are being brought in, that will only get the

right, are going to raise five times as much as the Revenue that

the 50p tax rate was racing. They were saying it would raise �100

million, and these measures will raise five times that. George

Osborne is a Cheshire MPs I always live in hope he will listen to

people in the north-west, although my constituents tend to think he

was on another planet, but they think he has the wrong priorities.

We have mentioned the granny tax, actually, I think all people have

already faced a difficult time, and I think they quite rightly feel...

Half of the pensions do not pay any tax at all. I will have to stop you

there. Preston is celebrating its past, but what about the future? 10

years ago, it was the Golden Jubilee, and Preston became

England's 50th city. One decade on, and with plans for investment in

tatters, many are concerned Preston has lost its way.

Famous for its bus station and having the first stretch of

motorway in the country, Preston has been dubbed the third city of

the north-west. But is it heading in the right direction? 10 years

ago, it was granted city status with much royal fanfare.

There were grand plans for Preston. A �700 million revamp 11 years in

the making. Everything relied on the Tithbarn Project, but it

collapsed when John Lewis pulled out of the scheme. It has been the

work that dominated thinking in the City, Tithbarn, Tithbarn, really we

have a decade of Tithbarn plight. For shoppers and traders that the

lure of Tithbarn has left this huge hole. Pressed indeed a Plan B.

is at it, it looks rough. -- it is a mess. They need to slash the

rates and the car parking, they need to get people back into town.

Some people see this as the time of -- as a sign of the economic Times,

others see it as a poor policy. need to look at bringing tourism,

the night-time economy, housing, there is a range of other things

that need to be done. We need to pull it together, we need a

figurehead, someone that will knock some heads together and say this is

where we're going. Preston works alongside Lancashire County Council.

The partnership has not always run smoothly, with political power

struggles along the way. Press the needs a unitary and authority where

the city council can decide for itself what is the ideal situation.

We could perhaps have a revenue budget 10 times the size we have at

the moment. As being part of a two- tier political system Helby back? -

- help you back? It has in the past. This year, Preston will hold its

prestigious Guild event. There is another cause for celebration, the

university attracts over 3,000 international students. We have

doubled in size. When you speak to people about being a city, that

helps to convince people in China and other places to come here.

years ago there were great expectations but many feel the city

has landed on hard times. As Lancashire County Council MP, at

you will know about Preston, does it need a Plan B? It certainly does.

The project that has collapsed has been a real problem. The fact that

that Tithbarn Project has not come in has wrecked the whole plan for

the future. I have always felt this has been the wrong approach to take,

especially as the economy is shifting. To bring in large

department stores and those other things... What is the alternative?

We need a plan B. You heard what the lady said, we need more cinemas,

restaurants, cultural life. You will probably need a lot more

smaller stores, pretty stores, to encourage people to go when. --

boutique stores to encourage people to go in. That will be encouraged

through the Enterprise Zone. could make a difference if it was

not two-tier system? Preston is too small to become that. A unitary

authority of 35,000 is too small. Is the problem that there is it too

small -- is the problem that there is not an identity? I would agree

with you. We were offered a unitary authority and we turned it down.

Now we're seeing a problem between Lancashire County Council and

Preston. We need to get them to lay down their differences and start

looking closely at these projects. Lancashire has a lot of planning

authority over highways and traffic infrastructure, and that is not

working very well. Any approach to Preston is very difficult, the town

centre is very compact. The problem with a lot of regeneration is it

can be this lack of real identity, obviously the government is pushing

for elected mayors, thinking that will give it a boost. What would

you say about that? I think what we heard in the piece is you need a

clear vision and you need to have people accountable to delivering

that vision. Certainly in Merseyside, we have been lucky in

that all our local authority leaders have worked together to

drive forward the economic vision. The economy does not respect

administrative boundaries. Absolutely right. In Liverpool, we

are about to have the mayoral election. But there will block it.

No, Liverpool had decided to go ahead and elect a mayor. -- the we

all decided to block it. -- Wirral. Greater Manchester, should be a

Manchester mayor or a Greater Manchester mayor? I think it is for

Manchester itself. We had a referendum in Bury North, they were

not very happy. If any other cities -- if any of the citizens of

Preston what to enjoy a great day out, I would recommend they come to

my constituency! Now a round-up of other political news.

The Home Secretary Theresa May has ordered an enquiry into the leak of

controversial government documents referring to the Hillsborough

disaster. They show a senior Merseyside police officer wrongly

blamed drunken Liverpool fans in a briefing said to Margaret Thatcher.

Work has started on a terminal in Liverpool which will allow journeys

to start and end in the city. Pendle Council has bought the

historic Brierfield Mills for �1.5 million.

An MP is calling for a separate BBC radio station for Cheshire. Graham

Evans says the county needs its own voice. In the north-west of England

we have BBC Radio Merseyside and Radio Manchester, Radio Lancashire,

but we have no BBC Radio Cheshire. It is an outrage. Tributes have