09/12/2012 Sunday Politics North West

The private company brought in to tackle youth unemployment in the

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 2141 seconds

In the North West, this architectural gem will be saved,

but what happens to the money? That we will be hearing how he is

going into Commons posterity at which oil painting is on offer this

week? With me is Barbara Keeley, Labour MP for Worsley and Eccles

South in Greater Manchester, and the Conservative MP for Lancaster

and Fleetwood. It has been a big week in the Commons, hasn't it?

With the Autumn Statement, it is a big week, but at least we are

bearing down on the deficit, trying to balance the pain that the

difficult global situation. If I think it is a very bad week

for the north and north-west. It is a bad week for low and middle-

income families and for women, who will bear the brunt of the tax

credit changes and cuts to benefits. Some of those of the issues we will

be talking about shortly. It sounded like a moment from

science fiction - the Chancellor announced the creation of the

Office for unconventional gas. That is the plan to press ahead with

shale gas exploration through parts of the north-west. George Osborne's

budget was, it is a hard road. He it has been credited with

lowering energy prices in the US and boosting the American economy,

and George Osborne says he does not want Britain left behind. If we are

consulting on its tax incentives for shale gas and announcing the

creation of a single office saw the regulation is safe and simple.

A move welcomed by the Lancashire MP whose constituency is at the

heart of the exploration. It will mean jobs, working with

local colleges, very important that if this process goes ahead it has

done so with transparency and all the consent of constituents being

looked at properly. By it there remain concerns over

safety after two birth trimmers and the UK's Climate Change targets.

Shale gas is not clean, it is another dirty fossil fuel. We need

to develop renewable energy sources. The north-west is ideally placed

for this, we have onshore winds, solar and tidal resources.

With the north-west were dependent on the public sector than others,

the Government cuts in the next two years will hit hard. Those who have

kept public sector jobs will receive a pay rise of 1% and

benefits will be pegged at the same rate.

The tis our region being hammered the most in terms of youth

unemployment, long-term employment and social division. We know that

we play it -- p a long-term price for that.

Some other news... Salford will get ultra-fast

broadband. Plans for high-speed rail have been delayed until New

Year. That money for housing and schools

will go into a single pot which local enterprise partnerships can

bid for. We need a restructure from the bank

dominated south-east took to exports and manufacturing,

benefiting the north-west of England.

The Government thinks the region is said to weather the storm but

admits it will last longer than first predicted.

Eric, Blair's the Government of course?

And don't think the Government is particularly of course. We have

managed to quarter of the biggest inherited deficit in the Western

world, and when we look at countries around us, where they are

cutting pensions, he has protected pensioners and got rid of the fuel

tax escalator Labour would have brought in. It is a difficult time,

and the balance of decisions he has taken are correct. He said he would

balance the books after five years. We're still waiting for bat. He

said that debt would start to come down, as well. He has now admitted

it will certainly be at least a year late, perhaps longer. When I

talk to my constituents they understand...

But you can understand why this could be seen as a feeling. Not a

feeling, they can seize success. They see interest rates down, 1.2 5

million extra private sector jobs created, the deficit down and

stability to get foreign investment. There saying to you, Lord Osborne

said he is going to take control of the debt, the debt is not going to

be controlled, it will be at least one year late, that is good news?

No, obviously not, and he admitted that. My electorate is quite

realistic when they look at other countries and they think we're

getting through this better than the surrounding countries. Barbara,

that is the point, that this country has managed to maintain the

confidence of the market? Mickey point is, you meet the point about

debt and deficit, we had a slight of hand from George Osborne. He

wanted to bring down the figures so he could make a political point

might in the Autumn Statement. He included �3.5 billion from the sale

of the fortune mobile spectrum when it is still out there. It is a bit

like saying there, my mortgage is paid off by selling the car, when

the car is sitting in the driveway. He has tripled the -- the country

still has a triple-A rating, which means the massive debt does not

need to gawp. Well, I don't think that is the be-

all and end-all. It is it not aboard an? I think it is important

to have growth in the economy and then plundered. This week, a family

on only �20,000 has foundered it will lose �279 as a result of the

cuts to benefits, while people like Wayne Rooney and people on

footballer salaries will get back hundreds of thousands of pounds.

The people on ordinary incomes, middle incomes, they will gain from

the fuel tax not going up, of which was planned by Labour.

Remember, we also have three years of a council tax freeze. The

personal allowance has been put up, and have of the people affected are

actually women in workable again. Thousands of people in the north-

west will be taken out of tax. It is difficult, we would all like to

do wonderful things, but Barbara's party has never supported a single

efficiency or cut we have proposed, and they have to answer that when

we vote on what to do for the benefits. I argued going to support

that? The Government said able increase it by 1%, less than

inflation. We have not even seen that legislation yet, it is

impossible to say. He has just told you the figures, it is not

impossible to say. Do we trust figures from a Chancellor of

playing Monopoly? The they are pretty basic, are they not?

We will look at it when it comes out in legislation. This is a man

who played Monopoly cash amounts, fictitious cash amount in his

Autumn Statement so he could stand the up and say something is follow

when it is actually rising. If it had not been for that 3.5 billion

he tried to play into the figures, borrowing would have gone up �2

billion this year. How can you trust account -- Chancellor we

cannot be honest with his colleagues and the country?

The interesting, the last time, 3G was it sold off by Labour and it

was exactly the same. We did not put the figures in before the sale.

It was sleight of hand. We will not get into mobile telephony, but

let's stick with economics, because the North West Development Agency,

that was abolished two years ago, but doesn't of sites across the

region, including famous ones like the little wood building, were

still on its books. The assets were transferred to central Government,

but you should put the assets ski here in the north-west? -- but

After a decade on the market, this building has just been sold. This

land is still for sale despite a buyer waiting in the wings. In fact,

more than 40 sites between Merseyside and Cumbria, worth up to

�50 million, owned by something called the homes and communities

agency, are up for grabs. Selling any sort of property can be pretty

problematic, but imagine you have just sold your hands and then you

have to split the proceeds with the rest of the country. That is what

is happening to some of these sites. Before it was abolished, the North

West Development Agency kept the money from any sales insuring cash

stayed in the region. Two years ago, the assets transferred to the home

and communities agency. In some cases, it is not clear exactly

where the money has gone. It has been very depressing to see it

taken out of use and gradually decay over the years. Empty and

decaying for a decade, this building has been the most

prominent example of such a sight. This week it was sold to a

developer. The money raised will stay in Liverpool. We would

obviously prefer to have had the ownership from day one, but a our

deal has enabled the city council to work in partnership with the

Gorman community's agency and uniquely has met control and

destiny of these sites comes under But outside Liverpool, but will not

necessarily be the case. The we it works is, when the land is sold,

the money goes into a national pot. In that, it sits alongside other

Government investments, so you have a combination of the money from

sales alongside Government money, and that is then redistributed out

to regeneration of sites across the country, depending where the need

is. One re-generation expert says there needs to be more clarity.

do not have any idea how much this sold for or what is happening to

them, or if something is happening to them that will help the place

where they are. It is quite hard to find out any flow of money at all.

Craig is desperate for his money to flow into the dormant communities

Agency coffers. Brand new units here, nothing there. A absolutely,

this is phase one, completed in February. This is where we would

like to build a further 45,000 square feet. He has been trying to

buy this plot of land in Wirral for 12 months, but he says it is

proving more frustrating and time- consuming than dealing with its

predecessor. Acquire in public land from public sector bodies is always

relatively slow. -- acquiring. We have been a little disappointed the

progress with the H C aid deal has taken longer than hoped, it is more

bureaucratic. Bureaucratic or not, we are

starting to see its old signs on the properties. That means there

can only be greater scrutiny about where the money generated finally

ends up. A we're also joined now by Neil

McIlroy, an expert in local regeneration from the centre of

economic strategies. A bid at the Chancellor do anything

in that the Budget which would help local economies grow? I think so.

The Government is in a difficult place and has to reduce the deficit

at the same time as stimulating demand. There have been some things

he has done in terms of resources and new planning, local enterprise

partnerships, it is something. There is more therefore local

growth, but my sense is it is a little too late. A few we could ago

we had that report from Michael Heseltine talking about my ass of

devolution of money and power to these local -- talking about

massive devolution of power. Did you think that has influenced

in any way what the Chancellor has done?

We can take any recommendation from Michael Heseltine, but the report

was very much re-hashing of policies of the 1980s and 1990s. We

need something much more immediate to deal with the problems of

poverty in the north-west. If he were speaking to Eric and the

Government, what would you say should be done? I think we need to

dig hard and deep to find a new narrative for how to find new

growth, we have the jobs going to come from? Will party has got to

grips with what has going -- what is going to be the future of the

north-west in the future. I do not think that has been thought through

and more work needs to be done in that area. I think that Chancellor

has promised there will be a White Paper in reaction to Lord

Heseltine's proposals. There will be another billion

pounds in the Regional Growth Fund. You point to those assets in your

film. I bet there has not one of them in my constituency, because

our end of Lancashire's got no look-in when it came to the

regional development agencies. We will be hoping that our bit of

Lancashire can react much quicker. The bass majority were and

Merseyside. -- the vast majority. The a Arthur wrote the north-west.

-- they are through wrote the north-west. The worry I have is

that these are now being sold off, probably at the worst possible time

for aside like that, and the money is going out of our area. Those

assets were paid for by taxpayers here, the money should stay here.

They were paid for by taxpayers across the country. Yes, but we are

losing our share. It is going into a central pot, it may end up in the

Olympic Park in London, who is to say? You said it would go we are

river of the need is. We're finding the need is not recognised as it

used to be. We have need for growth and long-term solutions, we are not

getting them. You must be pleased that Salford will become this fibre

optic city? That will not necessarily provided jobs. Of

course, in terms of where we are today, Media City, the Digital

Industries, in itself that is not important -- not enough to cope

with the knock back this autumn statement was. North has -- North

West Business leaders said they did not think the Budget did enough to

help close the north-south divide. Small things will help, like the

broadband, but it is not enough. you see the divide growing? That

they abide is growing, and there was no sign that it will stop

growing. -- the debate is growing. It is interesting to see one of the

most centralised economies in the Western liberal democracies. We are

trying to bridge the output gap between the south and the North.

But do not see anyone having the heft to deal with that today. There

is something about a new way... That they ride between us and

London in terms of our contribution in GDP actually got wider under

Labour. That is one of the reasons I

personally wanted to get rid of the institutions are we could get more

localised investment. They are have the old resources...

We had just offered new resources. The things we're going to do with

the university sector, that we were not bring. There are other things

to build on there. It is at the myth to say that regional

development agencies did anything about the divide, they got wider.

The question that should be placed was right at the heart of Whitehall

and a centralised economic state which fails to redistribute wealth

and invest properly in those areas lagging behind. The Regional

Development Agency as it point is an interesting one in that those

assets should be repatriated for local benefit, and if they cannot

find a market value at the moment, they should be open for other,

social and cultural activities. They should be for the use of the

people of the north-west. Thank you very much indeed. Time for the rest

A new law will force serving South Yorkshire police officers to give

evidence to an inquiry into the Hillsborough disaster. Until now,

officers could choose whether to appear before the police watchdog.

The Government has announced virgin trains will continue to run the

West Coast Mainline for up to two use. They will also be a direct

line from London to Blackpool. Minister has who oversaw a bizarre

structural reorganisation of the department that left no one in

charge of the rail services. In the Ince have called for scientific

debate in two Cumbria's proposal to host a burial site for waste.

The Natural Services Authority says it could pose a threat to the

environment. Plans for a cute wind farm could

have major impact on trouble for the Isle of Man.

And the high court has overturned a ban by the National Park Authority

on for by force and trail bikes in In terms of the west coast, we know

it was a fiasco, but the reality is ministers were badly let down by

civil servants, were they not? our accountability is to the

ministers -- ministers, not the civil servants. It is not civil

servants that are answerable for decisions, but ministers. And civil

servants who gave such bad figures, that even the basics like inflation

were not concluded. About his appalling, but they need to work

out how to make better processes in the future. I think it is welcome

for June will be running the West Coast Mainline for another two

years because they have done a good draw and it was a mistake to take

it away from them.. Bike is, will we get investment decisions made

when it is still uncertain? That is strewn of all franchises. The you

think it was a mistake to lose so much expertise in the department

through spending cuts? We have looked at the report, which as not

- but which has not blamed ministers are told. I am really

pleased to say that at least it has come out with not just Britain

carrying on, but carrying on with real improvements like the direct

service between Blackpool and Manchester impacting on my

constituency. But I at cost of �40 million to the taxpayer at least.

That cost would have been here on top of it, then there are extra

carriages and hopefully we will get a prudent in Lancaster station, and

what Barbara has been campaigning for, the northern hub, has been

funded before this. We have lost about �100 million... The let us

leave that one in the station. No now it is time for that painting.

Weeks ago we had Nigel Evans, one of the Commons deputy speakers, in

the studio. It has turned out his portrait could be the first piece

of urban arch to be accepted by the Commons.

What does go for the official What do you make of it? I think it

is absolutely superb. I knew that he was a modern artist, I met him

at a party and it is absolutely superb. Top and us through what you

were trying to capture and here. Klee, because of Nigel's role in

the House of Commons, that is what I wanted to portray. That was a

central theme of the canvas and I wanted to put him in his basic

setting of the House of Commons behind him, and elements of that

and what that represent, as well. Is it spray-paint you have used?

Mainly, yes, because that is the main medium I used, but also do

calligraphy, as well, hence the writing on the right of the

painting. Also, his face and hands were with paintbrush. What will you

do with it? A bowl or for it to the House of Commons art collection

after a few people have seen it in my office, but I think it is superb,

and I don't think a portrait of a deputy speaker, or indeed a speaker,

has ever been done in this style before.

I am sure you were right, I am wondering if I can buy at first!

The we are open to negotiation! Eric, have you got room on the wall

for that painting? And I don't have been run to get it through the door

of my office in Parliament. What is sort of paintings do you have in

your office? I have one of son Alec Douglas-Home and one of William

Pitt. A historic coffee. Barbara, good news for you, you won an award

this week. It's, it was for sports parliamentarian of the year. Why

have been promoting sports for young girls and women generally

which needs a big boost, and I was given the silver award for sport

Parliament to reign of the year. Brilliant new, congratulation.