:00:48. > :00:51.It is tough on High Street this Christmas, with many support
:00:51. > :00:56.businesses struggling to get help they need. As the Chancellor
:00:56. > :01:06.brought them festive cheer? Could council cutbacks undermine the
:01:06. > :01:06.
:01:06. > :34:44.Apology for the loss of subtitles for 2018 seconds
:34:44. > :34:49.Hello, and welcome to your local part of the show for Cumbria and
:34:49. > :34:53.the North East. Coming up: Is there much festive cheer on a high street,
:34:53. > :34:58.or indeed among our small businesses?
:34:58. > :35:02.A I am on Teesside club finding out why, if the Olympics is supposed to
:35:02. > :35:06.make us a sportier nation, facilities like this face an
:35:06. > :35:10.uncertain future. The government has taken steps this
:35:10. > :35:16.week to address the scale of the region's economic problems. But is
:35:16. > :35:23.it enough? The Chancellor announced a new �1 billion a regional growth
:35:23. > :35:26.fund plus tax incentives for those investing in a North East's two new
:35:26. > :35:30.regional enterprise zones. I will be asking what the politicians make
:35:31. > :35:37.of it all, but first, the big question - will it help business
:35:37. > :35:42.create jobs in the North? At a time when many businesses are
:35:42. > :35:45.cutting back, this County Durham firm is keen to expand. It is
:35:45. > :35:49.invested in new equipment and become the first in Britain to
:35:49. > :35:52.produce this type of flooring. But it now needs more money to run pub
:35:52. > :35:57.production and take on new staff. After eight months of talking to
:35:57. > :36:05.banks, the firm has not been offered a single penny. All of the
:36:05. > :36:09.banks are keen to talk to us, but none of them have said yes. So we
:36:09. > :36:14.are in between a rock and a hard place. This week, the Chancellor
:36:14. > :36:21.did promise more help for firms like this who want a grave. But to
:36:21. > :36:25.Terry, those words sounded pretty hollow. -- want to grow. It sounds
:36:25. > :36:29.great but we have heard it all before and it is just not happening.
:36:29. > :36:33.I have been in business 32 years and I am more concerned now than I
:36:33. > :36:38.have ever been. We just cannot get the finance we require to do the
:36:38. > :36:44.work we need to do. There is little growth in the High Street, either.
:36:44. > :36:49.South Shields, like many towns, has its share of empty shops. This
:36:49. > :36:52.locally owned store has managed to stay profitable -- stay profitable,
:36:52. > :36:57.but the owner says that when they looked for short-term help they
:36:57. > :37:00.found out they were on their own. If you look in the papers,
:37:00. > :37:04.apparently there is a lot of support, but we have found out
:37:04. > :37:07.there is very little support. We just found out there we have not
:37:07. > :37:11.been able to get any more support from the bank we have been with for
:37:12. > :37:15.five years. We were told that Allah ratable value for a new store that
:37:15. > :37:18.has been open for two months around the corner, we asked for a rent
:37:18. > :37:25.rebate all for it to be looked at, and we told there was no rebate
:37:25. > :37:31.available. That is �18,000 on top of the rent. Whereas the help
:37:31. > :37:34.there? There is none whatsoever. these are tough times for retailers
:37:34. > :37:38.and for manufacturers. The challenge for George Osborne this
:37:38. > :37:42.week was to offer hope both to the businesses and workers, but it
:37:42. > :37:45.doesn't seem he has offered much festive cheer to either. We wanted
:37:45. > :37:49.to see more support for exporters and we did not really see anything
:37:49. > :37:54.there. We wanted more support for infrastructure and the projects we
:37:54. > :38:00.got were ones that we were already committed to, and only two out of
:38:00. > :38:04.500 for this region. On the other hand, encouraged by what was on
:38:04. > :38:09.offer in terms of energy for businesses. But there are firms
:38:09. > :38:16.that have got help. Jarrow cat brewery has also managed to get
:38:16. > :38:23.help. It is just got a grant from the Government's regional growth
:38:23. > :38:26.bond. It plans to grow jobs and move into bigger premises. We have
:38:26. > :38:31.been a capacity and we have had to stop sending be a right across the
:38:31. > :38:37.country. This grant will fast track the brewery and allow us to push on
:38:37. > :38:40.with quadrupling the size of our plant in a regeneration area of
:38:40. > :38:46.South Tyneside. If this grand had not come along, we would not have
:38:46. > :38:49.been able to progress. So, cause for a celebratory drink. But
:38:49. > :38:53.putting the fizz back in the rest of the North East economy will be
:38:53. > :38:58.more of a challenge. The Chancellor is convinced there is room for
:38:58. > :39:01.autism -- optimism, but for many the economic class still looks a
:39:01. > :39:07.half-empty. With bitterness both bat is the Labour MP for
:39:08. > :39:15.Middlesbrough, Sir Stuart Bell, but Conservative Euro-MP, Martin
:39:15. > :39:21.Callanan, and Keith Burge, a business experts based in the North
:39:21. > :39:27.East. Do you think George Osborne has done anything to help this we?
:39:27. > :39:30.I hope he has. It is a real issue, where businesses are going to banks
:39:30. > :39:34.and banks are being encouraged to lend them the money they need, and
:39:34. > :39:39.if it has not been forthcoming. Measures have been introduced to
:39:39. > :39:44.facilitate bank lending and to keep them lending, which will benefit
:39:44. > :39:51.local businesses. Is the support there for local businesses? The
:39:51. > :39:54.government says it is there to help with jobs. I think, more broadly,
:39:54. > :40:00.it is not. There was a welcome announcement that came through in
:40:00. > :40:03.the Autumn Statement, in terms of businesses that want to invest in
:40:03. > :40:07.research and development, assisting it heavy energy users and
:40:07. > :40:11.encouraging firms to take on young people will stop but if you take on
:40:11. > :40:17.what was being spent in terms of encouraging young people three or
:40:17. > :40:21.four years ago, it does pale into insignificance. If the region gets
:40:21. > :40:26.its share of the regional growth fund, that will be worth about �50
:40:26. > :40:32.million a year. One North East alone was spending �32 million a
:40:32. > :40:35.year, so that gives you some idea of the scale. Martin Callanan,
:40:35. > :40:45.George Osborne is just trying to come up with inadequate substitutes
:40:45. > :40:45.
:40:45. > :40:50.for what he and your government took away, isn't he? Overshadowing
:40:50. > :40:55.this is the massive debt legacy that we have. We have got to get
:40:55. > :40:58.rid of this. But we are not getting rid of it. We are but it is taking
:40:58. > :41:00.longer than we thought because of the recession. We would all like to
:41:00. > :41:05.see more investment in infrastructure projects but the
:41:05. > :41:09.money is not there. Why isn't the Autumn Statement rowing back a
:41:09. > :41:16.little bit? Admission that what had been done in Italy had actually
:41:16. > :41:26.damaged the economy, and these are attempts which are inadequate. --
:41:26. > :41:26.
:41:26. > :41:30.done it initially. If you look at the situation of some of our
:41:30. > :41:35.European partners, look what is happening in Greece, Italy,
:41:35. > :41:38.Portugal. These are countries that fail to deal with their debt legacy
:41:38. > :41:42.and now they have caretaker government, they are seeing massive
:41:43. > :41:47.austerity imposed, cutbacks in wages, cutbacks are prices. They
:41:47. > :41:50.are going through a deflationary cycle. These are serious turbulent
:41:50. > :41:53.economic times of the important thing is to get the economy on an
:41:53. > :41:59.even keel. We would like to see more investment and infrastructure
:41:59. > :42:06.projects but the money is simply not buyer. It is borrowed cash. --
:42:06. > :42:10.simply not there. There isn't an easy solution to hear, is there?
:42:10. > :42:13.we get back to the banks, the point that Keith made - and there was a
:42:13. > :42:23.small statement made by the Chancellor, where he taught of bond
:42:23. > :42:25.
:42:25. > :42:30.issues. They package the layers together and Securitas them. There
:42:30. > :42:37.was also the loan guarantee scheme, in order to have the banks have the
:42:37. > :42:41.comfort of a guarantee. It is a serious matter, and I was very
:42:41. > :42:46.upset when the Governor of the Bank of England came out at the end of
:42:46. > :42:51.the week, telling banks took but even more money aside, rather than
:42:51. > :42:54.lend it. This is a critical issue. There was some good news for the
:42:54. > :42:58.two enterprise zones, one of which is in your constituency, which will
:42:59. > :43:02.get power to offer the tax incentives. That is something
:43:02. > :43:07.innovator that Labour never did. stood up and thanked the Chancellor
:43:07. > :43:12.of the Exchequer for giving us 100% capital allowance, which means we
:43:12. > :43:18.can buy plant and machinery without tax. The fact that the blind
:43:18. > :43:21.support is now a part of the enterprise zone. We have got 50
:43:21. > :43:24.enterprise zones working out of Teesside. I am not criticising the
:43:24. > :43:32.government for those aspects, because we now have to work with
:43:32. > :43:36.what we have. If Michelangelo would with clay rather than marble, no
:43:37. > :43:40.one would remember him. You say you would love to have more
:43:40. > :43:44.infrastructure projects, but only two of those the Chancellor
:43:44. > :43:50.announced when the North East. The Chamber of Commerce is concerned
:43:50. > :43:54.about that. Are they right? Yes, they are. There were some
:43:54. > :43:57.announcements being remade, rather than new announcements. But it is
:43:57. > :44:04.not necessarily the case that infrastructure must be in the
:44:04. > :44:10.region to benefit businesses in the region, an example being the Aone
:44:10. > :44:20.in North Yorkshire. We need to wait for the detailed to come through
:44:20. > :44:20.
:44:21. > :44:25.before we make a considered assessment. -- the A 1.
:44:25. > :44:28.announced the Tarin won, which was first announced in 2000 delayed,
:44:28. > :44:38.and a rail service that goes from Leeds to Manchester, which has not
:44:38. > :44:40.
:44:40. > :44:42.even in the region. -- of the Tyne and Wear Metro. There is an
:44:42. > :44:48.infrastructure investments going on. The high-speed rail link when it
:44:48. > :44:52.gets to the region will benefit us. It will get through eventually. The
:44:53. > :44:55.improvements on the road in Yorkshire or will help us because
:44:55. > :44:59.you have to drive through Yorkshire to get to the south of England.
:44:59. > :45:04.There are more schemes we would like to see but we look at the
:45:04. > :45:09.crisis across Europe. Our economy is on an even keel and is growing
:45:09. > :45:15.slightly. The problem is that what we saw from those businesses there
:45:15. > :45:19.is that they hear the rhetoric about things being done to get
:45:19. > :45:27.banks lending, but the reality is that one may bring the banks they
:45:27. > :45:31.don't get anything. I agree with Sir Stuart's comments on the banks.
:45:31. > :45:38.There are countries where banks are going bankrupt and relaxing. Our
:45:38. > :45:44.money is lent to those banks so that if God thing to do is to --
:45:44. > :45:50.the difficult thing to do is keep resources. There are limited things
:45:50. > :45:54.we can do about it but we face of a very difficult economic times. I
:45:54. > :45:58.would love to say there was a magic wand we could wait and invest loads
:45:58. > :46:03.of money in infrastructure and free up bank lending, but there are no
:46:03. > :46:07.easy solutions. This is a long-term problem and it is going to be
:46:07. > :46:13.difficult for many years and we have to stick with it. Sir Stuart
:46:13. > :46:16.Bell, this is the coalition blaming this on Labour. I think we have
:46:16. > :46:20.passed the stage of blaming the last government. We ought to be
:46:20. > :46:25.passed the stage of playing the eurozone. We have to look at the
:46:25. > :46:29.facts as they are. The timetable is something that concerns me. �20
:46:29. > :46:36.billion is going into infrastructure, but when? The banks
:46:36. > :46:40.really do have to be lent on very heavily. This is the second scheme.
:46:40. > :46:46.We had a scheme before which they never completed. Unless the money
:46:46. > :46:50.flows through the system, it is like blood through the body. Martin
:46:50. > :46:55.Callanan painted a difficult to picture bed. What is your solution?
:46:55. > :47:01.The Labour Party will have to come up with its own solution in time.
:47:01. > :47:04.But I say, let's hunkered down, get the investment, get the local
:47:04. > :47:09.enterprise partnerships, let them get stuck in for the infrastructure
:47:09. > :47:12.products. You sound like an apologist for the government here,
:47:12. > :47:17.which confuses me. Looking at the end product figures, that is not
:47:17. > :47:21.enough. Being an apologist for the government, you have to bear in
:47:21. > :47:25.mind, we deal with what we have. Youth unemployment passed one
:47:25. > :47:30.million. We have apprenticeship schemes. We have twice the number
:47:31. > :47:33.of apprentices on Teesside that we had before. What I am saying it is
:47:33. > :47:38.that this is the programme of the government and we have to make it
:47:38. > :47:43.work. Keith Burge, is their grounds for optimism after the Autumn
:47:43. > :47:47.Statement? I am not sure there is. Even more concerning is the lack of
:47:47. > :47:52.a plan. What is the plan for the North East? How do these
:47:52. > :47:56.initiatives come together to form a regional strategy? What are the
:47:56. > :47:58.priority sectors? What is the government looking to achieve? How
:47:58. > :48:02.is it going to tackle the major problem of unemployment in the
:48:02. > :48:06.region, which is pushing 12%? Some welcome things have been brought
:48:06. > :48:11.forward but they don't really add up to anything much and they don't
:48:11. > :48:15.come together in a coherent way. Thank you very much for now.
:48:15. > :48:19.A golden age for sport is what we were promised when London won the
:48:19. > :48:23.2012 Olympics, but with a little over eight months to go until the
:48:23. > :48:27.opening ceremony, are those ambitions being made? There is some
:48:27. > :48:31.money coming from Sport England to improve as it is in the north as
:48:31. > :48:36.part of the Olympic Legacy Project, but some feel that could be
:48:36. > :48:42.undermined by local councils closing facilities to save money.
:48:42. > :48:46.Move over, Jonny Wilkinson, here comes Pontius and's under four
:48:46. > :48:51.teams. But for all their ability, these players have a problem. The
:48:51. > :48:54.pitches get waterlogged and matters get cancelled. Now their club has
:48:54. > :48:58.won eight �50,000 grant to improve drainage. It is all down to the
:48:58. > :49:07.Olympics. Our pictures over used and we have not got enough
:49:07. > :49:12.facilities and space. -- our picture is over used. A so, what
:49:12. > :49:16.has London 2012 got to do with this? Well, according to a Olympics
:49:16. > :49:20.organisers, the idea is not just to win medals but to make the rest of
:49:20. > :49:25.us more sporty and healthier. are using some of our lottery money
:49:25. > :49:29.to help produce a legacy programme to provide more opportunities for
:49:30. > :49:38.people to participate in sport. It is an important scheme for us to be
:49:38. > :49:43.involved with, to extend the legacy it to 2013 and beyond. We have a
:49:43. > :49:46.cricket club being held in the Tees Valley, a rugby club being assisted
:49:46. > :49:56.here, and I conical rowing programme at Durham University. A
:49:56. > :50:00.whole range of sports. Elsewhere in our region, grassroots sport is not
:50:00. > :50:06.so much charging to victory as beating a reluctant retreat. The
:50:06. > :50:10.reason is a crunching squeeze on council spending battles left some
:50:10. > :50:14.sporting facilities fighting for their future. This pool and gym
:50:14. > :50:17.closed in October. Durham County Council says the decision was
:50:17. > :50:21.forced on it by the need to make tens of millions of pounds of
:50:21. > :50:25.savings, and the failure to find a viable alternative operator pulls
:50:26. > :50:32.top bad news for this triathletes, reduced to do has swimming training
:50:32. > :50:36.here three times a week. training has been really affected
:50:36. > :50:40.by it. Some people may not be able to travel further, so they will
:50:40. > :50:43.stay in the house and it will affect their health and lifestyle.
:50:43. > :50:47.It is a concern shared hearing Middlesbrough, where the council is
:50:47. > :50:51.consulting over a plan to sell this athletics stadium and build what it
:50:51. > :50:55.says is a better track elsewhere. But some fear the replace them will
:50:55. > :51:00.never materialise. The main concern is whether they will have the money
:51:00. > :51:05.to complete what they have promised, a new track, having sold this will
:51:05. > :51:10.stop if they can't, it will be devastating. Does the fact that the
:51:10. > :51:14.Olympics are approaching make the stakes higher? I think so. Lord
:51:14. > :51:18.code taught about a legacy being left following the Olympics. To
:51:19. > :51:26.have lost this track will be the wrong sort of legacy. -- Sebastian
:51:26. > :51:30.Coe. So will the Olympics really deliver participation as well as
:51:31. > :51:35.sporting glory? A final verdict from two of our region's most
:51:35. > :51:39.celebrated medal-winners. There has been so little investment in sport,
:51:39. > :51:45.in the participation end, and that investment has been withdrawn and
:51:45. > :51:49.the last year raw two, for reasons that everybody tends to be aware of.
:51:49. > :51:54.Local authorities have a greater things to spend their money on, and
:51:54. > :51:58.so has central government. There will be a big spike after the Games
:51:58. > :52:03.because that is what happens. But most Danes struggle to have a long-
:52:03. > :52:07.term legacy which massively increases sport. The only way of
:52:07. > :52:13.guaranteeing it to happen it is to put money into local authorities
:52:13. > :52:17.and local clubs, to make sure those networks are there. Let's talk
:52:17. > :52:20.about all that now with our politicians. Stuart Bell, you have
:52:20. > :52:27.said you are concerned about the cuts Middlesbrough council is
:52:27. > :52:31.planning. Realistically, they have no choice, do they? Social services
:52:31. > :52:34.care for the elderly is one of the things that past have priority.
:52:34. > :52:39.decisions have been made. They will be announced next week by the mayor
:52:39. > :52:45.of Middlesbrough. What we are looking at in Middlesbrough is a
:52:45. > :52:50.21st century sporting village, which would have a 400 metre track,
:52:50. > :52:53.five-a-side football, a tennis court, a plaza for skating and all
:52:53. > :52:57.that kind of thing. So we are looking to the future but no
:52:57. > :53:02.decisions have been made yet at one thing is certain - no facility will
:53:02. > :53:06.ever close down without a new one being opened. Can you really
:53:06. > :53:09.guarantee that? People are a bit cynical about that because they
:53:09. > :53:13.have heard many cases before when you facilities are promised then
:53:14. > :53:17.all of a sudden, they can't be afforded any more. This is part of
:53:17. > :53:23.the plan. The plan has been announced and if there are
:53:23. > :53:27.decisions made - and let me repeat, they are not made yet - the sports
:53:28. > :53:35.facilities there should state, whatever happens. We are looking to
:53:35. > :53:39.the 21st century. The track goes back to the 1960s and is not really
:53:39. > :53:43.fit for purpose in the days we are living. We need a 21st century one.
:53:43. > :53:50.It is not much a band alone big legacy if there are closed leisure
:53:51. > :53:58.centres and uncertainty over sports facilities. -- much of an Olympic
:53:58. > :54:04.legacy. I accept what Sir Stuart Bell says about that. I think we
:54:04. > :54:07.will see a spike in participation in sports. Everyone I speak to is
:54:07. > :54:12.getting excited about the Olympics. We have to make sure that it is not
:54:12. > :54:16.the same as the local parks being filled with people playing tennis
:54:16. > :54:21.when Wimbledon is on. Let's see how long it lasts into the future when
:54:21. > :54:27.the Olympics is over, because grassroots sport - which has
:54:27. > :54:30.received massive investment through things like the National Lottery -
:54:30. > :54:34.has to continue in the long term. Councils are closing leisure
:54:34. > :54:40.centres. That is not going to help her participation in sport. They
:54:40. > :54:43.say it is down to your cuts. councils are facing cutbacks in
:54:43. > :54:46.funding and they have to prioritise. Some councils are opening new
:54:46. > :54:55.facilities. Mayer and authority in Gateshead have just invested a lot
:54:55. > :54:58.of money in your leisure centres. - - might own authority. It is
:54:58. > :55:00.different positions in different local authorities, and that his
:55:01. > :55:06.local democracy. They make decisions made on the resources
:55:06. > :55:08.available to them. Sir Stuart Bell, your constituency is one of the
:55:08. > :55:13.most deprived parts of the North East. Do you get a sense that
:55:13. > :55:19.people are engaged in a or inspired by the Olympics? They are certainly
:55:19. > :55:22.interested in the stadium, because 6,000 people signed a petition to
:55:22. > :55:25.keep it open. We have a wonderful event that is coming in
:55:25. > :55:30.Middlesbrough. The flame that will come through Middlesbrough next May,
:55:30. > :55:34.or on its way to London. I think that will matter to the people of
:55:34. > :55:40.Middlesbrough - that they are on the map, and there they are. We
:55:40. > :55:44.take a big interest in events. is a fitting moment, isn't it?
:55:44. > :55:48.have been rows about it. One council leader has complained it is
:55:48. > :55:52.not spending the night in his area and has written a formal letter to
:55:52. > :55:57.complain. Every time I go into Middlesbrough, over the flyover
:55:57. > :56:01.into the town, there is the stadium on the left and they are always
:56:01. > :56:05.playing five-a-side football. They are always playing some sport.
:56:05. > :56:09.Every time you go through, there they are. This is the biggest
:56:10. > :56:14.sporting event in the world. The be anecdotal evidence is that sport
:56:14. > :56:18.participation is reducing. The question is, where Labour naive to
:56:19. > :56:23.set these targets? Your party said the targets in the first place -
:56:23. > :56:28.typical New Labour, you might say - when there is no evidence that it
:56:28. > :56:32.would make a difference. It was Tony Blair who brought the Olympics
:56:33. > :56:38.to London in the first place. We should not be so pessimistic. On
:56:38. > :56:42.Sunday morning, go out in Middlesbrough and juicy football
:56:42. > :56:45.being played. Look at the league tables and the local newspaper.
:56:45. > :56:50.Let's not say that we are not interested in the Olympics and that
:56:50. > :56:55.we have no interest. We have a big interest in sport and sports
:56:55. > :57:01.facilities. Labour sold off a lot of school sports fields, didn't
:57:01. > :57:04.they? Perhaps we did but we are living changing societies. Go into
:57:04. > :57:08.leisure centres and community centres. We want the community to
:57:08. > :57:13.be involved in them. If we are facing closure, why doesn't the
:57:13. > :57:19.community come forward, take them over and run them? That is the Big
:57:19. > :57:23.Society, isn't it? The Big Society was a lay-by idea that came back.
:57:23. > :57:32.But it There are going to be closures, either you have closures
:57:32. > :57:35.or participation. -- was a Labour idea. We talk about sport not just
:57:35. > :57:39.for the sake of it, because we are talking about making people
:57:39. > :57:44.healthier, which will save money in the NHS will stop yes and the
:57:44. > :57:51.Olympics is the biggest sporting event in the world. It is across a
:57:51. > :57:55.huge range of disciplines. You will see interest in a few peripheral
:57:55. > :58:00.sports particularly, and some of the minority activities, which are
:58:00. > :58:06.seeing big upsurge is in investment. Figures showed participation is
:58:06. > :58:12.going down. In individual sports, it is. But in others that are less
:58:12. > :58:17.popular, they are seeing a huge surges. It varies, depending on how
:58:17. > :58:20.active a particular sporting bodies are in promoting their interests.
:58:20. > :58:25.That's it from was this week. But you can remain umbilically attached