06/11/2011 The Politics Show West Midlands

In the Midlands: What next on our economic roller-coaster?

The boss of John Lewis and global enterprise on the prospects at

street level. And see you in court. But it will

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 2219 seconds

that be an empty threat if police Hello again from the Midlands. Are

the police playing judge and jury by dealing with crimes out-of-

court? That's one of our talking points today. But let's begin by

trying to fathom out what the events of the past week tell us

about our region's economy. It began with the Government sharing

�100 million from the Regional Growth Fund between 22 Midlands

firms and projects, to create or protect 34,000 jobs. Then came the

figures showing the UK economy was doing rather better than many had

predicted. So what is the direction of economic travel here? With me

today are Paul Uppal, the Conservative MP for Wolverhampton

South West. Before becoming an MP he ran his own business. And Joan

Walley, the Labour MP for Stoke-on- Trent North, a city still smarting

from its failure to get its own enterprise zone, to help bring in

jobs and investment. First, though, we're going to hear

from Andy Street. He's the man now in charge of the Birmingham and

Solihull Local Economic Partnership, one of seven so-called LEPs that

replace the Regional Development Agency, Advantage West Midlands.

Now, whether or not you recognise his name, you'll certainly know

that of his business. He's the Managing Director of the department

store John Lewis. For once the numbers do tell the

story. With 29 department stores, six smaller John Lewis At Home

outlets, and the online johnlewis.com operation, it's one

of the UK's instantly recognised retail brands. One of the things

about leadership is doing the things that are right, not the

things that are popular. And that leader is very much a local here.

He went to King Edward's School in Birmingham, and now his commitment

to his home town is reinforced, both through his chairmanship of

the Local Economic Partnership, and as one of Britain's favourite

shopkeepers, through John Lewis' decision to build their biggest

store outside London as the centrepiece of the New Street

Station redevelopment. Now charged with helping other local businesses

to recover from our economic woes, Andy Street has owned up to the

occasional moment of doubt and uncertainty. I remember the day the

banks were rescued. I took time to read the daily newspapers and I sat

in a coffee shop, thinking, oh, my God, what are we going to do?

John Lewis Partnership is exactly that. The UK's biggest example of

worker co-ownership. Its 76,500 staff are not just employees, they

are partners, which begs the question whether their leading

partner could do even better for himself by joining one of the big

PLCs. I can do very nicely for myself running this organisation,

thank you very much. In terms of being paid sufficiently, we are not

paid as much as my equivalent colleagues but this is a far more

fulfilling job. Not bad for a man who sells two washing-machines an

hour and one Egyptian plain-dye towel every 15 seconds. I caught up

with him on the 25th floor of The Cube building, opening next month

as the �13 million Indigo hotel and Marco Pierre White restaurant,

overlooking Birmingham city centre, now home to an enterprise zone

aiming to ultimately to trigger the creation of 100,000 new jobs across

the region. Many might have located it on the

edge of the city either possibly in a disadvantaged suburb, but this is

the quickest way of achieving economic growth. The city centre is

the most vibrant part of the West Midlands economy and we can stretch

the tout to next spring. What would your advice be too young people,

where they feel very sore they have missed out? They can learn a little

bit about how Birmingham and Solihull have been successful so

far. We have worked really hard to understand exactly what the

Government once and we have been quick to put our case in, and

hopefully, we have met absolutely the criteria. Our evidence so far

is that this has been a success then approach. When you look at the

scale of the challenge this part of the country has in terms of getting

investment in and new jobs, would it help you if George Osborne were

to soften the edge of Plan and move on? They have got to stick

decisively to their deficit reduction plan. But at the same

time, they have got to look for engines of growth and I believe

they are trying to do that. If you look at the Regional Growth Fund,

it is a useful contribution to the region's economy and we have

certainly done very well out of both rounds of that money. In few

look at a company like Emma Bridgewater, very good company, but

they have just laid 20 people off. They said the problem is that they

are not shifting enough stock through John Lewis. So people are

keeping their money in their pockets? I am pleased you said it

was figurative because I do not think they are blaming John Lewis

on its own. People are spending less money but as well as the Emma

Bridgewater story, we are working actively with the best of British

manufacturers and we have got great stories where the design is right,

the quality is right and the price is right. There is still a market

to be seized. My personal view is the best companies will come

through this difficult time. high-speed rail, potentially a

high-speed link between Birmingham and London. A good thing or a bad

thing? It could draw investment away from Birmingham to London.

is cat -- it is categorically a good thing which is why the LEP

came out in support of that proposal. And bear in mind, it is a

cross-party proposal. We have looked at the characteristics for

success of other outstanding city regions and parts of the world, and

good connectivity, not just between Birmingham and London, but between

Birmingham and Manchester, Birmingham and Europe, Birmingham

and Leeds, is a prerequisite. More business will be easier if we can

connect with our big markets. mayor for Bernard -- for Birmingham.

A good thing or a bad thing? What really stands out is knowing who is

accountable. Birmingham City Council is a big organisation and

it is very clear who leads it. I am sure the current leader feels very

accountable. So we already have good performance in that respect,

but my personal view is that a personally elected mayor can take

that one step further. That was Andy Street, and there is more on

it might blog. Joan Whalley, you obviously very

disappointed about the lack of an enterprise zone. But he said his

job is to concentrate on his own and that the success he had is by

working very closely with the Government to find out exactly what

they wanted and to work hard to deliver that quickly? We would say

that in Stoke-on-Trent and North Staffordshire, we did just that.

The problem was that the Government ring-fenced the number of local

enterprise zones. You can imagine the angle right the way across the

political parties and across the Chamber of Trade when we were not

included in phase one or in phase two, and then the Government

announced a further two and we had had more job losses than some of

those areas and we were somewhat successful. It is very easy to say

how it is possible to go about doing it but if you do not have

that enhanced status, it is difficult to see that, no matter

what the Government does, you can create those jobs. I think there is

a lot of general sympathy? The case for Stoke is beyond doubt. We were

led to believe in the first round, and I ask parliamentary questions

on this, that it was about population figures and we would

have qualified on that criteria there. We were very clear on what

we wanted and I feel we now have to live with the fact that we have to

find another route. Paul Uppal, you can understand how Joan Whalley

feels, because in trying to rebalance the economy, you have a

situation where you have an enterprise zone on the board of

your city, which is great, but just up the motorway, Stoker, which

appears and feels to get nothing. can appreciate her point of view

and empathise but I think it is important that we say this. We can

engage in political rhetoric on this but it is not going to help

anybody watching this programme getting your job or sustain jobs.

There is some good news out there. There is the Jaguar Land Rover

story. But that does not help stoke very much? I think it helps all of

the West Midlands regions. And the whole story, they should be

congratulated on that and it helps cement the relationship. They are

cementing the region and there are some good news stories out there.

There was one from York constituency, in pottery? They

needed jobs and then things took a turn for the better? Absolutely.

This is not about political rhetoric. It is about getting what

we can from the Regional Growth Fund, enhanced capital advances and

I think this pottery is a great example. We have this Trust which

has benefited from the Regional Growth Fund and now we have a

further next door neighbour pottery, which is also a recipient of the

second round of Regional Growth Fund. What we see is bottom-up

regeneration, linking in. I think having the support of His Royal

Highness really helps. What did the Trust do? They recognised that

there, we have a piece of heritage which we would otherwise lose, that

we had to find a way of protecting. And given the new owners that were

there, he would see how you could come in and bring his expertise and

brings more units to help small businesses starting up and then

more people come through Stoke-on- Trent through the canal by any

other means. I think he put another 7 million into it, didn't he? Let's

hear what he had to say of. Once I heard about it and discovered how

unique it was, I have to see if we could make sure it was saved and

the work was able to remain intact, because it is a very special and

unique survival and still incredibly popular all around the

world. But higher also wanted to try and see if we could use this

remarkable place as a means of helping to gradually regenerate

other parts and indeed to spread things further out into Stoke-on-

Trent. Half the battle, I think, is to rebuild self-confidence and hope.

And bring in investment from elsewhere. Here, for instance, we

had to bring in private investment. Paul Uppal, it comes to something

when you have to rely on the edge of the throne to come to the

rescue? He did speak about self- confidence and hope, and one thing

that has struck me recently, I met Mary Portas because we have had a

big issue with empty shops in more than done. I was going down a road

in a part of Walkhampton, and their bodies the Dudley Road, which are

areas that have difficult conditions. -- part of

Wolverhampton. There is an ambience and atmosphere of can-do. So I

think that message of confidence and hope is a very important one.

Let me tell you what one of the Richardson brothers said the other

day. He reminded me of the incentives they had bend - 100%

capital allowance, much greater freedoms than the current

enterprise zone sell-out, and he said even then, it was a big

struggle bringing companies in two merry hell, so surely with the

weaker and less generous offer from these enterprise zones, it will be

much harder? With all of these zones, you want to make sure you

are creating new investment and not taking investment from surrounding

areas. So it is important how you have that balancing act. There is a

balance, is and there, Joan Whalley? Yes, and it is about the

economy and the balance and how you factor these things together. The

real message is to Government that it is not just how you deal with

these enterprise zones. It is how every single department of the

government, from local to the Treasury, and what we want in

Stoke-on-Trent and we have said to the Prime Minister, is that we want

all the ministers together to look at our needs and then make sure

that on each and every issue, we have got a faster track into

government. We must leave it there. It is a very important couple of

months for the economy until Christmas. To you both, thank you

for being with us. Serious offences involving indecent

photographs of children, sexual assault and grievous bodily harm

were just three types of crime committed here in the Midlands last

year, where the offenders were punished without going to court.

This was certainly news to me. I don't know about you. And if that

comes as a surprise, it's certainly a concern to one Shropshire

magistrate. He's so worried about an apparent rise in on-the-spot

justice, that he submitted his own Freedom of Information request to

West Mercia Police. He gave his results to BBC Shropshire's

Low level anti-social behaviour. The kind of crime police forces

have the power to deal with themselves without going through

the courts, but some think these powers are being taken too far. One

Shropshire magistrate I've been talking to, who doesn't want to be

identified, decided to try to find out exactly how often these powers

were being used and the types of crime being punished directly by

the police. West Mercia Police dealt with half of all crimes out

of court last year, including some serious offences like distributing

indecent pictures of children, wounding with intent and sexual

assault. Nationwide research carried out by the Magistrates

Association shows similar results. We also saw offences of child abuse,

arson, child pornography and a range of other offences like that

being dealt with either by cautions or penalty notices for disorder.

They are stepping over into dealing with matters and offences which

should properly be dealt within the justice system in a court of law.

Magistrates say there is no consistency either when it comes to

dealing with crimes out of court, making this kind of justice a

postcode lottery. Latest Ministry of Justice figures show that in the

West Midlands, 32% of offences were dealt with through out-of-court

disposals - specifically warnings, cautions or fines, compared to 36%

in West Mercia and 44% in Warwickshire. John Macmillan is a

local solicitor who's been arguing cases in the West Mercia area for

40 years. This is not a judicial process. But it is an

administrative process and a cheap and cheerful way of dealing with

things, sweeping them under the carpet. It is getting crime,

lifting the carpet, shoving it under it and saying, this has not

really happened. The public don't know about it. West Mercia Police

say they only use out-of-court punishments for low-level offences,

but the figures we obtained from our Shropshire magistrate show some

serious crimes were also dealt with in this way. It would be

exceptional for those types of cases, the more serious cases, not

to go to court if we believe the evidence was there to do so. There

will be some occasions where those have been dealt with outside the

court process with the clear consent of the victim and with the

defendant actually admitting the crime, and with the senior

oversight and officer and somebody from the Crown Prosecution Service.

Thousands of people are processed in this custody centre in Worcester

every year. Many will never see the inside of a courtroom. West Mercia

Police says dealing with people out of court is not about saving money,

it's about delivering fair and appropriate justice, as well as

reducing re-offending. But many magistrates remain concerned about

the police playing prosecutor, judge and jury.

Those cases dealt with out-of-court do not go into the national

database, so if I'd commit an offence in Cheltenham and then

again in Stoke, there is no record that I have committed an offence

before. His justice being done or is it being swept under the carpet?

I think that point was made there that if all sides agree, you can

have summary justice, in a sense. It is important that there is an

element of common sense. I would say that, I am Conservative! I

might take a side issue but if it is practical and common sense,

don't have too much of an issue with it. Tony Blair was a great fan

of on-the-spot fines if he could have got it through, so this is not

confined to the Tories and Lib Dems? Absolutely not, and if it

makes sense, why not? The disturbing part is if we are seeing

the whole way in which it is applied to change and if it is

extended to a more serious crimes, because in those circumstances, you

do want to have fairness and justice. A brief word from each of

you - it could be seen by journalists as a way of massaging

the crime figures? Absolutely, especially when there is so much

attention on access to information and have -- if the information is

not there, it is dangerous. It is something we can look at and maybe

it will help with the swift process of justice. But can you reassure

the public that justice is safe in their hands? Absolutely. I think

common sense will prevail. I think the big issue is the cuts to the

police service. We must leave it there. Thank you for being with us.