HC Deb 02 March 2000 vol 345 cc536-7
3. Liz Blackman (Erewash)

What measures his Department is taking to promote enterprise in the east midlands region. [111532]

The Minister for Small Business and E-Commerce (Ms Patricia Hewitt)

We are supporting the East Midlands development agency; we are creating a new regional venture capital fund; and my right hon. Friend the Minister for Trade will today announce a planning charter for the east midlands that will make the region's planning system the most efficient in the country.

Liz Blackman

I thank my hon. Friend for that answer. Erewash Partnership is a successful enterprise agency in my constituency that supports local businesses well and receives discretionary funding from the local training and enterprise council. Will my hon. Friend do all that she can to ensure that such organisations continue to be resourced during the transition leading to the setting up of the Small Business Service?

Ms Hewitt

I know that my hon. Friend is active on the board of the Erewash Partnership, which is doing excellent work. I understand her concern and I assure her that my officials are working with other Departments to see how we can sustain essential activities after April 2001. In the meantime, the Department for Education and Employment is making up to £41 million available nationally to support discretionary activity that might otherwise be in jeopardy.

Mr. Andrew Robathan (Blaby)

What difference exactly has the East Midlands development agency made to employment, inward investment and other enterprise in the east midlands? Most of us find it just another of the bureaucratic measures that have been heaped on the country by the Government. The hon. Lady talks about her colleagues at the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions and planning-friendly guidance, which we all support up to a point. Will she ensure that no further enormous swathes of countryside in the east midlands are concreted over and that the planning-friendly guidance will lead to buildings on brownfield sites in cities, not in my constituency which does not need any more building?

Ms Hewitt

The business people in the east midlands whom I talk to regularly are working closely with the EMDA and welcome its support for greater activities to promote exports from and inward investment to the region. The success of the agency is illustrated by the fact that it has taken a lead in creating the new planning charter, which will allow councils to give advance information about planning applications with job-creating potential so that developers and proposed inward investors can create and implement plans much more quickly.

Mr. Andrew Reed (Loughborough)

The business people in my constituency support the establishment of the EMDA. There are already many examples of the impact that it has made in its first few months of operation, particularly a £3.5 million investment in one site. Although the EMDA strategy is of great benefit to the majority of sectors in Leicestershire, one sector worries me, as I am sure that it worries my hon. Friend the Minister—the textiles sector. What measures can she offer, including working with the EMDA, to ensure that the textile sector has a prosperous future?

Ms Hewitt

I entirely share my hon. Friend's concern about the textiles industry. I recently met Paul Gates of KFAT—the National Union of Knitwear, Footwear and Apparel Trades—for discussions and I am working closely with the new textiles and clothing strategy group which our Government established. Its draft paper on a strategy to make the industry more competitive is out for consultation. I welcome the East Midlands textiles and clothing partnership, which has brought employers and others in our region together to promote and improve training, marketing and export promotion.

Mrs. Angela Browning (Tiverton and Honiton)

We continue to receive letters from manufacturing and horticultural companies in the east midlands. What assessment has the Minister made of the impact of the climate change tax in that region? There is great concern, particularly in the clothing industry, among firms that have already invested capital to improve the efficiency of their factory systems. The Government were forced to modify the original formula for the tax. Has the Minister made an assessment of how east midlands sectors such as clothing will be affected by what is still seen to be punitive tax on their profits and viability?

Ms Hewitt

We have been working closely with all sectors of industry throughout the country to develop a climate change levy that will be good for the environment and will not damage but will improve the competitiveness of industry. My right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer will be making further announcements on the levy in due course.