§ 11. Mr. Hayesasked the Paymaster General if he has estimated the effect that the Channel fixed link will have on inward tourism in the United Kingdom.
§ Mr. TrippierThe fixed link will be a new international route and is expected to generate additional tourism to the United Kingdom. However, the likely increase has not yet been quantified.
§ Mr. HayesI had hoped that my hon. Friend would be more robust with some of the whingers on the Opposition Benches and make it absolutely clear to them that the increased tourism which will be created by the Channel link will be pan-United Kingdom and not just jobs for the prosperous south.
§ Mr. TrippierAbsolutely, and, at the risk of repeating myself, I obviously support all that has been said by my hon. Friends with regard to jobs in tourism. My hon. Friend makes a valid point. It is not just tourism in the south-east or around the area that the fixed link will be going through that will be affected, because our policy is to encourage greater dispersal of visitors on the inland tourist front. It will be better for tourism in Britain generally.
§ Mr. BoyesWhile some of us hope that the Channel tunnel is never built, if it is we would hope that some of the tourists will come to the most beautiful region of Britain, the north-east of England. In the borough of Sunderland, of which my constituency is a part, 29,000 people are already out of work. The number of tourist jobs that will be created will be no compensation whatsoever for that number of unemployed. What we really want to know from the Minister for Unemployment is how many jobs building this tunnel will bring for the north-east?
§ Mr. TrippierI think that it is wrong for the hon. Gentleman to deride in any way the jobs in tourism in the north-east. I take this opportunity of complimenting the north-east on the way in which it has developed and strengthened tourism. I am very familiar with the regional tourist board in that part of the country. It has been very successful. If the hon. Gentleman had listened a little more carefully to the reply to the substantive question raised by my hon. Friend the Member for Harlow (Mr. Hayes) he would have realised that this is wholly in tune with our overall philosophy. The tourists who are coming into Britain as a result of the fixed link will mean more jobs in the north-east as well.
§ Mr. TrippierIt would be stupid and fatuous of me to predict an exact figure, but I can tell the hon. Gentleman that over the last 12 months there has been a net increase in jobs in tourism of 50,000. Opposition Members must realise that we are talking about the most dynamic sector of the British economy in terms both of wealth and job creation.