§ 10. Mr. RadiceTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry when he will next meet representatives of the north-east regional CBI to discuss the recession in industry.
§ Mr. LeighOfficials of my Department keep in touch with the north-east regional CBI on a wide range of business matters. The Secretary of State last met John Banham, director general of the CBI, on 5 February 1991 and he next expects to meet Sir Brian Corby, president of the CBI on 11 April 1991.
§ Mr. RadiceThe Government have just been reminded by my hon. Friend the Member for Dunfermline, East (Mr. Brown) that, according to the Red Book, manufacturing output will fall by 5 per cent. and business investment will fall by almost 10 per cent. in 1991. In that connection, has the Minister noted the comments of the deputy director of the northern regional CBI, who said that there were no measures in the Budget that would help business confidence or investment? Is not that a scathing indictment of the Government's industrial and economic policy?
§ Mr. LeighThe hon. Gentleman's comments are singularly inappropriate on the day after the Budget pumped three quarters of a billion pounds into industry. His comments are also inappropriate because in his district of Derwent, 5,000 jobs were created in the 1980s and because over the past 10 years no less than £3.5 billion of Government aid has been given to the north-east, which was carefully targeted to underpin a new spirit of enterprise. If the hon. Gentleman talked more often to business men in the north-east, as I did at the presentation of the north-east business of the year award, he would know that there is a sea change in attitudes. No fewer than 9,500 new businesses register for VAT every year in the north-east.
§ Mr. HoltWill my hon. Friend take it from me that the words of Opposition Members are typical of the Labour party in the north-east? They for ever talk the region down, even though we have had more Government investment targeted into the area. We are not suffering from the recession that they talk about in such loud voices all the time. With companies such as ENRON bringing a £50 million investment for cheap electricity to the north-east, it is the Government who are bringing into that area the benefits of Conservative Government.
§ Mr. LeighI agree with my hon. Friend that it is extraordinary that 10 years ago the region was heavily reliant on three declining industries, but is now one of the most vibrant and successful regions in Britain. Why do not Opposition Members speak up for their constituencies and about what is happening in the north-east? I give a pledge to the House. I shall go to the constituency of the hon. Member for Durham, North (Mr. Radice) and talk about York Thermostar creating new jobs in his constituency. I shall talk about Eurosil——
§ Mr. SpeakerOrder. The Minister should just answer the question that he has been asked.
§ Mr. LeighI shall also repeat what my hon. Friend the Member for Langbaurgh (Mr. Holt) said. We shall speak up for the north-east on Conservative Benches, even if Opposition Members do not do so.
§ Ms. MowlamWill the Minister now answer the question put by my hon. Friend the Member for Durham, North (Mr. Radice)? He gave not his view, but that of the CBI in the region. It is not Labour knocking the area. We fight hard in the north-east with the Tory Government. Will the Minister answer the question? What was there in the Budget to encourage investment? He should answer the CBI for a change.
§ Mr. LeighThe hon. Lady asks what there was in the Budget to encourage investment. Did she not listen to the Budget? Does she not know that it put three quarters of a billion pounds into industry? It was one of the best Budgets for business that we have ever had. That is the truth, although she may not like it.