Decentralisation (Hansard, 16 December 1997)

§ 7. Mr. Charles Kennedy
If he will make a statement on progress towards decentralisation of government within England. [19401]

§ Mr. Caborn
On 3 December, we published our White Paper entitled "Building Partnerships for Prosperity", which outlined our proposals for regional development agencies. We see RDAs as the first step on the way to establishing greater decentralisation of government within England.

§ Mr. Kennedy
As part of the regional development agencies strategy, will the Minister revisit and reconsider the future role, remit and, most important of all, the budget of the Rural Development Commission? There is a profound sense of anxiety throughout rural England 119 especially that, effectively, the commission is being dismantled by the Government. It is feared that the budget will not be transferred fully towards the sort of projects that benefit particularly the west country, Yorkshire and elsewhere, as under the present arrangements.
It must be said that the attitude adopted by the Deputy Prime Minister when he introduced the White Paper offered no reassurance. Will the Government revisit this issue? There is a profound sense in rural Britain that we have an urban Government with urban attitudes, who are not sensitive to the interests of rural Britain.

§ Mr. Caborn
First, it is unfortunate that, obviously, the hon. Gentleman has not read the White Paper and the Bill. Secondly, I do not know where he is obtaining his information. I say that in response to the White Paper on rural communities. Furthermore, my right hon. Friend the Deputy Prime Minister has announced that we are bringing forward a comprehensive spending review of the rural areas. Discussion is starting, and that will give reassurance to the rural communities that they will have a far better deal than they would have received under the fragmented arrangements that were operating over the past decade or more.

§ Mr. Blizzard
Will my hon. Friend give guidance and direction to regional development agencies so that they might address disparities within regions? For example, East Anglia is often seen as a relatively prosperous region, yet, within it, especially Lowestoft in my constituency, there are high and sustained levels of unemployment. There are levels of deprivation that have been described by the director of public health as being comparable to those of inner cities. There are large areas of derelict industrial land which are in need of regeneration. Will my hon. Friend ask regional development agencies to take up those problems?

§ Mr. Caborn
My hon. Friend knows that the object of the exercise is to decentralise power from the centre down to the regions. We have made it clear that decentralisation must take place also within the regions. Overheating of some parts of the economy and under-utilisation in other parts is unacceptable and is an economic model that was left by the previous Administration. The result was that only two of the 10 English regions achieved the European average of gross domestic product per capita. Only two regions marginally reached the average. By definition, eight regions were well behind. Cornwall achieved only 69 per cent. of GDP per capita. That is the legacy of the past 18 years of Tory government.

§ Mr. Townend
Does the Minister accept that where I come from—East Yorkshire—there is no demand for another tier of government, no demand for a regional assembly and no demand for the extra bureaucrats and politicians who will have to be paid for by the taxpayer? The people of East Yorkshire do not want to be run from Leeds or, even worse, from Manchester.

§ Mr. Caborn
I suggest that the hon. Gentleman goes back and discusses it with some of his colleagues in the Conservative party in the north, because they are very active members of the Yorkshire assembly. Led by the Conservatives, and with the Liberals and the Labour party, they have formed a Yorkshire assembly. I suggest that he gets in touch with the grass roots of his party.