Management (Hansard, 16 February 1998)

§ 30. Mr. Loughton
What representations he has received on the advantages of the millennium dome project being run on a commercial basis by a leisure management company with expertise in this area. [27614]

§ The Minister without Portfolio (Mr. Peter Mandelson)
There have been no such representations since the Conservatives decided that the project could not be delivered by a private sector company and duly 757 nationalised it. I have every confidence in the New Millennium Experience Company and its ability to deliver a major first for Britain.

§ Mr. Loughton
If the Minister is so confident about the mass appeal of the millennium dome, which has become a quasi theme park, why is he not offering the project for professional management and funding by a leisure company such as Walt Disney, which has a track record and expertise in this area, rather than depending to such a large extent on lottery funds, so that the million visitors a month he envisages enticing for a meander around the internal organs of a 150-foot silver representation of the Madonna can do so safe in the knowledge—[HON. MEMBERS: "Question?"]—can do so safe in the knowledge—

§ Madam Speaker
Order. The hon. Gentleman obviously did not hear my statement last week. Will he now come to his question? There is very little time in this period.

§ Mr. Loughton
—so that people can use it in the knowledge that so much public funding has not been detracted from other more worthy community-based projects?

§ Mr. Mandelson
rose—

Hon. Members
What was the question?

§ Madam Speaker
Order. The Minister has the Dispatch Box at his disposal.

§ Mr. Mandelson
I am not quite sure what the question is, so all I can say to the hon. Gentleman is that the structure that was created by his party when it was in office has served the project well. It is a unique non-departmental public body, which has involved many private sector personnel and disciplines and I have full confidence in the company's ability to continue to perform as well as it has done to date.

§ Ms Abbott
Will the Minister without Portfolio agree that running the Millennium Experience Company along commercial principles would at least have the advantage of not costing the public money? As it stands, the Millennium Experience Company is spending £750 million of what is, in effect, public money, yet to this day we have not seen interim accounts which would enable us to find out how that money is being spent.

§ Mr. Mandelson
It is simply not the case that more than £750 million of public money is being spent on the project. As little as £399 million is coming from lottery funds, not from public expenditure, with the rest coming from private sector sponsors, commercial income and activities and ticket sales. I am pleased to be able to say that the prospects for private sector investment are very good, despite the report in today's Daily Mail about British Telecom. This morning, I spoke to Sir Peter Bonfield, the chief executive of British Telecom, who stated categorically, "Are we going to pull out? No, we are certainly not going to pull out." BT will not pull out because it is a company not of the old school and of the old Britain, unconfident and unambitious, but of the 758 future, confident and vibrant—like the new Britain we are trying to create. That is why it will remain in the vanguard of the millennium project.

§ Mr. Maude
It is wonderful to hear that paean to privatisation. On the topic of expertise, as Minister with responsibility for the presentation of Government policy, how does he explain the fact that the millennium dome—the only policy for which he has direct responsibility—is a presentational disaster that deepens every day?

§ Mr. Mandelson
I do not accept for one moment that it is a presentational disaster. I only wish that Conservative Members—who say that they support the project but do everything that they can to impede its progress—would choose to support a national project that will be a tremendous success for our country.