Merseyside (Hansard, 18 July 1983)

§ Mr. Patrick Jenkin

On 8 July I made my first visit to Liverpool as Secretary of State for the Environment. I issued a statement setting out my own and the Government's commitment to Merseyside which is reproduced at the end of this answer.

During my visit, I toured the international garden festival site; I launched the newsletter for the festival which is to be distributed to all households on Merseyside. I visited the maritime museum; I announced my approval for £5. million of urban programme funding towards this project, which will not only provide a major attraction in 55W the area but will also provide 100 new full-time jobs for local people. I visited the BAT new enterprise workshops and the site of the proposed Wavertree technology park.

In the afternoon I visited Stockbridge village and toured the Knowsley industrial park.

I met elected members and officials of Sefton, Wirral, Knowsley, Liverpool city and Merseyside county councils.

I visited Merseyside again on 15 July, when I made the following announcements of financial suppport for projets in the area:

1. £1.2 million of derelict land grant to reclaim a 63 acre derelict site for the proposed Wavertree Technology Park;
2. £310,000 under the urban programme for environmental improvements on housing and industrial estates in St. Helens;
3. £85,000 under the urban programme for refurbishment work to provide 20 small units for high technology industries in Widnes;
4. £381,000 under the urban programme for further work in the town centre to enable development of twenty-seven industrial units on the site of the former Colas Products Limited factory.

During the day I also addressed the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives' annual conference and had meetings with the leaders and officials of the St. Helens, Ellesmere Port and Neston, and Halton borough councils.

Following is the statement: I am here to reaffirm the Government's clear commitment to the people who live and work on Merseyside. I also want to make this a personal commitment. As Environment Secretary I am the member of the Government charged by the Prime Minister with the specific responsibility for carrying forward the Merseyside initiatives launched by my predecessors Michael Heseltine and Tom King. In this I shall have the support of other Ministers in the Government who carry responsibility for specific areas of policy which affect the local communities on Merseyside. I hope that they too will come here and see for themselves, as I did as Industry Secretary, the nature of the problems you face and to explore with the local authorities and others how best they can contribute to tackling them. Today I am here primarlily to listen and to learn. I have, of course, visited Merseyside on many occasions over the last few years but this is the first visit in my new capacity. I shall be back next Friday and I hope that in time my face will become familiar to you all. I have never been in doubt that Merseyside needs a close and continuing ministerial involvement. I have already had a useful exchange of views with some of the Members of Parliament and I am arranging to meet them again. I look forward to meeting local authority leaders, community leaders, business and commercial leaders as well, of course, as many of the people as possible who live and work or would wish to work here on Merseyside. Apart from ministerial drive and concern the main instrument for the Government's involvement here has been the Merseyside task force set up by Michael Heseltine. This has had about it an aura of improvisation which was both inevitable and right and proper in the immediate aftermath of the 1981 disturbances. But I know, and you know, the problems of Merseyside are not going to be solved in a year or two. The roots of the problem lie deep in the past history of Merseyside and it will take a continuing sustained effort on the part of us all to begin to make a real impact which can bring new life and new hope to the people here. The task force has worked with a large number of bodies on Merseyside, local authorities and others on a wide variety of projects designed to make a contribution to improving social and economic conditions in the area. I propose to build on this work and to establish the task force with a more permanent presence on Merseyside. It will not only have responsibility for special projects, those in hand as well as new ones, it will also take over responsibility for some of the main programmes which are currently handled by the DOE regional office in Manchester. 56W This means, for example, that the local authorities on Merseyside will look to the task force on housing matters, on the urban programme and on work to bring derelict land into use through the derelict land programme. This will help to unify the work undertaken by the task force and the regional office and will improve communications. I hope it will lead to a still better understanding of your problems and opportunities. But I would emphasise that the special characteristics of the task force will be continued and strengthened. These are to initiate and co-ordinate action on special projects in conjunction with local authorities and other bodies. Merseyside will not succeed, as the country will not succeed, unless we can produce the goods and services people want at prices they are prepared to pay. No one now pretends that Government intervention can prop up companies which cannot survive in the market place. But it is a fact that large numbers of Merseyside companies, big and small, are competing successfully in world markets. Vauxhalls at Ellesmere Port has announced double shift working. Substantial investments are proposed by Higsons brewery, Shell and Fords. There are a growing number of new small industrial workshops, and English Industrial Estates is letting a greater number of units than ever before. This morning I visited the new enterprise workshops sponsored by British American Tobacco, where no fewer than 60 companies are now operating. No one denies that Merseyside faces very severe problems—problems which have been present for decades. But there are many developments of which Merseyside can be proud. What I want to do is to work together with the people of Merseyside to build on the successes which are being achieved so as to restore new life and new hope to the area.