Mr Michael Lord (Suffolk Central)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, for giving me this opportunity to make my maiden speech in this debate on small businesses. I do so with a mixture of pride and humility. I am proud simply to be a Member of this House, and I am proud, too, of my constituency of Suffolk, Central. However, I am also acutely aware of the stature and achievements of my predecessors, of the enormous challenge which that presents, and of the responsibility that it places on my shoulders.

Suffolk, Central is an entirely new constituency, lying between Ipswich and Bury St. Edmunds. The A45 crosses it east to west towards its southern boundary, and the A140 runs northwards through the centre of the constituency, to the Norfolk-Suffolk border. It is made up from parts of three other constituencies: the old Eye constituency, which now no longer exists, and Bury St. Edmunds and Ipswich which, of course, still do. The largest central part of the constituency is derived from the old Eye division and contains, as well as the town of Eye, Stowmarket, Needham Market, Debenham and many other delightful market towns and villages. On the western boundary my constituency includes part of the old Bury St. Edmunds constituency, which has given to it places such as Woolpit, with its beautiful church which is a landmark in the area, Thurston and Elmswell.

The Ipswich constituency contributes approximately a quarter of the town to the new constituency, in the form of the wards of Broom Hill, Castle Hill, Whitehouse and Whitton. Ipswich is perhaps best known nationally for Ipswich Town, its famous football team. On the industrial front, it is served by Ipswich docks, and as well as large companies such as the Guardian Royal Exchange providing employment for my constituents there are many other companies with traditional links with the surrounding farming areas.

The hon. Members representing the three constituencies from which mine is made up are all still in the House. My hon. Friend the former Member for Eye in the last Parliament is now the hon. Member for Suffolk, Coastal (Mr. Gummer). He is regarded with great affection in my part of Suffolk, and has been extremely kind and helpful to me personally during the past few months. For that I am most grateful. My hon. Friend the Member for Bury St. Edmunds (Mr. Griffiths) is well known to the House, and still serves that constituency with vigour and distinction, as he has done for a great many years. The hon. Member for Ipswich (Mr. Weetch) is also well known and well thought of by the House, and is spoken of with the highest regard wherever I go in that town.

A large part of the constituency of Suffolk, Central is beautiful open rolling farmland, criss-crossed by roads of all kinds, which are now being used in increasing numbers by the enormous lorries that convey an ever-increasing amount of traffic to the highly successful and expanding east coast ports. Sadly, that is putting intolerable pressures on, and bringing very real dangers to, many of the Suffolk towns and villages whose narrow high streets and twisting roads were simply never designed to cope with such traffic. I very much hope that those responsible for these matters are aware of how essential it is that some new and fresh thought should be given urgently to this issue before some of the villages, and the village way of life that they support, are destroyed for ever.

Suffolk, Central has large businesses such as ICI Paints, and Munton and Fison Maltsters — both in Stowmarket — and Took's bakery in Ipswich. But we also have a very large number of small businesses. Many of them are based on our small industrial estates, but without doubt the principal small business in central Suffolk is agriculture. The farming industry seems to be coming increasingly under public scrutiny on a variety of fronts, but I hope that we shall not lose sight of just how successful our farmers have been as small businesses. Throughout very many difficult years, their efficiency, productivity and excellent relationships with their work force have been one of the success stories of our time. We must never forget, either, how many other industries are dependent on the success of the farmers, such as the merchants, the chemical and fertiliser manufacturers and the agricultural engineers. Thousands of companies and many more thousands of employees are entirely dependent on the demand for their goods and services created by our successful farmers.

To continue the agricultural theme, small businesses are the seed corn from which larger businesses grow. They represent the best prospects for new jobs. If each of the many thousands of small businesses took on just one additional person, the effect on unemployment would be far more significant than the starting up of any number of large firms.

Small businesses grow from a smaller, often sounder, base. They have great commitment and, perhaps more importantly, a closer and happier relationship between employer and employee than is found in many larger companies. That is crucial. Many of our nation's problems during the past 40 years have stemmed from the chasm that has developed between employer and employee in the huge, impersonal, monolithic companies that arose during that time. Into that chasm, almost inevitably, came doubt and distrust—followed just as inevitably by irrational disputes, disruption and, ultimately, inefficiency and decay.

Napoleon called us a nation of shopkeepers, which he no doubt meant as an insult. I do not see it in that way. Shops and small businesses of every kind are usually run by people of independent mind and spirit, prepared to take risks, work hard and rely on themselves and their judgment. If, as Napoleon suggested, this nation has such people in abundance, how fortunate we are.

It is most important at this time to ensure that those energies and abilities are set free to develop small businesses, which they will undoubtedly do if unhampered by too many rules and regulations. Much has already been done to help in that area, as hon. Members have mentioned this morning. Financial assistance is available to those who wish to start their own companies; VAT registration levels have been altered and advice is available from all quarters in all sorts of different ways. I fear, however, that there is still too much red tape. Every effort must be made urgently to reduce that to a minimum. When I speak to small business men their plea is usually not for more help from the state, but for less hindrance.

Until recently I ran a small business, which I started myself. My qualifications and experience are in agriculture, forestry and tree care. I humbly venture to suggest that I am the only arboricultural expert in the House. It follows that I have a deep interest both in food production and in the environment in which we live.

I hope that the House will permit me briefly to make two separate and special pleas, linked very much to the businesses, both large and small, that I have been talking about. For Europe to be complaining about mountains of surplus grain, and for farmers in the United States to be paid to leave millions of fertile acres empty while a huge proportion of the world's population is starving, is a quite unpardonable state of affairs. Why should we inhibit successful food production when there is a desperate need for that food? Surely it is not beyond the wit of man to solve the problems, mostly political, that prevent those most in need of food from benefiting from the advances we have made in modern fanning techniques.

I am deeply concerned that our generation, with the industrial processes and waste products that we have created, has it in its power, as never before, either to preserve and enhance our environment for future generations or, possibly, to ruin it beyond repair. I hope that we have the will and the strength to take the former course—not only to preserve what we have, but to use our modern technological advances with care and imagination. Wherever possible, we must use them to improve the world in which we live, and not use them to despoil it.

Both of these are issues in which I shall, in the fullness of time, seek to play a part, in the hope that my generation will be thanked and not cursed by those to come.

See this speech in context