Clause 66
Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Bill [Lords]
3:00 pm
Rosie Winterton (Minister of State (Yorkshire and the Humber), Department for Communities and Local Government; Doncaster Central, Labour)
The right hon. Gentleman would, I hope, acknowledge that the £30 million invested by Yorkshire Forward in “Welcome to Yorkshire” is having a huge effect on tourism. It is a good example of how such regional intervention can help to stimulate one of the key industries in our area at a very difficult time.
Tourism is worth something like £6 billion to the Yorkshire and Humber region and employs about 250,000 people. We are trying to stimulate it through regional action. However, council leaders in North Yorkshire have been anxious to ensure that when there is an economic focus, through, for example, the city regions, they can put together an economic case for their area as well. Areas such as Scarborough and Bridlington have been what we call “renaissance towns” in terms of investment from Yorkshire Forward to ensure that we are getting high-quality tourism. The worry for councils is that it is important that they have their “economic stamp” on the plans, as well as the economic plans put forward through the city region pilots.
There has been a lot of support from councils of all political hues in the fight for Leeds city region to become one of the pilots. That has been welcomed. Taking an overview of Yorkshire and the Humber, it is exactly the type of action that councils are supporting. They want to play a role in economic development, but feel that consistency is needed.
The problem with the Conservative amendment is that it actually says. “You can do it if you want to.” The whole point of getting councils together and emphasising economic development is to ensure that they make the assessment needed to get consistency that can be fed into the overall strategy on the regional approach to stimulating the economy. That fit needs to be put together to ensure that councils, which can have a huge effect on their local economies, think clearly about what they need to do to support local businesses, support people to get jobs and help new company start-ups. I am surprised that the Opposition feel that it is better to sit back and think, “Fingers crossed, let’s hope something happens.”
Several hon. Membersrose—