[Mr Christopher Chope in the Chair] — North-West Economy

Part of the debate – in Westminster Hall at 9:30 am on 20 July 2010.

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Photo of Hazel Blears Hazel Blears Labour, Salford and Eccles 9:30, 20 July 2010

My hon. Friend is right. In her relatively short time in the House she has made a tremendous contribution to highlighting those issues. She understands that in many cases business works on the basis of relationships, and that some long-established relationships are in danger of fracturing and disappearing in the interim. We need to get on with whatever is going to be done, and make sure that it is properly established.

It is important, too, as we proceed with the local economic partnerships, that when investment is drawn in local people should have the opportunity to get the jobs that are on offer. I urge the Minister to talk to his colleagues in the Department for Education. For those of us who were lucky enough to get Building Schools for the Future programmes in our constituencies-many of us did not, and are rightly angry about it-I want the contracts for those major public building projects to include apprenticeships and construction job opportunities for local people. My hon. Friend Jonathan Reynolds is right to say that 40 per cent. of the construction sector's business depends on public sector projects. Many BSF programmes would have employed bricklayers, joiners and plasterers and those jobs are now lost to our economy.