It is a real privilege to be able to write an occasional blog on Colin’s website. Hopefully my thoughts will generate responses – feel free to comment directly or email me at nic.dakin.mp@parliament.uk. Your thoughts and ideas are crucial to taking the area forward. And I am better able to represent local people if I am close to your intelligence about what is going on in the local economy. So let me have your feedback. Whatever it is it will be welcome!
One thing was clear across all the Party Conferences – that is the need to get the economy going. I was pleased to meet with the local Chamber of Commerce and hear directly from local businesses about what their priorities are. The clear message I received was the need to get more spending and demand into the economy. The question is how this best is done. Even the IMF now admits that they – along with the government – underestimated the impact of severe spending cuts. My A level Economics taught me that the multiplier effect will magnify spending so it wasn’t surprising to me that a £1 cut in spending has the impact of taking £1.30-1.70 out of the economy. My surprise is that the brightest and the best at the Bank of England and elsewhere didn’t understand this and – as a result – the government cut too far and too fast and we now have the longest double dip recession since the Great Depression. Labour continues to argue for a temporary cut in VAT to give a spending shot in the arm. Personally I believe government should be bringing infrastructure projects – like the upgrade of the A160 – forward and taking steps to stimulate house building. This would give us those cranes on the skyline that tell us the economy is moving back in the right direction. Sadly we are getting none of this at the moment but I wouldn’t be surprised to see the inklings of a Plan B in the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement. Let’s hope so.
Unfortunately the government’s confused and contradictory message about renewables isn’t helping us locally. It is causing the sort of uncertainty that might jeopardise the likely investment in wind manufacture, assembly and deployment on the Humber estuary. For Scunthorpe – a steel town – this would be a real blow. More wind turbines means more demand for steel. My job is to work with business to make the arguments that will help government make the right choices. That’s why I met with the Business Secretary, Vince Cable recently to urge him to give positive, consistent messages to investors. I felt he was listening – let’s hope he can do something about it!
But there are things we need to do locally as well. One of the key challenges that potential inward investors ask is whether we have sufficient people with the right skills to meet current and future needs. So when Lord Haskins, Chair of the Humber Local Enterprise Partnership asked me to Chair its Skills Commission I agreed. This is a big task! But a crucially important one! Speaking at a packed Humber LEP Forum event held at Forest Pines I was able to set out the Call for Evidence on Skills. We need the energy, ideas and – above all – evidence from as many people as possible if we are to have the information from which to put together a strong plan for skills not just for now but also into the future. Please contribute your evidence by logging on to www.humberlep.org