TWO House of Commons “new boys” have pledged to fight for the interests of local business.
Colne Valley MP Jason McCartney and his Calder Valley counterpart Craig Whittaker were quizzed on a range of matters at a meeting with leading members of the Mid Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce.
The two-hour meeting at the chamber’s Lockwood headquarters with the two Tory MPs covered topics including the demise of regional development agencies, bank lending, high-speed rail – and MPs’ expenses.
Mr McCartney, vice-chairman of the all-party transport group of northern MPs, said he was 100% behind calls for a direct HSR route from London to Sheffield and Leeds.
Chamber policy chief Steven Leigh said the region would lose out if the coalition government opted for a HSR route which called at Leeds only after calling at Manchester.
Earlier, the MPs heard fears that the decision to abolish regional development agencies including Yorkshire Forward in favour of new Local Enterprise Partnerships would hit funding for major infrastructure schemes and support for small firms.
Mr McCartney said Yorkshire Forward had done “some good things” but that the body had been inefficient – with 63% of its funding going to “sub-quangos” and in administration.
He said: “We have to find a better way of getting the money to support businesses. We intend to get the LEPs up and running in two years’ time. They will be more local to what is needed and more of the money will get to where it is needed.”
Mr Whittaker, whose constituency includes Brighouse and Elland, said Yorkshire Forward and business support body Business Link were “incredibly expensive” and did not provide value for money.
He cited Labour’s Building Schools for the Future programme as an example, where local authorities were spending up to £10m just to meet the criteria for funding “before a brick is laid”.
Chamber members also complained about problems getting banks to lend to businesses in the wake of the credit crunch and the recession.
Mr McCartney said: “This is the biggest area of casework I am dealing with at the moment. There is a problem. People are finding their overdrafts have been withdrawn or restricted or the conditions of their loans have been changed.”
Mr Whittaker agreed: “One of the biggest problems is bank lending. Companies have gone to the wall in the past two years because banks have called in loans.
“Banks are quite adamant they have not changed their lending criteria, but clearly something has changed.”
Mr McCartney said government ministers were “totally fed up and almost at breaking point” over the banks’ failure to lend to firms that they would have happily funded five years ago.
Commenting on proposals such as a bank levy, he admitted: “We may be getting to the point where we have to legislate to force the banks to lend.”
Charles Brook, of insolvency experts Begbies Traynor, said bank bosses at the highest level were under pressure to strengthen their balance sheets, which was affecting the ability of local managers to lend.
The MPs were also quizzed about MPs expenses in the wake of the scandal about claims for duck ponds and moats.
Mr McCartney said the new online system for making and processing claims was still “too slow” – claiming that he had six weeks’ of claims totalling £5,600 which had not yet been processed.
But he said: “The expenses system has been reformed and it will be better. It is a new system which will click into gear.
“Neither of us were MPs at the time of the expenses row and we are now paying for the sins of our forefathers.
“Everything I claim for now I ask myself how I can get best value from this? And what would it look like splashed across the front page of the Examiner?”
Mr Whittaker said some MPs were finding it difficult to use the online expenses claim system – while delays in processing them meant the average figure owed to MPs stood at £12,500.
“There are cases of MPs sleeping in their offices because they cannot afford to stay in a hotel,” he said. “No company would ever consider treating its employees like that.”
