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East of England Development Agency

Pat McFadden MP,  Minister for Business, Innovation and Skills
House of Commons, London,  24 March 2009

I was reflecting that the last speech I actually made in the House of Commons a few days ago went on for two hours!

My friend Chris warned me as I came in that I’ll have to be a little more succinct, so I’ll try and do that.

We are, of course, in difficult economic times. Not just here but all around the world.

And in Government we view this as a time when all hands must go to the pump.

We’ve got to do everything we can to help the country, business and the people who work for our businesses through these difficult times.

That means action must be taken at an international level.

And we’ve seen a great deal of co-operation internationally.

When you have a global crisis, no single country can take action on its own that can mitigate it.

Even governments acting together cannot shield their economies, or their populations, from the effects of what is a global recession. But by working together we can certainly help make it less long lasting and less deep than might otherwise be the case.

Then, of course, there is the national and local action that we have to carry out now.

I’m not going to go into all the detail but we’ve taken a number of measures nationally to try to stabilize the situation, to try to get lending moving and to try to ensure the economy can get through this with the least amount of damage being done.

Sometimes I think this can be difficult to understand for the public when they say to us “well you spent this much intervening in the banks, what about us, what about my costs?” I think it’s really important to stress that we did not intervene to save banks as such or investment bankers.

We intervened because we understood that a properly functioning banking system is an absolutely essential pre-requisite for a properly functioning economy.

Then, of course, at the regional and local level there is a great amount that can be done and that needs to be done.

Richard and his colleagues in the other Regional Development Agencies (RDA) around the country are playing an absolutely critical role.

RDAs can always be closer to the ground than central government, just as local authorities are closer to the ground than central government.

The RDAs are one part of government that is business led and very focused on business. In my experience of being lead minister in the field for the past year or so, I find the feedback we get from EEDA, and from the other RDAs, is very, very important in informing our understanding of what’s going on locally and how best to respond to it.

But really my message today isn’t about any particular institution.

We have politicians here from right across the political parties. We’ve got local authority leaders from across the political parties and we’ve got many representatives of business in the East of England.

And even though we will have our differences in how to respond to this situation we are actually going to have to work together to get the country through this.

This has to be something that is not just a party cause but is actually a national cause. Because, however difficult it is out there, it is absolutely critical that Britain comes through this in the best shape possible.

While we are very focused on getting through this period we are also looking to the medium and long-term.

And as we look at the future economic strength of our country, it is worth mentioning the economic strength of the East of England.

This is a region with an absolutely fantastic business tradition. We talk about the knowledge economy and where better to see the best of the knowledge economy than in the East of England? Here you’ll find some of the most intense knowledge economy clusters in the whole world. And that’s a specifically important strength of our national economy.

I think this is very important because, as we work through the recession, we have to understand that the economy which emerges from this recession will not based on pressing the rewind button to the beginning of 2006.

It will be balanced differently and the proportion of different sectors will be shaped differently than was the case in the past.

I’m not saying this is about picking company A or picking company B but it is about identifying sectors where we want Britain to lead the way.

So that’s why we’ve recently published a broadband strategy which will help the country make the most of the internet technology and creative economy. Since these are going to be a bigger part of our future than has been the case in the past.

In a similar way, the way that we heat our homes, the way we transport ourselves, the way we produce our goods, all of this is going to be changed radically as we move towards a low-carbon economy.

That is going to be a critical part of the future. I know that many businesses represented here today can play a very important role in that shift so we are looking to those areas where we want Britain to play a leading role.

So my message today is yes, I understand it is tough out there, Government is doing what we can to help the country through this but I really do believe we have to work together globally and at all levels within the United Kingdom - nationally, the RDAs, the local authorities and business itself.

It is only by making this into a national cause that we can do the best job for the country and that’s our intention.

So I’m very glad to be here to give my support to this event and to do whatever I can here to work with business and the local authorities represented here today.

Thank you very much.