Member News
By Caroline Dinenage MP - 31st August 2011
Caroline Dinenage MP says the prevailing stereotype of "affluent leafy suburbs" obscures the existence of pockets of real deprivation in the South.
This article was first featured on June 15 2011, ahead of Caroline Dinenage MP's Westminster Hall debate on the subject.
A vital debate in Westminster Hall on Wednesday will highlight the need for the government to support small and medium businesses in these areas.
Enterprise Zones and the Regional Growth Fund (RGF) will provide a much needed stimulus for economic development in disadvantaged areas. Yet funding is overwhelmingly being directed to the North. It is notable, for instance, that the South East of England Development Agency region received only one RGF grant at round 1 (despite over 50 being submitted), while the North East received 14. Furthermore, none of the initial 11 Enterprise Zones announced are to be located in the South East. The debate will address the allocations of both RGFs and Enterprise Zone, and the need to refocus some government attention to economic black spots in the South.
The current division overlooks the dire need for growth in many Southern areas. Unemployment in my own constituency of Gosport is higher than in the North, with one of the lowest job to person ratios in England. There is also significant public sector dependency of 34.9 per cent, higher than both the national and North Eastern averages.
I believe that this debate will demonstrate the need for nuance in the apparent North-South divide in the allocation of government support for small and medium businesses. Economic growth is hampered in many areas of the South, with business start-up and survival rates in South Hampshire and the Isle of Wight falling well below national benchmarks. For Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) in the South to do anything more than pay lip service to business support they require access to funding. We also need to coordinate disparate local business support networks, helping them to work together and pool their resources in order to be more effective. LEPs can help to achieve this, but only if they receive the funding they need to do it.
I hope that this debate will encourage the minister for business and enterprise to take the comparative neglect of deprived Southern areas into account when his department and Lord Heseltine's panel decide the apportionment of round 2 of the Regional Growth Fund. The announcement of the final Enterprise Zones should also be considered in light of this debate. There are real opportunities for growth in the South, such as at the decommissioned Royal Navy airfield site of Daedalus on the Solent, but they require a fair level of government support to be realised.
Caroline Dinenage has been Conservative MP for Gosport since 2010.
Throughout recess, ePolitix.com will be focusing on a different policy theme each week. This week we are featuring MP articles with a focus on business and the economy.
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