I rise to support the reasoned amendment. I consider that the appropriate course, because although there are some bad things in the Bill, it also contains a lot of good measures that should be supported.
What is bad is the fact that, as far as business is concerned, the Bill is about as good as the Government are prepared to offer. At a time of double-dip recession, when consumer spending is squeezed and could well contract further, manufacturing is struggling and private sector investment is almost negative, there was an opportunity for the Government to produce a Bill that would play a major role in reversing those trends. Instead, we got a rag-bag of measures, some quite good in themselves, cobbled together in an omnibus Bill that has no focus and no clear relevance to meeting the challenges facing our economy today. Businesses are crying out for something far more dramatic, such as investment in construction or a business bank—major action by the Government that will help to stimulate private sector investment, increase employment and improve consumer spending—but this Bill is all they have got. Even the Secretary of State admitted that the measures in the Bill would not reverse the current economic problems.
Many of the measures are Labour’s ideas—the green investment bank, the provisions on shareholders and the primary authority scheme. I admit that the present Government have developed those ideas, but given the controversy that some of them have generated within the Government ranks, they cannot avoid the overriding perception that this Government appreciate the logic of what Labour initiated, but do not have the political conviction or passion to implement those ideas in a way that will deliver on their objectives.
I welcome the green investment bank. Originally Labour’s idea, its implementation has taken two years, amidst oft-reported squabbling between the Department and the Treasury. In three years, it will—perhaps—be able to do what banks are expected to do: borrow and recycle the money; however, that is subject to the public accounts being in an appropriate state. That is hardly the sort of approach that will generate the certainty needed to encourage investors to put money into the bank, so funds will be available for redistributing.