Thank you for allowing me to speak in this important debate, Mr Caton. It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Stockport (Ann Coffey), who set out a great advert for Stockport and what it has to offer. I congratulate the hon. Member for Rochdale (Simon Danczuk) on securing the debate; I have great respect for his work on issues relating to town centres and our high streets.
I have been slightly disappointed by the debate’s lack of acknowledgment of the general economic picture. Nor has much mention been made of the state of the public finances, which is another extremely important part of the context for the debate. It is worth restating, in support of the coalition Government, that when they came to power in May 2010 there was a car crash of a situation in the public finances and we had the largest deficit in the G20. To put things into perspective, the Government have had to make difficult decisions over the past two and a half years, but positive progress has been made. The deficit has been reduced by 25% in those two years and, throughout the world and in the markets, our country’s economic position is seen as stable. That is reflected in the low interest rates that we still have and which we would not have had were the Opposition in government; those low rates are allowing people to go out and use our shops to support our retailers.