Alex Norris

I very much do agree. It should be a point of great pride—and, again, it is one of our huge assets—that we have the biggest pure freight airport in the country. Frankly, our geographical location means that all journeys involving the transport of goods tend to come through our region at some point, but with the airport they do so very directly. My hon. Friend raises, as my hon. Friend the Member for Gedling did, the fact that one of our challenges in the east midlands is linking up our opportunities by having the right access and the right public transport. I think that is absolutely crucial, and it must be the next dimension of our efforts. Having had exactly the same conversation with Andy Reed—formerly of this parish—who is chair of the business board in Leicester and Leicestershire, I want to reassure my hon. Friend the Member for North West Leicestershire (Amanda Hack) of our commitment to making sure that, although there are devolution gaps at the moment, people in Leicestershire can also secure a bright and more sustainable future for their communities. We will work with them in whatever way we can. My hon. Friend the Member for Gedling was exactly right in saying that we cannot forget the importance of our local councils. I am very proud to be a former member of my council. Having seen how hard it has been for local authorities in recent years, I am also very proud that, at the recent Budget, we started the journey of rebuilding local finances. I think we will start to see much better services as a result—and we have to—and people will feel that change. Before I close, I want to cover my hon. Friend’s point, which he said with a degree of boldness, about local government reorganisation. Having made the case strongly for the devolution of power, as I think I did, my hon. Friends will know that my belief is that decisions are better taken locally than in this place, and we will certainly shift power in that regard. I think we must have a degree of responsibility in that where we add tiers of government, we rationalise other tiers. I am thinking of parts of my constituency that have five tiers of government: they have an elected mayor; they have me and this place; they have a county council; they have a borough council; and they have a town council. I do not think it is unreasonable that we should want to bring forward that reorganisation, but my hon. Friend made very significant points about the importance of getting the voices of local communities into the room, and the moment for that is now. In the next few months to November, when we expect proposals to be submitted, we have an opportunity to have those conversations. We are at the proposals stage, and we are going to make sure that communities have the right insight to make the right judgments about their future, and we will facilitate and be part of those conversations. To conclude, the thing that frustrates me about my city and our region is that we have had four really difficult decades—there is no doubt about that—and we see that in the physical and societal scars all across the area and in the memories we have lived with. For too long, we have talked about—or even worse, been talked about—in the deficit: what is wrong with us; what we do not have. I am really pleased with the spirit of this debate. The spirit of debate about our region over the past year, and certainly in the new Parliament, is one that talks about the opportunities in the east midlands, which are huge and abundant. We as a Government will back them, but most importantly it will be local leaders, the elected mayor, council leaders, local Members of Parliament and the local community who shape, deliver and drive that. I think that is the right way around and I cannot wait to see what we, collectively, can achieve. Question put and agreed to.