From: Greg Hands MP news@greghands.comSubject: News Bulletin from Greg Hands MP #439

Date: 6 July 2015 12:21To: news@greghands.com

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In this edition:

Greg Hands MPs Diary Website of the Week:greenhalgh.london Greg Hands Opens LondonStock Exchange 424 Bus Route - MoreNews Greg Hands Meets SeniorRepresentatives fromChelsea Football Club toDiscuss Proposed StadiumRedevelopment Photo news:Lady Margaret School Fair Greg Hands attendsChancellor's MansionHouse Speech Photo news:Hands meets with SlovakPresident Greg Hands Thanks LocalActivists and Supporters Hands in Parliament:Hands responds toproductivity debate Hands in the papers:Outrage as Sloane SquareTube's green tiles arereplaced with 'charmless'white ones Photo news:Hands visits Royal Hospital,Chelsea 7 ways to contact Greg Hands

Issue 439 - Monday 6th July 2015

Since the last edition, Greg:

Met the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, to discuss thelocation of a Crossrail 2 station in Chelsea and Fulham, andto present him with a 2,500-signature petition on changes dueto be proposed for the 424 bus route in Fulham.Attended HM the Queens garden party at the Palace ofHolyroodhouse, Edinburgh, helping to represent Her MajestysGovernment.Became Patron of Deputy Mayor of London StephenGreenhalghs London mayoral candidate campaign.Received a copy of the Airports Commission final report onthe future of aviation capacity in the South East. Greg will bereading the report thoroughly in the coming days.Attended Bi-Borough Conservative event at the Piper Buildingto thank constituents for all their help in the GeneralElection Campaign.Visited the Royal Hospital Chelsea to meet ChelseaPensioners in the Infirmary and to learn about their care needs.Opened trading on the London Stock Exchange on thetwentieth anniversary of the Alternative Investment Market.Met Michael Stephen, Chairman of the Planning Committee atthe Chelsea Society, to discuss local issues.Attended the Slovak Ambassadors Reception in Honour ofSlovaks President Andrej Kiskas visit to the UK.Attended the Ealing Conservatives Business Club as itsguest speaker.Visited Lady Thatchers grave at the Royal Hospital,Chelsea.Attended Cabinet as Chief Secretary to the Treasury.Held his weekly constituency surgery for Chelsea andFulham residents at Fulham Library. In order to book anappointment, please send an email to mail@greghands.com,or call 020 7219 5448.

Website of the Week:http://greenhalgh.london The new campaign website of Stephen Greenhalgh's bid tobecome the Conservative Candidate for Mayor of London.!

Greg Hands Opens London Stock Exchange

Greg Hands opening trading on the London Stock Exchange lastmonth, to mark the 20th anniversary of trading on the AIM market. Greg Hands, Member of Parliament for Chelsea and Fulham, wasgranted the honour of opening trading on the London Stock Exchangeon Friday, 19 June. In his new role as Chief Secretary to the Treasury in the Conservativemajority Government, Greg opened trading on the London StockExchange on the twentieth anniversary of the Alternative InvestmentMarket (AIM). Greg Hands says, I was delighted to make the same commute whichmany of my constituents in Chelsea and Fulham make every day, andit was good to be back in the City, where I worked before beingelected as a Councillor in Hammersmith and Fulham in 1998, andthen as Member of Parliament for the first time in 2005. In his role as Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Greg was proud tocelebrate twenty years of AIM, the London Stock Exchanges stockmarket for smaller companies, saying: The entire history of theLondon Stock Exchange combines pragmatism with innovation, and Iam impressed by the active and thriving market it provides for the vastnumber of high-growth small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The British people have responded with a determination andreadiness to confront the hard choices that the Government has hadto make as part of our long-term economic plan. Britains innovativeand dynamic SMEs are the backbone of our economy, and that is whythis Government has supported AIM by removing Stamp Duty on thepurchase of shares on growth markets, and allowing AIM shares to beheld in ISAs. Greg Hands thanks the London Stock Exchange for the invitation, andhe was pleased to note that, perhaps by coincidence, the marketopened stronger that day.

424 Bus Route - More News

Greg Hands MP with local Sands End Councillors StephenHamilton and Robert Largan with local Sands End residents and

their petition against proposed changes to the 424 bus route. On Friday, 26 June, Greg Hands, Member of Parliament for Chelseaand Fulham, met with a delegation of local residents concerned aboutchanges to the 424 bus route, due to be proposed by Transport forLondon (TfL). Currently, the 424 bus route runs from Craven Cottage to Putney HighStreet, and provides a vital service for residents of Sands End andPeterborough Road in addition to other neighbourhoods. However,Greg has been made aware that TfL plans to make radical changes tothe route, with one outcome being that Sands End would lose its onlydirect bus service. Six local residents, including two of Hammersmith & Fulham CouncilsSands End Conservative ward councillors, Steve Hamilton and RobertLargan, presented Greg with a petition signed by approximately 2,500local residents, all of whom are opposed to the curtailment of the 424route due to be proposed by TfL. In light of the sizeable local opposition to any such alterations, Gregescalated his constituents concerns directly to Boris Johnson, theMayor of London, with whom he had a meeting to discuss a number ofconstituency-related issues on Monday, 29 June. Greg explained thenature of his constituents concerns to the Mayor, and he looksforward to receiving further information on any such proposedchanges to the route once the consultation process begins. After his meeting with the Mayor, Greg Hands said, I continue to keepan eye on any curtailment of the 424 bus route, which is yet to beannounced by Transport for London, and I am well aware of thealready immense local opposition to any such changes. Indeed,Councellor Largan tells me that not a single person has spoken insupport of the possible curtailment of this route. I reiterate what I said in June: I believe that TfL should reconsider anysuch poorly thought out proposals, and I intend to make a submissionopposing them as soon as the consultation opens. The local Conservative councillors petition to retain the 424 bus routecan still be accessed at http://hfconservatives.com/424bus/

Greg Hands presents the 424 bus petition to Mayor of LondonBoris Johnson.

Greg Hands Meets Senior Representativesfrom Chelsea Football Club to DiscussProposed Stadium Redevelopment On Monday, 22 June, Greg Hands, Member of Parliament for Chelseaand Fulham, met with senior representatives from Chelsea FootballClub to discuss their intentions for the redevelopment of StamfordBridge stadium. As a major global city, London is unique in having such a highconcentration of professional football clubs, and Greg is proud to beable to claim two highly successful teams in his constituency ofChelsea and Fulham. Accordingly, Greg was keen to find out whatChelsea F.C. is proposing in terms of its redevelopment of itsStamford Bridge site. In his meeting with senior representatives of Chelsea F.C., Greg heardall about the 110-year history of the club and its Stamford Bridge homeground. Indeed, Greg was intrigued to discover that Chelsea F.C. isthe only professional football team in London still to be playing on itsoriginal site. It is no surprise, therefore, that Greg is keen for ChelseaF.C. to remain at Stamford Bridge, and he was delighted whenChelseas representatives explained that the pitch itself will even bestaying on the same spot. In response to Chelsea F.C.s proposals, Greg Hands says, I ampleased to hear that Chelsea Football Club intends to stay in its 110-year-old home of Stamford Bridge. Nevertheless, I am aware of thestrong local economic impact that the Club makes especially onmatch days, but also with the Clubs museum and shop and I havereceived an assurance that the Club will do everything it can during itsthree-year hiatus to support the local economy, for example from on-site construction companies. I also understand that there may be strong local opposition toChelsea F.C.s proposals, but I have been assured that the Club ismaking every effort to work with local stakeholders such as theFriends of Brompton Cemetery, English Heritage, Royal Parks, theLondon Oratory School, and Stoll. Greg Hands says, I find Chelsea Football Clubs initial proposals tobe encouraging at this early stage. However, I look forward to hearingthe opinion of local residents, especially in terms of the effects of theconstruction and the increase in capacity.

Photo news:Lady Margaret School Fair

Greg Hands MP with PTFA member Emma Farquharson at thisyear's Lady Margaret School fair last month.

Greg Hands attends Chancellors MansionHouse Speech Greg Hands, Member of Parliament for Chelsea and Fulham, attendedthe Chancellors annual Mansion House Speech. On Wednesday, 10 June, hosted by the Lord Mayor of London, theChancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, delivered his annualMansion House Speech on the state of the British economy. GregHands attended in his new role as Chief Secretary to the Treasury,and the Chancellor began his speech by drawing attention to the hardwork his new Treasury team is making in their effort to move Britainfrom crisis to recovery, and ultimately towards responsibility andprosperity. The Chancellor took the chance to announce the first sale of theGovernments remaining stake in the Royal Mail, as well as the sale ofthe Governments stake in the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), whichthe Governor of the Bank of England confirmed to be in the publicsinterest. Mr Osborne also reminded his audience that David Cameron is thefirst Prime Minister since 1857 to have increased not only his partysnumber of seats in the House of Commons but also its share of thepopular vote, a clear rejection of those political parties who argued formore borrowing and more spending. Greg Hands says, The Chancellor is right to remind us of the woefullegacy that we inherited from the last Labour Government, when mypredecessor received a note saying Im afraid there is no money.Since then, the British people have responded with a determinationand readiness to confront the hard choices that we have had to makeas part of our long-term economic plan. Mr Osborne reminded us thatBritain has witnessed one of the most sustained reductions in thestructural deficit of any major advanced economy in the world, with thehighest employment rate in our history, and with economic growthforecast to be the fastest of any major advanced economy in the world. However, our newly-elected Conservative majority Governmentknows that the job is not yet done. We are taking very seriously thefact that we have a budget deficit at just shy of 5% of national income,with national debt standing at over 80% of GDP. Even though this isset to fall for the first time since the start of the century, theGovernment is not easing off, and last week we found further savingsof 3 billion in government departments. Greg Hands looks forward to continuing to work hard as ChiefSecretary to the Treasury in order to ensure that the Governmentslong-term economic plan should succeed and provide a brighter andmore secure future for Britain.

Photo news:Hands meets with Slovak President

Greg Hands with the visiting Slovak President Andrej Kiskaduring his visit to London last week.

Greg Hands Thanks Local Activists andSupporters Greg Hands, Member of Parliament for Chelsea and Fulham, attendeda Bi-Borough Reception with local activists in the Piper Building,Fulham, on Thursday 11 June. More than a hundred local Conservative activists and supporters fromthe two boroughs of Kensington & Chelsea and Hammersmith &Fulham attended a post-General Election celebration in the PiperBuilding, Fulham. Greg took the chance to thank these local activistsfor all their hard work over the preceding months which culminated inthe first Conservative General Election majority win since 1992. Greg drew attention to those who also helped with the campaign inother constituencies, such as South Thanet and Rochester, as well ason the Election Day Battle Bus to Twickenham, Kingston & Surbiton,and Sutton & Cheam, all of which saw the Conservative Partyvictorious on 8 May. Also in attendance were Stephen Greenhalgh, Londons DeputyMayor for Policing and Crime and Conservative candidate in theforthcoming 2016 London mayoral election, as well as Lady VictoriaBorwick, London Assembly Member and newly-elected Member ofParliament for Kensington. After a warm welcome from Cllr FrancesStainton, Greg, Stephen, and Lady Victoria each addressed theaudience, presenting a united, strong Conservative voice for London.There followed a question and answer session, with the discussionranging from Scotland to Council Tax, and from transport to minorityvoter representation. Greg Hands says, It was a great honour to be able to thank morethan a hundred local activists and supporters for all the hard work theyput in during the 2015 General Election, which culminated in our newConservative majority government. Their efforts mean that we cannow get on with the job of ensuring the recovery of the economy andsecuring a brighter, more secure future for Britain. However, this does not mean that we can rest on our laurels. We stillhave a lot of tough decisions to make to see through our long-termeconomic plan. Once again, I would like to thank all those across thecountry who helped us to victory in May this year. Greg looks forward to continuing to represent Chelsea and Fulham astheir Member of Parliament in addition to his new role as ChiefSecretary to the Treasury.

Hands in Parliament:Hands responds to productivity debate!

Click on the image above to watch Greg's response to theproductivity debate in the House of Commons.

The full text was as follows: The Chief Secretary to the Treasury (Greg Hands): I am delightedto respond to this debate on productivity, because it is absolutelycentral to our long-term plan to fix the economy. My ministerialcolleagues at the Treasury have been candid about the scale of theproductivity challenge, so in some ways I agree with a great deal ofwhat the hon. Member for Nottingham East (Chris Leslie) has said, butthis is a challenge that the UK has faced for decades, not severalyears as the motion suggests.!We have been very clear that increasing productivity is a keychallenge in this Parliament for this Government: it will be a key focusof ours over the next five years. Indeed, the Chancellor noted as earlyas August 2010very early on in the last Governmentthat ourrelatively low productivity was a drag to economic recovery, when hespoke at Bloomberg about the economy of the future.!The hon. Gentleman has said that productivity was not mentioned inthe Budget, but I refer him to page 1the very first pageof theBudget document.!Chris Leslie rose!Greg Hands: No, first of all I am going to tell the hon. Gentleman whatit says: The deficit remains too high and productivity too low, thereare still long-standing structural weaknesses in the economy, and thegap between the economic performance of London and the rest of theUK remains too wide.!Chris Leslie: The key thing is the difference between the Budgetdocument and the Budget speech. The Budget speech was more thanan hour long, so why did the Chancellor not mention that veryparagraph?!Greg Hands: Surely the most important thing is the delivery of theBudget, not just the speech. The delivery of the Budget was all aboutthings such as digital communications infrastructure, housing, science,innovation, freezing fuel duty, doing something for the oil and gasregime, the sharing economy and backing business by launching acomprehensive review of business rates. The most important thing ingovernment is what is delivered.!The Chancellor announced four weeks agoway before the hon.Gentleman tabled a motion or wrote an articlethat we will publish aproductivity plan: a plan to make Britain work better. I will remind thehon. Gentleman of that speech, because he was there with variousLabour leadership contenders, minus the hon. Member for IslingtonNorth (Jeremy Corbyn). Curiously, he seemed to have been missed offthe CBI invitation list, but he may be up for an invitation in the future.The Chancellor said:!Let me be clear! perhaps he was not clear enough for the hon.Member for Nottingham East! improving the productivity of ourcountry is the route to raising standards of living for everyone in thiscountry.!I am sure the shadow Chancellor will recall that, because he wasthere.!It speaks volumes that the Treasury ministerial team announced inMay by the Prime Minister includes Jim ONeill, one of the mostrespected economists in the country and an authority on productivity.His input is more about deeds than words and it will be vital as we putin place the policies that will turbo-charge our economy.!Our productivity plan will build on the significant supply-side reformswe have put in place over the past five years. It will be wide-rangingand ambitious. It will look to the long term. It will help rebalance theeconomy and build the northern powerhouse. It will improve ourinfrastructure and reduce burdens on businesses; increase oursupport for childcare; ensure that many more affordable homes arebuilt; expand apprenticeships and equip us with the skills we need forthe 21st century; and make a bold next step in this countrysremarkable economic recovery.!Andrew Gwynne: Can the Chief Secretary confirm whether thesuccess or otherwise of his productivity plan will be assessed by theOffice for Budget Responsibility? Will it cut across all GovernmentDepartments to ensure that some of the regional imbalances that hehas mentioned will be tackled across Government?!Greg Hands: The hon. Gentleman makes an important point. Ofcourse the OBR looks at all Government proposals at the appropriatetime, and I do not think that there will be any exception for this.!John Redwood: Does the Chief Secretary recall that Labour took intopublic ownership Network Rail, a crucial industry for our country, andthat the previous Government commissioned the McNulty report,which discovered that that big organisation was way behind itscontinental comparators when it came to productivity and efficiencyand that their system of managing it had fallen short? Is thatsomething he can help remedy?!Greg Hands: I thank my right hon. Friend for that intervention.Infrastructure will be a key part of the productivity plan, so we muststudy which are the productive and which the less productive areas ofour infrastructure.!Gareth Johnson (Dartford) (Con): Productivity is vital for the Britisheconomy, and the way to achieve good productivity is by having astrong economy. Does the Chief Secretary agree that we need a pro-enterprise, low-taxation and low-regulation economy, as opposed towhat the Labour party is proposing?!Greg Hands: My hon. Friend is quite right. Labour seems not to belearning the lessons of the general election five weeks ago.Encouraging enterprise and promoting sound public finances bydealing with the deficit are extremely important, so I entirely agree.!Andrew Bridgen: At least twice during his opening speech theshadow Chancellor said that we are now seeing highly skilledemployees replaced by low-skilled employees. Does my right hon.Friend agree that the shadow Chancellor should not talk himself downlike that?!Greg Hands: My hon. Friend makes his point in his usual way. All thatI can say!Chris Leslie: At least he is here.!Greg Hands: Yes, my hon. Friend is here, unlike half the shadowTreasury team who went into the election and were wiped out byeither the Conservatives or the Scottish National partyand thatincludes the hon. Gentlemans former leader.!Ian Blackford (Ross, Skye and Lochaber) (SNP) rose!Greg Hands: I shall give way shortly. I think I have awakened the hon.Gentlemans interest with my reference to the SNP.!I thought that it would be helpful to start by setting out the productivityquestion in relation to the UKs general economic competitiveness,setting the scene for the problems we face. Hon. Members will ofcourse be aware that, thanks to our long-term economic plan, we canbe proud of having the highest growth of the major advancedeconomies in 2014, and we are predicted to repeat that in 2015. Weare highly competitive, and that is linked to productivity. We are rankedninth of 144 countries globally for competitiveness, we enjoy thelowest corporation tax in the G7, and we are seen as being wellgoverned, as we are in the top 20 of 102 countries on all eight factorsof the World Justice Projects Rule of Law index for 2015. Londonremains a world-leading international financial centre. Britishuniversities are by far the best in the world outside the US. For thosewho complain that we no longer make things, within two years weexpect the UK to match its all-time car production record, which wasset back in the 1970s. The city of Sunderland now produces morecars than the whole of Italy put together. We are extremely competitive.!George Kerevan (East Lothian) (SNP): Is the Chief Secretary awarethat the high productivity in British automotive products is an opticalillusion because only 37% of the spend in the value chain relates tothis country, whereas two thirds of it relates to the imported content ofthose cars, most of which comes from Europethe Europe that youare trying to take us out of?!Greg Hands: It is a bit churlish to debate the precise details like that.The fact remains that car production in this country is extremelyimpressive. We should celebrate that throughout the UK, including inScotland.!Graham Evans (Weaver Vale) (Con): Will my right hon. Friend giveway?!Greg Hands: Let me make a bit of progress.!The high productivity that I have mentioned is very good, but we needto be equally honest about the areas where we can do better. Weneed to improve our literacy and numeracy skills, and our OECDposition for intermediate skills needs to rise. To match the highest rateof female participation in the workforce in the G7, which is in Canada,or in the OECD, which is in Iceland, we would need over 500,000 or2.5 million more women to enter the labour force respectively. Ourgross value added growth is still too reliant on London and the south-east. We are not building enough housing, and our investment inroads and rail has not yet undone the effects of the decades in whichwe under-invested. All that means that our economy needs to find anextra gear.!We should view this debate in the context of the broad decreases inproductivity growth across the OECD over the past few years. We arenot unique in this regard. Other G7 countries, including Germany andItaly, have seen their measured productivity per worker fall since 2007.We have to accept that productivity is a major challenge, but it is not anew challengeit has been around for decades. To meet thatchallenge, we must look calmly and seriously at the variety of factorsthat affect productivity, and put in place wide and ambitious long-termreforms.!Importantlythe hon. Member for Nottingham East needs to engagewith this pointthose reforms must not jeopardise other elements ofour economic growth. That is the approach that the Government willtake in our productivity plan, because productivity is not an end initself, but a means to an end. It is all about prosperity. When wepublish our productivity plan, I hope that the Labour party will see fit tosupport it, because we agree that improved productivity will be goodfor living standards across the country and help us to meet our fiscalcommitments, which is a point that he raised.!Ian Blackford: What the Chief Secretary is saying does not meet thereality of what has been happening for the past seven years.Productivity in the UK has fallen and the Government have failed todeliver prosperity. The root of that has been the failure ofmacroeconomic policy. Your big idea was quantitative easing,with 375 billion of new assets being created, but none of that has fedthrough to bank lending. That is why we have not seen the underlyinginvestment in our economy that is required. You need to address thatand make sure that we see investment in infrastructure, industrialinvestment and a plan for growth, not some meaningless productivity,which is just hot air and words, but no reality.!Madam Deputy Speaker (Mrs Eleanor Laing): Order. Severalpeople this afternoon, not just the hon. Gentleman who has justspoken, have used the word you. When one uses the word you inthis Chamber, it refers to the Chair. I have not done any of the things Ihave been accused of this afternoon. I do not want to pick onindividual Members at this early stage of the Parliament, but please letus use the correct language.!Greg Hands: I dispute the premise of the hon. Gentlemans question.Productivity in this country is rising, albeit at a relatively low level. Wewould like it to be higher. It has risen by 0.9% this year. The OBRsprojection is that productivity will increase by between 2.1% and 2.5%per annum in the coming years. We need it to increase by even morethan that, but it is certainly not the case that productivity has collapsedover the past couple of years.!Ian Blackford: Over the past seven years, it has declined.!Greg Hands: Okay, I hear the hon. Gentleman.!To answer the point raised by hon. Member for Nottingham East aboutthe OBR, the OBR already produces forecasts and commentary onproductivity, and will continue to do so independently and impartiallyas it always has done.!Chris Leslie: We are looking for the right hon. Gentlemans support incommissioning the OBR to look at the spending choices theChancellor has before him. He will have to acknowledge that certaindecisions on reducing public expenditure could have more of anadverse effect on productivity than others. We want to make sure thatwe have a proper analysis of the impact of those decisions. Thatwould be a better, more sensible way to think about how we spend. Itis not just a debate about how much we spend.!Greg Hands: The OBR remit is pretty clear on this kind of thing. Letme just say that I have listened to the hon. Gentleman a great deal inthe past five years. Coming from a party that never set up the OBR, orany equivalent to it, he seems now to be rather over-fascinated inwhat its operations should be. He might have thought of some ofthose questions during the 13 years of the Labour Government.!The hon. Gentleman said that employment growth had been of poorquality. I would dispute that. I think we will find that in the five yearssince the first quarter of 2010, more than 60% of the increase inemployment has been in high skilled occupations. Some 75% of theincrease has been in full-time employment and, after the excellentresults this week, wages growth now exceeds inflation for the eighthconsecutive month.!I am going now to make a bit of progress, because I am consciousthat we have one or two maiden speeches coming up and a highlysubscribed debate. Let us look at what we did in the previousParliament. In 2010, the priority clearly for the Prime Minister and theChancellor was to put in place a jobs-based recovery. We all know theresult: 1,000 jobs created every day, with three quarters of them fulltime. The employment rate is now at its highest on record at 73.5%and around the highest level on record at 31.1 million. We make noapology for prioritising job growth in the past five years. It is the bestway to make peoples lives better, as the nearly 12,000 people whofound employment in the shadow Chancellors constituency will surelyagree. At the same time, we put in place important supply side measures toimprove our national productivity. We increased average public andprivate infrastructure investment to about 47 billion a year between2011 and 2014, which is more than a sixth higher than it was in theprevious Parliament. We have completed 15 major schemes on thestrategic road network, worth 3.4 billion, with a further 17 schemes,worth 2.5 billion, under way. We have completed more than 2,650infrastructure projects and extended access to superfast broadband tomore than 2.5 million more premises. We have accelerated theacademies programme, with more than 4,600 academies nowopened, and we have set the path for high-speed rail to unleash thefull potential of our northern cities. We have protected the sciencebudget in cash terms and set out a long-term capital commitment onthe science budget as well, ensuring that it will rise in line with inflationfor the duration of the Parliament. Peter Kyle (Hove) (Lab): Does the Chief Secretary recognise that inconstituencies such as mine 90% of all businesses employ fewer thaneight people? The skills and productivity challenge we have is on thesofter, entrepreneurial side. He mentions the skills challenge and thesetting up of academies. Does he acknowledge that we need to investmore in the soft, communication and entrepreneurial skills that youngpeople need in an economy such as mine? Greg Hands: I welcome the hon. Gentleman to this place and thankhim for his intervention. I do not necessarily disagree with anything hesays. Equally, I am sure that he would welcome what has been donein Hove in the past five years. Unemployment has fallen by, I think,almost 1,200 in his constituencya 53% fall in joblessness. We willconsider what he proposes, but he must recognise what has beendelivered for his constituency. We have raised the annual budget of Innovate UK, the core innovationsupport mechanism for businesses in the UK, from 360 million in2011 to more than 500 million in 2015-16. I am sure the hon.Gentleman will also be delighted to learn that we have put a premiumon apprenticeships, of which more than 2.2 million have been created,and that we have pledged to deliver 3 million this Parliament. As I said, productivity began to rise last year, although we are stillbelow our pre-crisis peak. We agree on the extent of the problem. TheOBR expects productivity to pick up in 2015 and to grow at areasonable rate afterwards in every year of the forecast period, whichis good news for businesses and individuals and has undoubtedlycontributed to our economic recovery. I want to say a few words about the next five years, because, althougha lot has been done, now is the time to redouble our efforts. My righthon. Friend the Chancellor told the CBI last month that we had aonce-in-a-generation opportunity to find an extra gear for the Britisheconomy. Our productivity plan will set out how we will do that, and Iwill not, and cannot be expected to, pre-empt that plan. Let me remindhon. Members, however, of our manifesto commitments to boostproductivity. We said we would invest in infrastructure, on whichprevious Governments failed to take the decisions that other countriesdid, meaning we fell behind in the 90s and in the time of the lastLabour Government. Can you imagine, Madam Deputy Speaker, that in 2010 we did noteven have a national infrastructure plan? I appreciate that the hon.Member for Nottingham East was not here between 2005 and 2010,having lost his seat in Shipley, but he was a Minister for part of thetime Labour was in government, so he could have raised some ofthese points when he was sitting around the table. We have caught upa lot since, but our historical stop-start approach has meant that ourphysical infrastructure is not nearly as good as it should be. Now isour opportunity to fix that. Chris Leslie: Will the Minister give way? Greg Hands: No, I am going to make a bit more progress. We will invest more than 100 billion in infrastructure over the nextParliament, including more than 70 billion in transport alone, of which15 billion will be spent on our roads. Chris Leslie: Will the Minister give way? Greg Hands: I will come back to the hon. Gentleman in a moment. We are investing in broadband and home building, with a commitmentto build 200,000 starter homes to be sold at a 20% discountexclusively to first-time buyers under the age of 40. Chris Leslie rose Graham Evans rose Greg Hands: I give way to my hon. Friend the Member for WeaverVale (Graham Evans) and welcome him back to the House after hisfantastic election result last month. Graham Evans: I am grateful to my right hon. Friend. Will he remindthe House of the previous Labour Governments record over 13years? In 1997, 20% of GDP was from manufacturing, but by 2010that had dropped to less than 10%. Greg Hands: My hon. Friend is right that the previous LabourGovernment had a dreadful record on manufacturing, and that is oneof the key challengesthis reads through to productivityfacing usthis Parliament. Tom Blenkinsop (Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland)(Lab) rose Chris Leslie rose Greg Hands: I have allowed the shadow Chancellor quite a bit of timealready, so I will give way to the Member for Washington. Tom Blenkinsop: I am the Member for Middlesbrough South andEast Cleveland. I welcome the Minister to his new role. Of course, inthe past five years, under the coalition Government, manufacturingshrank by 1%. In terms of productivity, the north-east is probably thelead region in the country, mainly because of its chemical andpharmaceutical sectors, but they have seen the largest slump over thepast five years, due mainly to the lack of investment. Does he agreethat one problem is that the Government imposed the unilateralcarbon floor price tax on energy-intensive industries, and did not theChancellor promise to bring in a compensation mechanism? Will hespeak about that, because it would not pre-empt the Chancellorsemergency Budget in July? Greg Hands: I thank the hon. Gentleman for that series of questions,but his use of statistics was highly selective. I am sure he will join mein celebrating the fact that the two regions in which employment isrising the fastest are the north-west and the north-east. Of all regions,the north-east leads the way in export growth. I am sure he will alsojoin me in welcoming the fall of 1,518 in unemployment in hisconstituency under the last Governmentagain, just shy of a 50% fall. Chris Leslie rose Greg Hands: I will give way to the very patient Member forNottingham. Chris Leslie: I thank the Member for Fulham for giving way. Would hebe so good as to look at the point he was making on transportinfrastructure? I asked about the Davies commission on airportcapacity, which he knows is an issue affecting Britains productivity asa whole. Will he give us an assurance that the Government will makea swift decision when presented with the final conclusions of thecommissions report, and not kick it into the long grass until the end ofthe year or beyond? Greg Hands: The position is unchanged. It is as set out in ourmanifesto. We await the publication of the Davies report, and we willact accordingly. However, we recognise that airport capacity is anissue, which is why we commissioned the report in the first place. Several hon. Members rose Greg Hands: I am going to make some more progress, because Iknow that others wish to speak. Marcus Fysh (Yeovil) (Con) rose Greg Hands: I will give way to my hon. Friend the Member for Yeovil(Marcus Fysh) Marcus Fysh: I thank my right hon. Friend. The A358 runs from my constituency up to the M5 and all the newjobs that will come on stream at Hinkley Point. Before the election, theLabour party planned to cancel the dualling of the road. Will my righthon. Friend confirm that that will not happen under t his Government? Greg Hands: I congratulate my hon. Friend on his amazing electionresult. It was a fantastic achievement. Indeed, I think that he unseatedone of my predecessors as Chief Secretary. Of course we are still committed to delivering the A358. I believe thatthe Labour party produced only two proposals for reducing the deficitduring the election campaign, both of which were highly misguided,including the proposal for cuts in the A358 programme. It is, in many ways, a vindication of what we have achieved since 2010that we are debating the issue of productivity today. Over the last fiveyears[Interruption.] The hon. Member for Nottingham East says thathe has been raising the issue. I have gone through all the speecheswell, not all of then, because I could not find them all, but most of themthat he made when he was leading the Gordon Brown for leadercampaign in 2007. I have also gone through the speeches that hemade when he was backing Ed Balls in 2010. I must say that I foundscant reference to the word productivity. Chi Onwurah (Newcastle upon Tyne Central) (Lab): Will theMinister give way? Greg Hands: No. I am going to finish now. As I was saying, it is, in so many ways, a vindication of our record ofthe last five years that we are debating the issue of productivity. Manyof us will remember our debatesled by the hon. Member forNottingham Easton mass unemployment, the cost of living crisis,and too far, too fast. In all those respects, the hon. Gentlemansapproach turned out to be absolutely wrong. We now have financialstability, unemployment is down to historic lows, and living standardsthis year are predicted to grow at their fastest rate since 2001. All thatis thanks to the tough decisions that we have made. We now have a great opportunity to step things up a gear, and tosolve a challenge that has been a drag on the United Kingdomseconomy for decades. The wind is blowing in the right direction. Wehave a falling deficit, a growing economy, an historic mandate, and afirm resolve to tackle this issue, along with the right team to do it. Thatis how we deliver for the people of the United Kingdom, and that iswhat this Government will do.

!Hands in the papers:Outrage as Sloane Square Tube's greentiles are replaced with 'charmless' whiteones Evening StandardThursday 25th June 2015

Iconic olive green tiles at Sloane Square tube station have beenreplaced with white ones - sparking outrage from commuters. The 1980s tiles were changed as part of a recent refurbishment byLondon Underground. But many Tube users have criticised the station's new look,suggesting some of its architectural character has been lost. Greg Hands tweeted: "What a waste by TfL to replace the perfectlyfine olive green tiles at Sloane Square with charmless white ones." Sarah Naughton said: "Alas the characterful green tiles at SloaneSquare have been smashed off and replaced with boring white.Thanks TfL." Another tweeter said: "It's sad to see the green tiles at Sloane Squarego. Looks like TfL are replacing them with white ones." And Nick Loney simply wrote: "We cannot take this lying down". Transport for London defended the decision to replace the tiles, sayingthey were "smarter, brighter and much more welcoming to customers". The transport authority said it had received support for the design fromlocal resident associations. It said some of the station's equipment, such as its CCTV systems,had also been replaced as part of the refurbishment. Gareth Powell, London Underground's director of strategy and service,said: We place great value on our rich and varied heritage and wegave a lot of consideration to the features at Sloane Square ahead ofits much needed refurbishment. "The green tiles, installed in the 1980s, have been replaced with apalette of dark blue and off-white tiles throughout the station. "This has given Sloane Square a complete and consistent designthroughout the station as well as making it smarter, brighter and muchmore welcoming to customers."

Photo news:Hands visits Royal Hospital, Chelsea

Greg Hands MP visiting the final resting place of Lady Thatcher,at the Royal Hospital, Chelsea.

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