Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls met business leaders in Exeter on Friday to discuss issues ranging from apprenticeships to renewable energy and the impact of welfare reforms.
Around 20 members of Exeter Chamber of Commerce members took part in a question and answer session at Exeter College's @thirty-four restaurant.
Afterwards Mr Balls spoke to Gordon Richardson about whether the region receives its fair share of investment in rail, roads and broadband, how Labour's spending plans would affect the NHS in Devon and Ed Miliband's record as party leader.Q: If Labour is in charge after the general election you've committed to reduce the deficit every year. How are you going to do that?
A: We're going to do that in a tough but fair way, a different way from George Osborne. We are saying we are going to have to continue to cut spending until we can get the deficit down and the books balanced, but we will also make some different choices on taxation.
So we will put the top rate of income tax back up to 50 per cent for people earning over £150,000, we will have to take the winter fuel allowance away from the richest pensioners, we will freeze the increase in child benefit at one per cent for another year, but also we've got to get the economy growing with more good jobs, raising the minimum wage, making sure that the skills are there.
The reason George Osborne has found it so hard to get the deficit down is that stagnating wages mean tax receipts haven't come in. What we're not going to do is do it all by public spending cuts, as he's proposing to do.
He has said he wants to go back to the level of public spending we saw in the 1930s as a percentage of GDP. I think most people find that a pretty frightening prospect.Q: The NHS Northern, Eastern and Western Devon Clinical Commissioning Group has had to take some controversial urgent measures to tackle its budget deficit. Would the NHS have more, less or the same amount of money to spend under a Labour government?
A: The NHS, which Labour set up 70 years ago, needs more money and we're not going to get the crisis in A&E sorted unless we do put more resources in.
We need reform as well, because at the moment the link between social care and hospitals isn't working well. We need to make sure things are efficient, but we will put £2.5 billion extra a year in beyond the Conservative plans.
We're going to pay for that by introducing a new tax on properties worth over £2 million, a levy on the tobacco companies, closing down some tax concessions for hedge funds and that will allow us to have more nurses, more doctors, more care workers in the community.
The Tories say the NHS is safe in their hands but I think most people know it's in crisis and it's going to need more resource.Q: Do you think you would be in a stronger position in the polls if you had a more effective leader?
A: I think people said exactly the same thing about Margaret Thatcher in 1978 and about Tony Blair in 1996. The reality is that when you're in opposition, people will always say that until you actually become the prime minister how is it going to be.
I think people know that Ed Miliband is a person of principle, he was the first person who talked about the cost of living crisis, he was the first person who said he worried about there being a lost generation of young people with a second class deal, and he was the guy who took on the phone hacking scandal and challenged News International to change their game, so I think he's proved his mettle.Q: There's a perception here in the South West that we're a poor relation when it comes to infrastructure like roads, rail and superfast broadband. What would you do about that?
A: I was down in Plymouth yesterday visiting a really good regeneration site on the waterfront and I said 'Who led this change?' and the answer was the Regional Development Agency for the South West.
Here in Exeter lots of good things were done as well because you had that sort of economic leadership. We don't necessarily want to go back to regions, but I do think you've got to put our cities and counties in the driving seat, and you've got to be willing to devolve and make sure that there's voice and clout.
I think at the moment places like the South West are being short changed. London's got a loud voice but there's not enough being done here to back local leadership and we want to change that.
So I would like to see resources on transport and broadband and those decisions being made locally, rather than by some guys in Whitehall who probably think more about London and Birmingham than they do about Exeter and Plymouth.Q: What are the key messages you're going to take away from this meeting with Exeter businesses?
A: I think that when it comes to things like the environment, like jobs for the future, you've got to have a plan and it's all got to fit together. And if the Government's policy on the environment is really uncertain, and the infrastructure spending is not coming through and you haven't got a tax system which is supportive enough, in the end you get a second best outcome.
And we want first best for Exeter, more good jobs and a plan which works, and that's what we're going to deliver.What do you think? Have your say by posting a comment below or email letters@expressandecho.co.uk.
