Simon Danczuk MP

Fighting for Rochdale, Littleborough and Milnrow

Government decision to axe business grants will hurt Rochdale

Rochdale's MP, Simon Danczuk, has criticised the Conservative-Lib Dem Government's decision to scrap vital business investment incentives that are needed to bring jobs to Kingsway Business Park.

Speaking at a debate in Parliament this week on the future of the North West economy, Mr Danczuk asked Business and Enterprise Minister Mark Prisk why the Government had recently decided to axe relocation grants that were helping to attract investment to Kingsway Business Park.

"On Friday I visited Kingsway business park in my Rochdale constituency," he said. "It is one of the largest business parks in the region, if not the country, and a good thing about it is that it is creating jobs - many businesses are starting to locate there. One of the attractions is that businesses receive a relocation grant of about 20 per cent of their costs, which has attracted businesses from all over the country. However, this week we were told that that grant would no longer apply. Why is that? What effect will that have on job creation not just in Rochdale but in the north-west as a whole?"

Responding, the minister said that while we can "all find an individual project that might have merit", too much money had been spent and "we need change".

Speaking after the debate Rochdale's MP said that Government's short-sightedness on this issue illustrated why there were big concerns about the prospect of Britain slipping back into recession.

"Both the Lib Dems and the Conservatives seem to think that by making deep cuts in the public sector this will somehow trigger a big growth in private sector jobs," he said. "This is wishful thinking bordering on lunacy. Their idea of change is bad news for Rochdale. We know that David Cameron has previously said that he will make big savings by getting rid of 'the regional stuff' and this is yet another example of this Government looking down their nose at places like Rochdale and removing key support that's needed to bring in investment from at home and abroad."