Brian Curtois, BBC
Prime Minister - a lot of announcements today - what is the main effect of these changes going to be for people living in inner cities?
Prime Minister
It is to try to concentrate some of the help we are giving on areas which need it most but never forgetting some of the other areas. Some areas, as you know, are worse than others. Some have a much greater degree of dereliction. We are concentrating on those with new Urban Development Corporations and also, I think, we have got more coordination between departments than we have ever had before, otherwise what was happening, one department was spending money in one place, another in another and we said “Look, let us bring it together; the effect will be so much greater” and so much more morale boosting for the people who live there.
Brian Curtois, BBC
Now you said today that these announcements do not involve any new policies; it is really an extension of existing policies, so isn't it really a repackaging operation?
Prime Minister
Well you call it repackaging. I think when you get us all [end p1] coming together and taking the last manifesto, you know, which was really designed for inner cities, adding some money to it, I think you really will find a renewed spirit of dynamism to concentrate on some of those areas.
Brian Curtois, BBC
Now you said that £3,000 million a year is being spent on inner cities.
Prime Minister
It is a lot of money isn't it?
Brian Curtois, BBC
How much of that is new?
Prime Minister
About £250 million is on the whole new money, which has been announced today but don't forget the other.
You know, you commentators tend to say, “How much money are you spending?” But you know, if I look at a housewife or a small business, I do not look necessarily how much money they spend; I look to see what they get for it because that is where you look at good management. I think you want pound stretchers as well as pound spenders and good management consists of using that money well to great effect. And if you are in Government - and I might say if you are in local Government - you have a duty so to do because you are a trustee of the taxpayers and rate payers money and you therefore do have to look at what your audit commission says: “Is it being well spent?”
Brian Curtois, BBC
Does the success of your initiatives today depend on a great [end p2] extent then on private investment?
Prime Minister
Enormously so. After all, where do we get the money from? Governments do not create money, Governments have no money. The money comes from thriving industry and commerce all over the country. That is what creates the wealth, that is what pays the wages, that is where we are able to tax both companies and people. If you do not have enterprise, you do not have prosperity. You do not get growth. And there are some local authorities who are not very keen on cooperating with private business so they do not do very well.
Sometimes, where you have had Labour councils for years, you will find you have got the business problems because they are more keen on controlling the lives of people than in remedying the problems they find. Yes, we can find we put in £100 million and it will attract £400 million from the private sector. That is good. Let us encourage it.
Brian Curtois, BBC
You are going to bypass Labour local authorities that are not cooperative?
Prime Minister
There is only a limited extent to which we can do that until the new community charge comes in. That will revolutionise the whole financing of local authorities. The community charge actually only meets a quarter of the expenditure of local authorities but hitherto some of those Labour local authorities have taxed business very heavily through their rating policies and you know in future we [end p3] are going to have the unified business rate which is done the same everywhere and then redistributed. That really will make it very different, it will enable private sector to go into hostile local areas.
Brian Curtois, BBC
You have announced all this today at a news conference with six Ministers sitting alongside you, but no statement in the House of Commons, why not?
Prime Minister
Well, I understand that they now want one. It is not a new policy and so as Kenneth Clarke is coordinating everything, I expect he will be fully prepared to give a statement.
Brian Curtois, BBC
This is a very long term problem, the problem of inner cities isn't it? It has gone on for years and years and years. Why do you think your initiatives today are going to make them work?
Prime Minister
Because some of the initiatives have already been working in areas where we have concentrated them. Go and look at London Docklands, go and look at Albert Docks in Liverpool, go and look at Salford Quays, go and look at the fantastic new Metro Centre at Gateshead. Go and look at what is being done by the private sector in Halifax; a massive old carpet factory taken over wholly by the private sector for small business, for service business; there are more people employed there now than there were.
Look at Glasgow. Fantastic things happening, wonderful. [end p4]
Brian Curtois, BBC
So you have got no worries that it is going to work?
Prime Minister
No, it is going to work.