PARLIAMENTARY EARLY DAY MOTION
CANARY WHARF AND THE NORTH (1 June 1992)

That this House, concerned at the scale of the financial problem developing in Docklands and its potential for blighting both the prospects of more important regions of Britain and of more vital sectors of the economy, insists that neither of these should bear any of the consequences of the failure of what was proclaimed as a market-led magnet to redistribute resources and investment within London and which should not now be allowed to turn out to be a black hole into which more public or private investment, civil servants and departments, finance for public transport, economic growth or new business must be thrown if the fortunes of property developers and speculators, who took a risk and lost, and financial institutions, with no sense of the real needs of the British economy, are to be shored up; and therefore insists that the other regions of Britain which have long been drained by the growth of the South East should not be asked to bear any of the financial costs of bail out, and that if any diversion of extra resources and investments, or any public sector contribution, in the form of transport costs or the rehousing of civil servants, who should be re-situated outside London, is necessary, this must be funded out of an increase in total public expenditure from which the rest of the country can benefit more, proportionately, than this blighted showpiece of the follies of Thatchernomics and its fat friends.

Sponsored by:
Austin Mitchell (Labour)