John Prescott Quotes

I was the one that brought it in, but not only for the north-east, for every area so we can develop all the regional economies, lift up the national productivity, get greater wealth and share it more evenly.

Down in the south, it`s how we find the brownfield sites without taking too much land take to meet the tremendous demand for housing, and that`s what I`ve done.

In a sense, what we do with the regional development agencies is to give them resources to look at the deficiencies in the economy in the regional areas, so they can address themselves to that.

The choice is not normally between the north and south. It might be between Britain and Europe.

Why can`t we, with a more intelligent policy, actually have houses that are affordable, built at higher densities than they are at the moment and built on brownfield sites.

It`s moving in the right direction. It was in decline under the previous administration.

We are making the fundamental changes. It was like the decent housing target. We said by 2010, we`d have taken a million houses and refurbished them into decent housing.

That`s what I think regions are about, making central government more accountable and fairer.

If you look at Newcastle or Gateshead, even over twenty years, even with the previous administration, it has moved quite remarkably in transforming itself.

I don`t make decisions by the Attorney-General. The Attorney-General makes the decisions in these matters. There`s not even a war either.

There is progress taking place, growth is better. We`re only talking about two years there.

First of all, in our first period of office, we were concerned about the renovation of all those old properties you talked about.

Refurbishing I`ve done in the first three years and I`m still giving housing money, of course, to the north.

Coming from low demand, houses available, prices falling. Depends from area to area, but if you go to the south, it`s exactly the opposite.

We believe the 36, nearly 40, billion pound discount given for a right to buy houses took a million houses out of the public housing sector which is desperately needed for rent.

So if you look at the money we`ve given, we`ve actually still given more in fact in housing to the north than they had the years before.

We`ve given more resources. On housing, we are now establishing a regional housing pot.

What government has been doing, we`ve got major programmes now, of billions of pounds, which are directed by central government into these areas of deprivation.

In the north east, there, they have had quite a bit of government offices moving in. It`s not a new policy.

You go down some street - no doubt it`s there, and we have to do something about it, and our programmes are designed to do that - but if that`s a picture of Newcastle, it`s not the one I recognise and I bet none in the North East do either.

I have only been seeking to get them to the negotiating table and, thank God, that`s where they are.