Lord Howe Interview, Canary 2001
Lord Howe, former Deputy Prime Minister, Foreign Secretary and Chancellor of the Exchequer, talks to Kamin Mohammadi about his role at the heart of the Canary Wharf success story
Lord Howe has had a long and continuing personal involvement with the East End of London. Through his work with the Bow Group of Tory intellectuals in Poplar in 1951, his wife’s role as school governor and local magistrate, and visits to his son’s current home in Canary Wharf, he has certainly got to know the area well. ‘And you know,’ he recalls, ‘at the inaugural meeting of the Isle of Dogs Association, the docks were still working.’
Howe witnessed the area disintegrate as 5,000 acres of publicly owned land became derelict and people and money moved out, reminding him of what had happened to Merseyside and to his birthplace, the Swansea Valley. ‘It was clear that we had to find a new idea.’ He and Nicholas Ridley concluded that, where strict planning had failed, perhaps the opposite approach would succeed and, curiously, Professor Peter Hall of the left-wing Fabian Society had come to the same conclusion independently. ‘There was a real bubbling of ideology,’ says Lord Howe, and from this initial idea came the concept of the Enterprise Zones. ‘We suggested it to Margaret Thatcher in 1976 for inclusion in our manifesto, but she wasn’t enthusiastic.’ Determined not to let the idea die, Howe transformed it into a major speech which he delivered to the Bow Group in 1978. ‘I evoked the freedom of 1950s Hong Kong and proposed the sale of publicly owned land and also the establishment of development corporations.’ Then Howe became Chancellor and, in 1980, he was finally able to announce six new Enterprise Zones, with massive tax breaks and simplified planning procedures. ‘Labour described it as a Capitalist Valhalla, so it was gratifying to find the leaders of hard-pressed Labour councils queuing up to become Enterprise Zones.’
Meanwhile, Michael Heseltine was working on the idea of development corporations, which could help wider urban areas ‘be reborn’. ‘The London Docklands Development Corporation covered a larger area and could override the local authority. Michael and I thought the ideas would work well together and they did.’ Howe is proud that Enterprise Zones have been taken up round the world, particularly in the US. ‘And here, it is still running. It’s a logical idea, to provide a magnet to bring people in to an area.’
And Lord Howe’s last word on Canary Wharf? ‘It has been a terrific pleasure to see the whole thing coming together, the rail being built, the Limehouse Link opening. People have the impression that Michael Heseltine and I have competed to take the credit, but the fact is that we both contributed to it and worked very closely together. Michael had the exciting job of overseeing the work of the LDDC.’
He chuckles: ‘What really gave me pleasure was to see that Tony Blair, when he received President Chirac for the first time, took him to Canary Wharf. So the Capitalist Valhalla has now become a symbol of Cool Britannia.’