| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
Mr. Cynog Dafis (Ceredigion and Pembroke, North): My hon. Friend has touched on a point that has been given increasing prominence by the most progressive thinkers: the need to shift the burden of taxation away from taxation on employment to taxation on pollution and the waste of resources. Is not that really the key to designing an economy and a society in which employment is enhanced and a far more environmentally sustainable system is encouraged? Is not it also astonishing that that point was conspicuous by its absence from the Labour document that was published last week, "The Road to the Manifesto"?
Mr. Wigley: I am grateful to my hon. Friend for that intervention. I, too, was surprised that that document contained so little reference to that point. My hon. Friend
is well aware that an Institute of Public Policy Research document has described the approach of introducing environmental taxes. The IPPR believes that 700,000 new jobs could be created in the United Kingdom with the introduction of such policies.
Work needs to be done, and there are people available who can do it. People require training, and that means more public expenditure. It means a couple of pence on income tax and some environmental taxes, but we believe that that price is worth paying to conquer unemployment, which is a cancer in our communities.
Mr. David Hanson (Delyn):
I congratulate the hon. Member for Caernarfon (Mr. Wigley) on securing this debate. It is a valuable exercise for us to discuss unemployment and low income in Wales. I shall much welcome the Minister's reply. I am pleased to see that the Minister in the Chamber. It is a pity that some other Conservative Members could not make it to the House to discuss an issue that is important for Wales.
Mr. Elfyn Llwyd (Meirionnydd Nant Conwy):
There are not that many of them.
Mr. Hanson:
As the hon. Gentleman says, there are not that many of them, and I presume that some of them are on official duties.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Wales (Mr. Gwilym Jones):
I think that the hon. Gentleman is being a tiny little bit unfair. My colleagues are out winning for Wales--most obviously, my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State is in Seoul today.
Mr. Hanson:
I was not referring to the Secretary of State for Wales, because he is not a Welsh Member. I was referring to the Welsh Members--but there we go; not to worry.
I agreed with a great deal of what the hon. Member for Caernarfon said. I was particularly interested in some of the capital projects he mentioned, which could be carried out and would be of benefit to Wales. Certainly in my own area, the electrification of the Crewe to Holyhead railway link would create jobs, improve the level of investment and provide greater attractions for inward investment to north Wales, in particular.
My own county of Flintshire is one of the few areas in Wales that does not have assisted area status, which causes us some difficulties. The fragility of the local economy is a fact that we must face daily. Only last week, Kimberley-Clarke, which is a major manufacturer in my constituency, announced a reduction in the Flint work force by 65 jobs. The economy of north-east Wales is still fragile and requires attention.
I was also particularly interested in the point made by the hon. Member for Caernarfon on housing investment. There are 2,200 people on housing waiting lists in my constituency. Many people in Wales have the skills to build houses, and, as he said, there are companies there that make building materials, but still we cannot release capital receipts to build houses for local people, which would create local jobs and build a strong local economy. So much of what he said is valid.
Because we have so little time for the debate, it may be helpful if I focus on two specific issues: the need for a minimum wage and the increasing casualisation of work in Wales.
The hon. Member for Caernarfon and my hon. Friend the Member for Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney (Mr. Rowlands) mentioned income levels in Wales. There are now at least 12,000 people in Wales who earn less than £1.50 per hour for jobs done on a full-time or part-time basis, and at least 42,000 people earn less than £2.50 per hour for jobs done on a full-time or part-time basis. Women are hit hardest by low incomes.
The abolition of wages councils in 1993, in Wales and across the United Kingdom--a move that I opposed in Committee and in the House--has made the situation dramatically worse. We face a situation, as described by the hon. Member for Caernarfon, in which unemployment has been rising, wages have been forced down, part-time and casualised work has been growing and real incomes have been dropping because of cuts in wage council work.
An excellent survey done for the Low Pay Unit by Huw Edwards, the former Member of Parliament for Monmouth, has recently been circulated to some hon. Members from Wales. I should like to give one example from it and to hear the Minister's comments on it. It concerns a job advertised in a jobcentre in south Wales, for a shop assistant manager earning £2.70 an hour. Before the abolition of wages councils, the minimum for the same job had been £3.15 an hour. That is just one example of a real fall in wages in a typical job, taken from a jobcentre in Wales. I should like to hear from the Minister some explanation of why we were told during the passage of the trade union legislation that the abolition of wages councils, rather than forcing down wages, would increase them, when we have example after example of poorer levels of salary.
My constituency of Delyn in north Wales depends greatly on tourism, the catering industry and hotels and residential homes. Many of those sectors were covered by wages councils and people working in jobs in them have increasingly lower incomes because of the reduction and abolition of wages councils.
That same survey shows that in Wales a large number of jobs are extremely poorly paid. I should like to hear from the Minister why a minimum wage cannot be implemented in Wales. I can give two examples of jobs taken from jobcentres in Wales in May this year. There was an advertisement for an experienced security guard at a rate of £2.19 an hour for a 72-hour week. Another advertisement was also for a security guard at £2.20 an hour, with the hours to be arranged. There are many examples of valuable jobs at low pay, which could be improved by a minimum wage.
Mr. Paul Flynn (Newport, West):
Was my hon. Friend's confidence boosted by today's magnificent
Mr. Hanson:
As hon. Members would expect, I agree with my hon. Friend. We are looking for partnership between the Welsh Office, Labour local authorities and the Welsh Development Agency, which was established by a Labour Government. We all welcome the jobs in Newport. However, Newport is a long way from my constituency in north Wales and we need to ensure that there is an even distribution of employment and that investment takes place all round.
My hon. Friend the Member for Newport, West (Mr. Flynn) talked about the obvious lack of fear of the future. I suspect that a large company would assess what is likely to happen in the future and see that there is the potential, under a Labour Government, for the social chapter and a range of other measures. That company has taken the decision to invest in Wales having considered all those issues. That is important.
As the hon. Member for Caernarfon said, the Council of Europe's decency threshold is £228.68 per week. Income levels in Wales are grossly below that figure. A total of 30 per cent. of the males in my constituency and 63 per cent. of the women employed in my constituency earn less than the Council of Europe threshold.
Figures show that, under the Conservative Government, wages have been driven down even further. Household incomes compared to those in England--my constituency is only 10 miles from England--are in dramatic decline. In 1981, the wage level for people in Wales was 91 per cent. of the English average. Last year, it was down to 75 per cent. of the English average. The average income for a Welsh household is £282 a week compared with £375 in England and £435 in the south-east--35 per cent. lower.
| Next Section
| Index | Home Page |