| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
Mr. Lansley: Like my hon. Friend the Member for Mid-Bedfordshire (Mr. Sayeed), I am concerned that the hon. Gentleman has not read the Red Book. Page 111 makes it clear that the money in the capital modernisation fund--£250 million will be brought into 1999-2000--is expressly drawn forward from later years and is not new money.
Mr. Twigg: I do not want to go over the ground that I have already covered--that money is in the fund. I would like to hear the hon. Gentleman and the hon. Member for Mid-Bedfordshire expressing support for the extra £2,000 for each school. I did not hear them doing that--I assume that they do not want to talk about that money--and they may be against investing £2,000 in each school.
The Budget highlighted the £410 million that is being given in respect of access to computers. Some schools seem to be better off than others. Access to computers and training are extremely important, and it is a shame
that some children do not have the same access as others or are not able to gain experience and training. My son, who is nine, has been very fortunate in school and has managed to develop his computer skills, but I have seen real problems in other schools that I have visited and the money should be widely welcomed.
There is extra money for public services in the health services, which will be invested in modernising accident and emergency departments. We have all seen problems in our local hospitals, and around the country generally, and the staff of accident and emergency units and their patients have difficulties in respect of both waiting times and equipment. Such investment must be warmly welcomed, and I am sure that it will be. Notwithstanding what others have said today, I think that both NHS staff and patients will welcome the money.
Comments have been made about the £170 million to make communities safer. It is a shame that some Conservative Members have taken the attitude that they have. Under Conservative Governments, crime rose. I am interested by the fact that the right hon. and learned Member for Folkestone and Hythe (Mr. Howard), the former Home Secretary, is not present. He wanted to send more people to prison and subject them to short, sharp shocks; but he did not manage to do anything that reduced crime.
It is clear from what I hear in neighbourhoods in my area that people there are worried about crime, neighbour nuisance and the behaviour of some groups of young people. Some are afraid to go out at night. It is crucial for the money to be spent on dealing with those fears, and improving the situation.
At a recent conference, I spoke about the Government's crime and disorder audit. The police and communities are being brought closer together, along with the voluntary sector and other agencies, to establish a strategy for crime. It is all about creating safer communities. The Conservative party scoffed at the idea, but I do not think that my constituents would consider it a laughing matter, or consider that the Government were wasting money. I think that they would say that this was a positive move to deal with crime and disorder, and to involve local communities in that.
Rewarding work has been a major plank of the Government's policy in the last two Budgets, and also in this Budget. It is worth repeating what has happened, in order to set the scene for today's statement. A total of £3.5 billion was taken from the privatised utilities to pay for the welfare-to-work initiative and the new deal; already 60,000 young people have been helped, and a total of 300,000 have been helped. It is all very well for the Opposition to scoff at the programme, and to have a go at it. Many of them do not support it, and I believe that a number have not even troubled to support it in their constituencies. People like me, however, have worked closely with the Employment Service, with employers and with other agencies to try to ensure that young people and the long-term unemployed are given the best help that is available.
Having talked to unemployed young people, and to adults who have been long-term unemployed, I have witnessed the desperation, the lack of hope and the sense of failure that troubles them. They have been thrown on the scrap heap. The last Government's policy for dealing with unemployment was to take people off unemployment
benefit and put them on to incapacity benefit. They had no real policy to return people to work; their policy was, "Let the market decide, and we shall see what happens." The present Government's policy involves working with the private sector, the public sector and the voluntary sector to produce policies to help people into work.
I recently attended a presentation for the Prince's trust, at which 10 young people were to receive awards after taking a course. They had moving stories to tell. Many had been sponsored by the new deal to work with the trust; some who had formerly been shy and introverted, and had problems in communicating, had become outgoing, confident, able young people. That is the sort of effect that the Government's policy is having, and that is why they continue to support the new deal.
I have also talked to employers, and I know that problems can arise. Things are not always perfect. Nevertheless, the employers to whom I have spoken want to get involved: they want to support young people, and to give them the skills and training that they need. I was pleased that the Chancellor made it clear today that the Government's help would continue. Conditions would, of course, be attached, but I approve of that: there must be responsibilities as well. I am glad that is still a major plank of the Government's policy.
Last year saw a proposal to cut national insurance by £65 a year, and a decision by Parliament on the national minimum wage. Those, too, are important planks in the Government's policy of both rewarding work and putting people into work.
Like other Members of Parliament, I have seen factories and companies close in my constituency, but unemployment in my constituency--and around the country--is lower than it has been for 20 years. A better deal now exists, making work pay and encouraging people to work. Under a Tory Government, there was hardly any difference between what could be gained from benefits and what could be gained from work. People had no incentive to work. Most people want to work, but they want to be able to earn a decent living.
The new 10p income tax rate is vital, as is the cut in the standard rate from 23p to 22p. Rewarding work in that way will ensure that families are better off. The working families tax credit has been increased by £2.50; there has been an increase in the minimum income guarantee of £2 a week for full-time working families; and no family earning less than £235 a week will pay tax. That is a major step forward, and an important incentive for families and individuals.
The last Government's use of the benefit system was not aimed at helping people to return to work. That Government were not interested. They paid out benefit, but they did not want to devote any effort or time to assisting people to work. There is a stark difference between this Government's policy and that of their predecessor.
I have already mentioned the new deal. Today's announcement about the new deal for the over-50s and the guarantee of a minimum income of £170 for the first year is very welcome. In my area--and, I am sure, those represented by others--there has been a major shake-up in manufacturing industry over the past 20 years. I should add that, under the last Government, two out of five manufacturing jobs--2 million--were lost. Manufacturing industry was devastated all over the country.
Halton, Runcorn and Widnes are in a chemical industry area. The sector employs more than 4,000 people in ICI alone, and probably employs up to 12,000 in the chemical industry and support industries. It is a vital sector in my constituency. Part of the result of what happened during the 1980s and early 1990s was that many people were made redundant and took early retirement, and now find it difficult to return to work because of their age. I welcome the Government's recognition of the problem. I have talked to people in that age group, and they feel that they would be helped to return to work if they could improve old skills and gain new ones.
That is often the problem: the need to acquire new skills, and to secure a chance of obtaining work. In the past, it has not been possible for people to have training and to acquire new skills. The importance of today's announcement should not be understated, and many people in constituencies such as mine who are over 50 and unemployed will welcome it.
The Government's emphasis on the importance of supporting small business is also an important part of our strategy. Ten or 15 years ago, a Labour Chancellor might not have said what the Chancellor did. As I said earlier, I think that being Chancellor means taking the best from both private and public sectors, and supporting businesses as means of wealth creation. The biggest opportunity for businesses to grow lies in the small and medium-sized sector. During the 1980s and 1990s, what I heard about from my constituents who owned businesses were their problems with the last Government: problems in getting loans, problems with red tape, problems with late payments of bills and problems owing to a general lack of support and advice. Those problems were very stark, and one wondered why nothing was done.
It should also be remembered that, under the last Government, there was a record number of bankruptcies. A record number of small businesses went under. Given the legacy that they left, the Conservatives have no right to talk about the importance of supporting small businesses. They destroyed hundreds of thousands of businesses with their boom-and-bust policies.
Small businesses have complained to me about skills shortages, the difficulty of obtaining funds from banks, lack of advice, lack of training and even payroll difficulties. That is interesting, because the Chancellor mentioned it today. I am pleased that the Chancellor is to set up a new small business service, which will be warmly welcomed. Again, the 10p corporation tax rate for small companies will benefit 270,000 companies. It follows the changes in last year's Budget to corporation tax and capital gains, which have been a major incentive and been warmly welcomed by those companies.
Let me emphasise a point that I was making earlier. One small business man showed me the list of electrical contractors that existed in my constituency 10 or 12 years ago, and how many are left--the latest booklet on the figures was published about a year or so ago. Less than half are left. The business man said that he had great difficulty in recruiting skilled people, including electricians, and that, because there were not as many of them, the demand on wages was much greater: the cost of employing people was much greater. He said that that
had all happened under the Tory Government--that there had been a complete sea change in the way in which business was able to deal with such problems.
That man, who works very hard throughout the country to get work, said that it had not been worth his while to take on any apprentices, because his profit margin was so tight that he would have difficulty funding new staff. The point about the new deal is that it tries to help towards that problem.
That happened under a Tory Government. That is a real-life case. I saw the figures. There was a complete change in the number of companies that were around.
Some points have been made about manufacturing generally. Of course, I take a different view on manufacturing from the Conservative party. It is an important industry in my area. As I have said, ICI and the chemical industry have been, and are, an important player there.
In my constituency, companies have closed for a number of reasons. Interest rates have caused difficulties for companies such as ICI, but what is interesting is that ICI is saying that these things are cyclical. It expects in two or three years, or even less than that, to do much better.
| Next Section
| Index | Home Page |