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Mr. Deputy Speaker (Mr. Michael Lord): Order. Many hon. Members are seeking to catch my eye, and, unless the remaining speeches are reasonably brief, many people will be very disappointed.
5.28 pm
Mrs. Maria Fyfe (Glasgow, Maryhill): I shall certainly attempt to be brief, Mr. Deputy Speaker--please make throat-cutting motions at me if I am not.
Just as I know that there are other planets circling other suns millions of miles away, although I have never seen one, I know that there are inward-investing firms creating thousands of jobs in Scotland, although I have never seen one in Maryhill. I never expected the Tories to care; and, now, things are beginning to be a bit better. I am hoping that things will be a lot better, and hope to hear some constructive comments at the end of the debate from my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State.
Although the report's recommendations are probably very sensible for Scotland generally, I honestly cannot say that they seem very relevant to much of my constituency or to other deprived areas around Glasgow. Glasgow has far too few substantial factories employing hundreds and owned by indigenous companies or inward investors. The biggest employers in my constituency are the public services. Scotland has a huge range of manufacturing jobs. They do not require exceptional skills or qualifications and can be sited anywhere, so I ask myself why those jobs are not coming to Glasgow.
The Government have been successful in dealing with sudden job losses caused by factory closures in many parts of Scotland. In one or two cases, they have been so successful that the area has ended up with more jobs than it had to start with. The problem for Glasgow is that it lost thousands of jobs years and even decades ago. We need a task force to attract manufacturing jobs back in. I should like the Secretary of State to discuss that proposal with the Scottish Executive. I agree with my right hon. Friend the Chancellor's view that jobs are the main way out of poverty. There are just not enough jobs in Glasgow. I want more private sector jobs in my constituency and in the city as a whole. I do not accept that that cannot be done.
Today, we heard the splendid news that Scotland's dole queue fell last month to a 23-year low. The number of unemployed is down by 25,000 compared with a year ago. Glasgow's unemployment figures have fallen from 15 per cent. in 1996-97 to 13.5 per cent. in 1997-98, but the city's unemployment rate, currently 6.8 per cent., is still double that of Scotland as a whole. Unemployment in my constituency stood at 10.1 per cent. in April this year. That is an improvement on 1997, when it was 13.6 per cent, but it is still too high.
A lot of the jobs that have come to Glasgow are in call centres. They are low paid because employers know that people are desperate for work. If it were not for Labour's national minimum wage policy, a lot of people who are in work would be far worse off than they are.
The in phrase now is "drive to move up the value chain". Many of my constituents would like to be on the first rung of that chain. As my hon. Friend the Member for Glasgow, Shettleston (Mr. Marshall) has pointed out, the three-volume report devotes only half a page to Glasgow, dealing with the contribution from the regeneration fund on micro-enterprises. That fund has only £3 million to spend on Castlemilk, Drumchapel, the east end, north Glasgow, Gorbals, Govan, Greater Easterhouse and Greater Pollok. That sum should be looked at afresh.
The Federation of Small Businesses recently proposed the creation of a Scottish enterprise development bank to overcome the problem of the conservative attitudes of the major banks' lending policies. Perhaps we could consider that. As my hon. Friend the Member for Shettleston has said, the Glasgow agencies failed to respond to the request to offer evidence to the Committee. I have not had time to find out why. Perhaps they all thought that someone else was doing it. I would have liked to hear their views on shipbuilding. Glasgow Members have lost count of the number of times that Govan or Yarrows have had to look for support to win a necessary contract. The world needs ships and they are being built elsewhere. We hear reasons why the contracts go out of the country. Sometimes there
are allegations that other Governments are less punctilious than ours about competition rules, although our Government say that that is not the case.
Somehow our city, which led the way in shipbuilding, is not getting its share of the world market. There is a history of under-investment to explain the loss of the trade in earlier years, but now I am told that our yards are as high-tech as any in the world, so I wonder whether my right hon. Friend would consider commissioning a study of what our yards need to do to get back a decent share of the world trade in shipbuilding.
The Minister of State, Scotland Office, responded to an earlier plea of mine by creating a new addition to regional selective assistance of £3,000 per head for every new job taken up by a person living in a deprived area. When I last asked what had resulted from that very progressive initiative, which I greatly welcomed, I learned that some money had indeed been paid out, but none in Glasgow. I wonder whether employers are aware of it and are still saying no to investment in our poorer areas. If they are, we need to know what the employers are saying and then consider how to respond. This is information that we do not appear to have.
One critical point in the report is that RSA focuses on the number of jobs created, rather than the quality, and does nothing to create high-quality jobs. There are some high-quality jobs in my constituency in the science park, but they are held in the main by people who live outside Glasgow and pay their council taxes outside Glasgow.
Too many constituents in Maryhill and Glasgow generally have left school with few or no qualifications. Hardly anyone attends further education and higher education is rare for school leavers. There are problems in getting jobs that are appropriate for people who lack qualifications.
Today's newspapers carry a story about the Scottish Parliament's Enterprise and Lifelong Learning Committee criticising confusion, overlap and duplication among the hundreds of agencies involved in support for enterprise, and the call for them to work together. This is already happening in Glasgow, with all the relevant agencies formed into an alliance. However, unemployment is twice the Scottish average. We have to take a fresh look at how to tackle that.
Glasgow's job-creating efforts are not working as successfully as I would like. I would like a detailed examination of why so few manufacturing companies looking for a suitable site end up in Glasgow. I know that they like greenfield sites, but we have plenty of attractions to offer. I wonder why it is not happening.
The problem in Maryhill and constituencies like it is one of poverty that jobs can overcome. Just now, there is a lot of prosperity in our country and the shop windows are full of goodies, but too many of my constituents have no hope of enjoying much festive fare. Many good moves have been made by this Government in a short space of time--the working families tax credit, higher child benefit and the national minimum wage, to name only a few. However, we need jobs. I hope that we will get on with it and make a concentrated effort where needs are greatest.
It is a long time since Maryhill had a boom, and too many of my constituents are bust. Let us have an end to boom and bust. It is time for action for Glasgow.
5.37 pm
Mr. James Gray (North Wiltshire):
It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Glasgow, Maryhill (Mrs. Fyfe)--not least because I spent a large amount of my childhood in my parents' car outside Mr. and Mrs. Moreland's butcher's shop in Maryhill road--I hope that is still there--which sold the best beef in Britain.
May I apologise to the House, and to you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, for the fact that I will not be able to stay for the winding-up speeches, as I have been called away on other business?
I wanted to take part in the debate because inward investment in Scotland is very important to me. The last thing that my father said to me before he died was, "Do not neglect the Kirk, nor forget Scotland." I fear that I may have done the former--not least because I attend the Church of England, for my sins, in North Wiltshire--but I have not done the second. Once a Scot, always a Scot, I believe. Despite the fact that I represent an English constituency, the interests of Scotland--and of my mother and relations, who live in the constituency of the hon. Member for Stirling (Mrs. McGuire)--are always at the forefront of my mind, despite my strong English credentials when I speak on English matters.
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