Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
Only this morning I launched my business breakfast forum in my constituency, and yet again local business people came to tell me of the problems that they are having with regulation and bureaucracy. The Government may argue, with some justification, that many of those regulations come from the European Union. However, that argument does not wash, because of the Governments willingness to do
anything that the European Commission wants rather than stand up for the interests of British business. That leads to unemployment in my constituency.
Thanks to the British people, we have stopped the Government taking us into the euro, so we perform much better than many of our European Union colleagues. But because of the Governments actions, our manufacturing industries cannot stand up against the competitiveness of China and India, and the economy of the United States. We need to look urgently at attracting to north Northamptonshire new labour-rich businesses that will bring with them a wealth of jobs and opportunities.
It has never before been so important to look into the employment situation in the area. That is because of the huge housing expansion that is taking place in north Northamptonshire, which will see 167,000 extra dwellings built in the county by 2016. Many of the plans for the huge increase in housing have been in place for years. However, there is little planning for infrastructure and employment opportunities to support that massive growth.
I run the Listening to Wellingborough and Rushden campaign, which seeks the views of local people in regular surveys, forums, meetings and visits. As an MP, I hold well-attended weekly constituency surgeries where I regularly meet constituents who have concerns about unemployment, or who are dissatisfied with the service received from Jobcentre Plus or the local Department for Work and Pensions. Unfortunately, Wellingborough Jobcentre Plus has a performance rating for customer service of only 77.5 per cent., which means that about a quarter of all the people who use the service are dissatisfied. That is unacceptable. I have arranged a meeting with the corporate management team of Wellingborough council and the district manager of Jobcentre Plus to discuss the concerns of my constituents about unemployment and the effectiveness of the service they receive.
Rising unemployment is a big issue for all the authorities in my area and we are all committed to alleviating the problems. Just before the debate, I opened 12 Sheep street, 23,000 sq ft of modern office accommodation. The interesting point about that development is that it was a public-private partnership. Invest Northamptonshire put in half the capital and Ciel Developers put in the other 50 per cent. The development will attract jobs to Wellingborough, but the problem is that Invest Northamptonshire has just found out that the Government have severely cut its budget. We have an initiative in my constituency that will work well, but the funding for it is being cut. Will the Minister comment on that?
I am a little disappointed by the Governments response to my letters; I felt that it was rather complacent. I want a constructive debate, so I am sure that we shall not hear Government spin on Labours employment record in the Ministers reply. I wanted simply to lay bare to the Minister the facts about what is happening in my constituency.
I have three suggestions to make to the Minister. If he could meet all three, it would help my constituents enormously and reduce unemployment in north Northamptonshire. First, I invite him to visit Wellingborough to see the problems at first hand so
that he can be more responsive to the needs of my constituents. Perhaps he could help to organise a multi-agency response to a serious unemployment problem.
Secondly, the employment landscape of Wellingborough has changed. Because of the expansion of house building, we are becoming a commuter town, and are only 50 minutes away from London by rail. The Government often talk about relocating some of their Departments to the regions. Why not bring a Department to Wellingborough? It would create jobs for people living in north Northamptonshire, and the town is only 50 minutes away from London, which must be a major benefit for a Department that is relocating.
Thirdly, I have repeatedly argued for a community hospital in the constituency to cope with the growing needs of the local population. A new hospital would create local jobs, while providing a vital service to the ever-growing population of north Northamptonshire. As Wellingborough is in the worst funded primary care trust in the worst funded strategic health authority in the country, by reference to the national capitation formula, if the Government invest in Wellingborough the money they say that they should invest, we could have such a hospital. I am asking not for more Government expenditure, but for our fair share of Government expenditure.
It is vital that we all work together to encourage new business and industry to come to north Northamptonshire. Now that the expansion programme is under way, this is a perfect time to do that, and I look forward to the Ministers comments.
Mr. Philip Hollobone (Kettering) (Con): I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Wellingborough (Mr. Bone) on securing this important debate and I praise him for his tireless work for constituents on so many issues of crucial importancenot least, unemployment. Kettering is next door to Wellingborough and many of the circumstances that my hon. Friend described are also pertinent to my Kettering constituency.
I would like to place on the record the current state of affairs regarding unemployment in Kettering. In December 1997, 1,235 unfortunate people were claiming jobseekers allowance, compared with 1,232a staggering reduction of threein December 2006. Last year, an extra 219 people found themselves without work, which is a staggering increase of 21.6 per cent.
If we compare Kettering with the other 645 constituencies in the UK in respect of the percentage change in unemployment between December 2005 and December 2006, it was worse in only 21 other constituencies. On the figures since December 1997, the situation was worse in only 83 constituencies. Indeed, there has been an increase in unemployment since 2001. That year there were 781 unemployed people claiming benefit in the Kettering constituency, which has since increased by 451well above 60 per cent.
The increase in Ketterings unemployment far outstrips that for the east midlands as a whole, and for Great Britain as a whole. As my hon. Friend the Member for Wellingborough said, the reason for that is the decline in the manufacturing base. In 1997 Kettering had 9,000 manufacturing jobs, compared
with just over 7,000 today. Instead of 27 per cent. of the work force being employed in manufacturing, there are now just 17 per cent.
Somehow, constituencies such as Kettering have, unfortunately, been overlooked in the Governments efforts to tackle unemployment. Although the overall unemployment rate of 2.4 per cent. is low, the shift in the figures over the last five or six years is alarming to many of my constituents. The overwhelming reason for the change is, as my hon. Friend said, the increase in red tape faced by manufacturing businesses in Kettering and also the knock-on effect of the Governments increase in the rate of national insurance contributions. Although the money may have gone into the national health service, it has also piled on costs for manufacturing and other employers in Kettering.
North Northamptonshire faces a huge challenge over the next 10, 15 or 20 years. The Government want to build 52,100 new houses, but in their plans they allow for only an extra 43,800 new jobs. We already have an unemployment problem, and if the Government are not careful, it will get a lot worse.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Mr. James Plaskitt): I begin by congratulating the hon. Member for Wellingborough (Mr. Bone) on securing the debate and I thank the hon. Member for Kettering (Mr. Hollobone) for his comments. They both spoke up effectively for their constituents. I will address most of my comments to the hon. Member for Wellingborough, who initiated the debate, but much of what I say also applies to Kettering.
The hon. Member for Wellingborough is right to say that unemployment in his constituency has increased recently. On examining the reasons for that, I noticed that over the last year, three companies made substantial lay-offs in his constituencyCarlsberg, Avon and Golden Wonder. None of them comes under the label of traditional manufacturing, however, and I notice that he sought to lay the blame for the increase in unemployment on the decline in manufacturing employment. The situation is more complex than that.
I would like to take this opportunity to undertake a forensic examination of both unemployment and employment in the hon. Gentlemans constituency. First, let me clear up how things stand now as opposed to May 1997 when this Government came to office. He referred to that in his speech, so I will respond. I know that he had a disagreement with my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer on this issue in the House a short while ago, so here are the facts.
In May 1997, when the Government came to office, the claimant count in Wellingborough was 1,826. Last month, as the hon. Gentleman has said, it was 1,536. I accept that that is an increase over the position a year ago, but I hope that he will also accept that, notwithstanding the recent increase, the claimant count is 290 lower than it was in the month that the Conservative Government left office. It represents a fall of 16 per cent. in his constituency. Furthermore the current claimant count represents 2.4 per cent. of his local work force. That is low by any standards and better than the United Kingdom average. He may be interested to know that the claimant count for the
whole of Northamptonshire in May 1997 was 9,522; it is currently 6,886a fall of 28 per cent.
The hon. Gentleman may also be interested in the wider historical perspective. I should point out that, for most of the 1990-97 period, unemployment in Wellingborough remained stubbornly above 2,000 and, in the depths of the 1992 recession, it was closer to 3,000. That was the second Tory recession. During the first Tory recession in his constituency, the unemployment figure was more than 3,000. I offer the hon. Gentleman all that to put the current situation in context and not in any way to minimise at all the challenge faced by his constituents who are unemployed nor to dismiss the fact that the claimant count in Wellingborough has recently risen. I regret, just as much as he does, the loss of any job by any of his constituents.
In a dynamic economy, even one such as ours which is now in a record period of sustained growth, there will be job losses. Some markets will decline, some firms will close, some will move, some will get taken over and job losses will result. The crucial questions for the hon. Gentlemans constituents and those in Kettering who may suffer job losses as a result of those trends are as follows. First, will there be another job for them to move to? Secondly, will it take them long to get that other job and, thirdly, if they need help to prepare for getting that job, is that help available? I want to look at those three questions in turn.
The first question is whether there will be another job for the hon. Gentlemans constituents to move to. The answer is yes. Last year, 4,695 of his constituents registered at some point during the year as unemployed, but 4,425 moved off the register in his constituency in the past year because they had found work. Furthermore, last year, no fewer than 6,300 job vacancies were notified to his local Jobcentre Plus. All that speaks of a dynamic local economy.
The second question his constituents need to have answered is, if they encounter unemployment, will it take them long to find the next job. The answer is that it certainly does not take as long as it used to. If we go back to December 1996, as the hon. Gentleman did, we find that, of the constituents who were then unemployed, 345 experienced unemployment for more than a year. Currently, the number of his constituents waiting more than a year to find a job is 60. He referred in his opening comments to the Labour partys commitment to eradicate long-term unemployment. As he will see in his constituency, long-term unemployment has declined dramatically. Now, more than two thirds of unemployed people in Wellingborough find a job within six months. Long-term unemployment in Wellingborough has fallen by 73 per cent. since 1997. Long-term youth unemployment has fallen by 52 per cent. Overall, there are now 4,700 more jobs in his constituency than there were in 1997.
The hon. Gentleman will recall that the third question was: is there extra help on hand for those who are seeking another job? The answer is yes. To start with, his constituents have been helped hugely by the new deal. Since it got under way, 2,130 people in Wellingborough have been helped into a job by the new
deal, including 860 young people and 980 lone parents. His party opposed the new deal.
There is also additional help. Basic skills support is available right across Northamptonshire. Four regional and two local European social fund contracts are available, targeted at longer-term unemployment. Job preparation courses are available through his local Jobcentre Plus office, supported locally by Wincanton, DTS, Morrisons, Milbury Care, Shaw Health Care and Asda. Work is also being done through the Wellingborough Prosper Group. I know that the local employer engagement manager at Jobcentre Plus has written to him to supply him with further details of local schemes to assist people who are seeking work. Pathways to work is already proving very successful. It will be implemented in his area next year. As he will also know, Wellingborough is part of the Milton Keynes and south midlands growth area, which is forecast to create more than 13,000 further job opportunities by 2021.
The hon. Gentleman and I, and the hon. Member for Kettering, all want to see the claimant count in his area coming down. There is no debate whatsoever about that. For that to happen, the right macro-economic policies must be in place, which they are. We have a stable, growing economy that is creating jobs2.5 million across the country as a whole so farand attracting investment. Domestic business investment is strong and foreign investment in the United Kingdom is exceptionally strong. All that helps to deliver increased levels of employment. There is a labour force participation rate of 74.6 per cent., which is one of the highest in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. That situation is delivering lower levels of unemploymentit has declined in every single region of the United Kingdom. It is also delivering a plentiful supply of job vacancies: there are 600,000. Long-term unemployment is down by three quarters. Long-term youth unemployment is down by two thirds. We also require the right strategy for the future, to build on that stability. That is why we are now aiming at an 80 per cent. labour force participation rate and why welfare reform that is now being implemented will introduce the employment support allowance and the extension of the pathways to work programme.
As with all other hon. Members, including myself, the hon. Gentlemans task is to work alongside all the key stakeholders in his area to ensure that the strategy locally means that his area is well positioned to take advantage of the strong national economy. There is a key role for his regional development agency, his local Jobcentre Plus office, local authorities, employers, colleges, the Connexions services, and many others. Get all that right and he will find that he can keep a steady flow of new jobs coming into his constituency. That is necessary to absorb the fact that, unfortunately, some of his constituents will from time to time, for a variety of reasons, find that they lose their jobs. If we want to be able to deliver further growth in employment for the future on top of the 4,700 extra jobs that have already come to his constituency since 1997, the crucial thing is to continue with the economic policies that we already have in place.
Adjourned accordingly at one minute to Three oclock.
Index | Home Page |