Rural Unemployment (Hansard, 5 April 1990)

§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Employment (Lord Strathclyde)
My Lords, all the national programmes run by the Department of Employment are available to those in rural areas. Other initiatives supported by the Government include the activities of the Rural Development Commission in England and the development agencies in Scotland and Wales.

§ Baroness Turner of Camden
My Lords, I thank the Minister for that reply. Is he aware that over 24, 000 jobs— about a fifth, I believe, of the total— have been lost in farming in the past five years? Is he further aware that there is no indication that the decline has been arrested? Can the Minister say what steps are planned to halt the advance of rural poverty in some of these areas which will be added to enormously by the burden of the poll tax?

§ Lord Strathclyde
My Lords, the noble Baroness is right in saying that there has been a steady decline in the number of jobs connected with agriculture. They declined by 19 per cent. between September 1979 and September 1989. That decline is likely to continue. More specifically, the employment service has a number of schemes aimed particularly at isolated rural areas. For example, jobs, instead of being advertised at Jobcentres, are advertised in local libraries, post offices, church halls and so forth. There is an outreach scheme to send officials who specialise in finding jobs for people to isolated communities in order to help the unemployed to find work. The provision of new technology is also important.
1510 The most successful travel to interview scheme finances people to go for interviews and occasionally to stay overnight. It was ingenious of the noble Baroness to bring the community charge into her question. I believe that people will be served considerably better in rural areas because the local authorities will be more accountable to their wishes.

§ Lord Mellish
My Lords, can the Minister provide some real figures? Can he say what was the unemployment position in rural areas, say 10 years ago, as compared with today?

§ Lord Strathclyde
My Lords, unemployment is now nearly at half the level that it was in July 1986, though it is marginally higher than in 1979. The noble Lord must know that since then three million new jobs have been created by the policies of this Government.

Lord Oram
My Lords, is the Minister aware of the success in creating jobs achieved by rural co-operatives, particularly in parts of Scotland, Ireland and Wales? Does the Minister not agree that that success has been achieved despite the difficulties which small co-operatives have in raising capital for their enterprises? Therefore, should not the Government be considering ways and means of providing capital for rural co-operatives in order to spread their effect throughout the United Kingdom?

§ Lord Strathclyde
My Lords, there are several initiatives through which government departments have backed private and voluntary schemes. For example the Rural Development Commission provides a wide range of advice, financial help and training. The RDC also has a building programme for workshops especially in areas where the return on investment is too low to attract private sector investment. There is also a full range of Department of Trade and Industry services to help advise small businesses which are starting up so that they may maintain their impetus and therefore provide future solid employment.

§ Lord Taylor of Gryfe
My Lords, is the Minister aware that one of the important areas of rural employment in Scotland is forestry? Is he further aware that the target for UK forestry established by the Government is around 32, 000 hectares? The figures for last year reveal that the planting programme is now only 12, 000 hectares. Does the Minister not agree that this is a matter of considerable concern?

§ Lord Strathclyde
My Lords, in dealing with employment we should not consider just the planting of trees but also their cutting down which provides an enormous amount of employment. In the course of the next 15 years we shall see tremendous growth in the harvesting of the product which will provide a large number of jobs.

§ Lord John-Mackie
My Lords, is the Minister aware that because of the depression in agriculture and the effects of cutting back, there are a great number of empty buildings? I must declare an 1511 interest here. If those buildings were more readily available to small industries, that would considerably help the situation. I wish to pay tribute to the noble Lord, Lord Vinson, the former chairman of the Rural Development Commission. He has done a great deal to try to persuade county councils that they have to be more lenient.

§ Lord Strathclyde
My Lords, I am not sure that I fully understand the point made by the noble Lord. The Rural Development Commission is there partly to deal with the problem and to provide the buildings and workshop space so that firms can carry out some kind of useful function.

The Earl of Selkirk
My Lords, are the Government engaged in encouraging the development of small trading and industrial estates in rural areas where they can be of very great value and opportunity?

§ Lord Strathclyde
Yes, my Lords. Local offices of the Rural Development Commission, which are supported by private sector-led committees, are able to provide general advice, supported where necessary by expert advice on management, marketing and technical matters in order to assist small businesses to grow. Part of the key to that is also to provide the workshops— the small industrial areas— so that those businesses can continue to thrive.

§ Lord Walston
My Lords, does not the noble Lord agree that an improvement in rural transport would be of great assistance in reducing the seriousness of this problem? At present there are many people out of work in villages who do not have their own cars and who are therefore unable to get to places where there may be work for them. Public rural transport has diminished very greatly during the past 10 years or so.

§ Lord Strathclyde
My Lords, I shall certainly pass on those comments to my right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Transport. However, my understanding is that in recent years rural transport has begun to improve.