§ 12.32 a.m.
§ Sir Thomas Williams (Warrington)I raise the subject of unemployment among young people in the Warrington area because it is a matter of some consequence and concern within my own area and serves to depict the situation becoming increasingly prevalent throughout the country.
I shall deal with the position in Warrington. The employment situation of school leavers in the autumn of 1975 was as follows. In the summer of 1975 there were about 11,000 school leavers in the Cheshire area. Of those, 4,300 found employment and no fewer than 4,200, failing to find employment, returned to school, leaving about 3,400 young school leavers unemployed. That figure includes more than 700 school leavers from the Warrington district.
At the beginning of this year, together with my hon. Friend the Member for Newton (Mr. Evans) and the hon. and learned Member for Runcorn (Mr. Carlisle), I attended a working committee to examine the situation in the Warrington area. We discovered that the level of unemployed school leavers in the area on 6th January this year was about 1,500—twice the level of unemployed school leavers in August 1975.
That situation is made worse, because in Cheshire 280 of those young employed persons, and in the Warrington area about 700 young people, are employed in schemes by which their employers obtain a Government subsidy of £5 a week. That subsidy for those young employed persons expires in February. It does not affect those who leave school after November 1975. Yet at Easter there will be a further 3,000 school leavers, and in May, due to changes in the school-leaving provisions, that number is likely to go up to about 4,000. That situation demands the concern of all who are anxious about the future not only of these young people, but of our industrial possibilities.
I turn to the job situation that faces those who are out of work now and that will face those who may join them at Easter and in May this year. At the meeting to which I referred we were told that the notification of new vacancies for young people in Cheshire was approxi- 776 mately 65 each week. Warrington has suffered, no doubt in the same way as other parts of the country, from a reduction in the number of apprenticeships. A large number of firms in Warrington have already reduced their intake of apprentices because of the problems facing them, problems that are part of the country's general economic problem. That has been increased by curtailment of training facilities, one of which greatly affects large numbers of young girls, who are now unable to take advantage of the nursing cadet training scheme, which has been ended.
The Industrial Training Board has sought to make provision for training facilities for young people, but that is the merest drop in the ocean, bearing in mind the limitation on the capacity of training boards to take even a small proportion of those who are out of work and, indeed, the shortness, if not the shortsightedness, of plans for future training.
As far as possible—for this we must be grateful—Warrington has done what lies in its power to ameliorate the problems created by unemployed school leavers. Following the meeting in the town hall, to which I was party, towards the end of last year three working parties were set up: one to concern itself with recreation and leisure activities for young people; a second to seek some short-term work opportunities; and a third to be a longer-term planning committee.
The recreation and leisure activities committee, fortunately, succeeded in interesting the YMCA and some local factories, which offered the facilities of their clubs and leisure centres and made use of some older unemployed persons and trained personnel to guide young people not only in games and useful activities during their leisure, but in the opportunities available for learning useful skills which may be of help to them.
Again, there are the short-term work opportunities that we have sought to encourage by application to the local authority, for instance, to employ young people on essential tasks. We have a dangerous bit of canal in Warrington which needs filling, and the suggestion has been made that the local authority might take that task on board and employ some young people to do the filling work.
Together with the North-West Task Force, we have endeavoured to find 777 places for some young people in the conservation work which is taken up by such organisations. With the help of a local brewery, we have taken over an old public house in which we hope to provide work for a small number of young school leavers. They will be trained to make articles for sale to the local education authority.
All these are useful, but they are all palliatives. They do not really touch the major problem which we face and which looks like becoming worse. They suffer both from a lack of long-term opportunities and from a shortage of money. Local authority expenditure is bound to affect them, and the uncertainty about the industrial future of the area is bound to make local industries a little chary about spending money for purposes which may be so short term.
The only possibility of avoiding the long-term unemployment of young people is the creation of an adequate range of jobs that are suitable to the needs of young people and that they can use as they become older. To achieve this, it is necessary for industry and commerce to be actively involved in forward planning and for agencies to be set up in the Warrington area, perhaps in the new development corporation, and in the regional organisations to give young people the opportunity to learn trades, professions and skills which they can use for the long term. But there is no question but that what is really needed there and possibly throughout the country is long-term planning and assistance much greater than anything that the local agencies alone can provide. This appeared to be to be an issue well worth presenting to the Government for their consideration.
There are major disincentives in the systems which have been adopted by the Government to meet these needs. Young people out of work who offer themselves for work and find that they cannot get it are kept in idleness by social security payments. The young people who do not wish to be idle become demoralised. Demoralisation is a real danger. Many decide to continue in school or in some other full-time further education, only to find that they are disqualified from such payments.
Young people who are successful in getting places in ITB or TSA training 778 schemes are paid training expenses, wages, or some of their study expenses. But those who do not or cannot avail themselves of these find themselves disqualified from the receipt of any financial assistance for themselves or their families. Surely this is folly. Let us think of the alternative that might have been open to young people if the Government had faced all the problems which beset Warrington.
For instance, the new town of Risley has splendid new factories and other facilities. Some of the factories are empty. Others are used, not for labour-intensive work, but for storage facilities, and so on. The reason is obvious: our area has no development area status. Across the river from us in Runcorn there is development area status. In those circumstances, inevitably, those having development area status will attract industry and Warrington, with its heavy juvenile unemployment, is rapidly becoming degenerate.
We must urge the Government to look again at the question of development area status for Warrington. They should make it possible for us to use the new buildings and the new town for labour-intensive purposes and not for storage purposes.
Most important of all, the House may think that the Government need to do some long-term planning in this area, which is suffering from financial stringency and uncertainty. Its future is, I fear, typical of the situation in the country as a whole. The Government should bring in a youth training programme for all young unemployed persons. They should regard all those between 16 and 21 who find it difficult to get employment as being their concern, rather than paying them social security. They should send them for training and during their training pay them a wage applicable to their age. No doubt that would be expensive, but it would not be as expensive as keeping young people unemployed as a charge on social security without hope for the future.
Unless the Government introduce long-term plans to prevent youth unemployment from becoming lifelong unemployment, we fear that permanent serious unemployment will be the fate of Warrington and many other areas of which Warrington is but a microcosm.
§ 12.49 a.m.
§ The Under-Secretary of State for Employment (Mr. John Fraser)I should like first to congratulate my hon. and learned Friend the Member for Warrington (Sir T. Williams) on being able to secure this Adjournment debate and on his choice of subject. Secondly—he will know that I am sincere in paying this tribute, as I stood at his dais in the North End Road at Barons Court—I extend my congratulations to my hon. and learned Friend on the knighthood which has been conferred upon him.
In response to my hon. and learned Friend's imaginative suggestion of a training scheme for youngsters, I must say that he will realise that that proposal is fundamental and far reaching and would, as with so many suggestions which are made in these days, have serious implications for Government expenditure.
The Training Services Agency has published a discussion paper on the vocational preparation for young people, and it takes a wide-ranging look at the needs of young people in this respect. No doubt the Manpower Services Commission will consider carefully the proposals that it wishes to put to the Government in the light of reaction to the TSA's draft paper. Further, my hon. and learned Friend will know that in the Queen's Speech the Government stated their intention, within available resources, to give priority to the vocational preparation of young people aged from 16 to 19.
Commentators have made the analysis that there is far too much inequity between the resources devoted to one section of young people—namely, those who go into further education and apprenticeships—and other sections. That matter is being studied at present.
My hon. and learned Friend quite rightly reflected the concern felt in Warrington about the extent of unemployment among young people. That concern, according to delegations and other hon. Members to whom I have spoken, is echoed in other parts of the North-West. There is not disputing that recent levels of unemployment among young people have been unacceptably high. I was glad to hear of the initiatives which my hon. and learned Friend and members of local authorities are 780 seeking to take in conjunction with voluntary organisations to deal with this problem.
However, study of the employment situation in Warrington brings out an important point: although we are not for a moment complacent about the general unemployment level, the position in Warrington is less gloomy than that in other parts of the North-West and in many other parts of the country. For example, the unemployment rate for the Warrington travel-to-work area in December was 4.3 per cent., which compares quite well with that for the North-West as a whole, where it is 6.4 per cent., and even with that for Great Britain, which is 5.1 per cent.
Unlike some other areas in the North-West and, indeed, in the country, workers in Warrington have access to a diversity of industries—a feature which is common where there is a new town, although I understand that this is a new town in the early stages of growth. As a new town area and a focal point in relation to four motorways, the town is a natural growth point for industrial activity. I hope, as I am sure my hon. and learned Friend does, that long may it remain so.
My hon. and learned Friend mentioned the use to which industrial buildings in the new town are put. The allocation of factories is a matter for the development corporation and is not my direct responsibility. I have examined this problem, and the high demand for warehousing facilities probably arises from Warrington's proximity to a number of major transport routes.
Warrington is at an early stage of development as a new town, and its excellent communications should help to ensure a balanced development of industrial activity in the future. However, it is because of the nature of unskilled and semi-skilled opportunities for unemployed young people that we are beginning to face particularly severe problems in Warrington.
My hon. and learned Friend referred to development area status. That is primarily a matter fo my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Industry. He would take into account, in considering whether Warrington should have that status, the unemployment rate, which 781 is 4.3 per cent., compared with 9.9 per cent. in the Merseyside Special Development Area. The comparative rate of unemployment would not point to that status being accorded.
Having referred to the more favourable position of the employment of adults, I now turn in particular to young people. In this respect there is a bleak picture. The number of school leavers registered as unemployed in December was equivalent to 14 per cent. of the estimated number who left school in the summer, and the comparable proportion for Great Britain is only 6 per cent. There was a rise of 6 per cent. between November and December in the number of young people other than school leavers registered with the careers service. That increase compares with a fall of 3 per cent. in Great Britain as a whole. The ratio of unemployed to vacancies at the careers office in Warrington in December was about eight to one, and the comparable ratio for Great Britain was three to one. Putting it in numerical terms, the number of school leavers unemployed and registered at careers offices was 186, and the number of young persons, other than school leavers, registered at careers offices was 141.
This is a somewhat perplexing figure bearing in mind that unemployment generally in Warrington is not as high as it is in many other parts of the country. Perhaps it would appear that the reason lies in the drop in the number of vacancies for semi-skilled work, especially in firms in wire-making. However, it is a somewhat perplexing problem. I shall try to say something about measures that could be taken to deal with this matter.
That phenomenon supports the conclusion, which comes from other evidence as well, that young people are particularly hard hit by recessions. Possible reasons are that employers prefer cutting recruitment to making redundancies, and school leavers suffer. Then there is the "last-in, first-out" policy where redundancy actually occurs. Thirdly, investment, in-eluding investment in the recruitment and training of young people, tends to fall off in times of recession. There are several reasons. The nature of employment is another one in Warrinton. However, I agree that it is perplexing that unemployment among young people should have 782 risen there when, relatively, it has fallen elsewhere.
There is, therefore, an overwhelming case for special action to help young people in this time of recession, because if we do not take this kind of action, which can yield real benefits in terms of preventing lasting or irreversible damage to individuals, there will be adverse social consequences—insecurity leading to alienation, despair and possible delinquency. I wholly agree with my hon. Friend's concern about the consequences that can flow from young people being in enforced idleness.
The measures that have been taken, as relevant to Warrington as to anywhere else, are a fairly comprehensive strategy built around three aims. The first—and, as my hon. and learned Friend said, the most important of all—is to get as many young people as possible into permanent jobs. To this end we have strengthened the Careers Service by 200 posts, and there has been a 4 per cent. increase in staffing in the Cheshire Careers Service, which covers Warrington. This is part of the process of trawling for vacancies, giving guidance and counselling, and trying to get young persons into permanent posts. The second is the introduction of the recruitment subsidy. So far, that has helped about 70 young people in Warrington to get into employment.
My hon. and learned Friend mentioned some concern about the future of the subsidy. I have to tell him that the whole range of measures that the Government have taken to help young people is under constant review. There is no present intention to extend the school leavers subsidy scheme, but I shall take full note of my hon. Friend's views and certainly bear them in mind in discussions on this matter with colleagues.
Those are some of the measures taken to get people into permanent jobs. In addition, during a period of recession we should try to keep up the training effort. The Training Services Agency and industrial training boards have devised a number of forms of special assistance to provide first-year off-the-job training for young people unable to obtain apprenticeships, to protect apprentices and other trainees from redundancy, and to provide special courses below craft level. Again, in Warrington 27 young people 783 are in first-year training under Engineering and Construction Industrial Training Board auspices; and the TSA has financed three courses, which provide 36 places, in distribution, office skills and motor engineering.
Then we have financed through the MSC the Job Creation Scheme. It should provide about 35,000 jobs, albeit of a temporary nature, throughout the country. I have seen the scheme at work and I have been extremely impressed, despite the fact that it is not a permanent arrangement. However, it is of value to young persons who are unemployed, both in its training element and in abating the frustration of being out of work. In doing that, it allows young people to feel that they are part of the community.
I understand that the local authority has formed the Warrington Council Trust and is having talks with the Manpower Services Commission. It is my wish—I am sure that it is a wish shared by my hon. and learned Friend—that as soon as possible the talks will lead to the creation of job opportunities under the Job Creation Scheme, as has occurred in other parts of the country.
We should not forget that young people in Warrington also suffer from the regional dimension of unemployment. In stressing the peculiar features of unemployment among young people to whom the measures I have outlined are directed, I am not saying that unemployment among young people is distinct and separate from the general employment situation. Young people are affected, as are adult workers, by differences between regions and industrial and economic activities. A survey carried out by the former National Youth Employment Council towards the end of 1972, the tail end of the last recession, showed this factor to 784 be of major importance in determining relative job prospects for young people.
The response to this aspect of the problem lies in the Government's regional and industrial policies. Although Warrington does not have development area status, it has intermediate area status and benefits from the incentives to employers that that entails.
I accept that the special measures that we have taken are, in a sense, palliatives. Some of them are of a short-term character, but certain aspects of training will have a long-term effect. It is inevitable that the fortunes of young people are bound up with the general employment and economic situation. Their employment prospects are ultimately contingent upon the success of the Government's efforts to beat inflation, to improve productive capacity and the performance of industry and to achieve stable growth patterns in the economy.
This means no easy options of premature reflation. The consequent responsibility falls not only on Government, but on all sections of the community. The success of the Government's policies requires that everyone, including employers and trade unions, take the long-term view. We hope that this message gets home in Warrington as elsewhere.
I have outlined some of the measures that have been taken. I hope that some of them have already been taken up in Warrington. I hope that they will have furthered—
§ The Question having been proposed after Ten o'clock on Thursday evening, and the Debate having been continued for half an hour, Mr. DEPUTY SPEAKER adjourned the House without Question put, pursuant to the Standing Order.
§ Adjourned at two minutes past One o'clock.