§ 4. Mr. Ioan Evansasked the Secretary of State for Employment in view of the development of structural unemployment, what consideration is being given to methods of employment subsidy on a long-term basis.
§ The Minister of State, Department of Employment (Mr. Harold Walker)For the present, we prefer to keep employment subsidy schemes subject to periodic review as being designed primarily to support jobs during the recession.
§ Mr. EvansAs well as consideration of the question of faster economic growth, which we hope will be stimulated in next week's Budget, does my hon. Friend 222 agree that an employment subsidy and the introduction of a phased working week and reduced working hours are complementary in solving the long-term problem of unemployment? Will he examine the proposals advanced by the TUC's economic review for 1978?
§ Mr. WalkerWe shall certainly study the TUC's proposals and the economic review with great care. I hope that my hon. Friend, in rightly expressing concern about the development of structural unemployment, will not overlook the fact that in the past five years the labour force has grown by one million and that during that period half a million extra jobs have been created.
§ Mr. PowellIs not the subsidisation of employment on a long-term basis a contradiction in terms?
§ Mr. WalkerI hope the right hon. Gentleman will recognise that successive Governments have been subsidising employment over a long period of time with such measures as, for example, Section 7 of the Industry Act and similar legislation which preceded it.