HC Deb 09 December 1980 vol 995 cc769-70
2. Mr. Radice

asked the Secretary of State for Employment whether he is satisfied with the progress in reducing the growth of unemployment in the Northern region.

11. Dr. David Clark

asked the Secretary of State for Employment what plans he has to stimulate employment in the Northern region.

The Under-Secretary of State for Employment (Mr. Jim Lester)

The level of unemployment in the Northern region remains much too high. The Government recognise that areas such as the North-East require special help to overcome their particular problems.

This is why the Government provide a considerable amount of assistance to the North-East—for example, through their regional policy and through the special employment measures. In the longer term, the economic future of the North depends on a general improvement in the industrial performance of the country as a whole.

Mr. Radice

Is the hon. Gentleman aware that there are 168,000 unemployed in the Northern region, which is an increase of 43 per cent. since last year, and that there are further 23,000 on short-time working, which means that unemployment is bound to worsen? When will the Government Front Bench make the Prime Minister understand what is happening? When will it persuade the right hon. Lady to change her policies?

Mr. Lester

I am aware of those figures. I am also aware that in the Northern region we have established one enterprise zone and that we are currently considering a second one. We have offered substantial help through the Industry Act, amounting to £215 million. There have been 200 advance factories. We have expanded from 41,000 places on the youth opportunities programme this year to 57,000 in 1981–82. Surely, that is a positive response to the figures that the hon. Gentleman has quoted.

Dr. Clark

Does the hon. Gentleman realise that the appalling figures that my hon. Friend the Member for Chester-le-Street (Mr. Radice) has mentioned include terrible black spots such as Hartlepool, Consett and Sunderland and that in my own constituency one in five of the men are out of work? Does he realise also that he has managed to confirm the image of the Conservative Party as being the party of unemployment? When will he suggest to his right hon. Friend that he should press in the Cabinet for a northern development agency?

Mr. Lester

The suggestion of a northern development agency is not a matter for my right hon. Friend. Labour Members and some of my hon. Friends have been pressing for an agency. I think that the matter is now being considered by the Department of Industry.

We are aware of the unemployment figures. The hon. Gentleman knows that I have been to his constituency. I have visited the North since then. It is not a matter of not realising and not understanding. The question is what the Government can do that they are not doing already. We need to get our industrial performance and productivity in line with our competitors. When we have done that, we shall create real jobs.

Mr. Banks

Is my hon. Friend aware that there have been press reports that there may be delays in placing shipbuilding contracts for the Royal Navy? Will he recognise the immense importance of maintaining a viable shipbuilding industry for building warships and of the employment that goes with that?

Mr. Lester

That question was raised when I went to the North-East, to Swan Hunter. I have taken it up with the Department of Industry.

Mr. Beith

Does the Minister realise that long before his right hon. Friend the Prime Minister advised people to seek work away from home many men from the North-East went to towns such as King's Lynn in Norfolk to seek work? Is he aware that they now find themselves returning to the North-East without a job, having been declared redundant on the principle of last in, first out? Does he realise that that further underlines the importance of changing the economic policies that are causing the recession in the North-East?

Mr. Lester

To change the economic policies would create worse problems in the North-East. We have problems now because Governments have been panicked by unemployment figures, which we believe are short-term transitional figures, into reflation. We have ended up with a higher base rate of unemployment than that with which we started.