HC Deb 25 July 1980 vol 989 cc1006-16

Motion made, and Question proposed, That this House do now adjourn.— [Lord James Douglas-Hamilton.]

1.45 pm
Mr. Richard Wainwright (Colne Valley)

The moderately paid and generally hard working people of the South Pennine valleys and the travel-to-work areas of Huddersfield and Dews-bury are suffering at the moment quite exceptionally sudden large-scale increases in unemployment—a penalty which they have certainly not brought upon themselves. Massive redundancies in wool textiles and severe setbacks in mechanical engineering and elsewhere have contributed to an increase of no less than 55 per cent. in unemployment in the Huddersfield and Colne Valley area during the past 12 months. In the Dews-bury area of Kirklees, the 12-month increase in unemployment has been 69 per cent. This is a steeper rise than in any part of the country other than certain steel areas, and it has created a current Kirklees unemployment rate—quite apart from many unregistered women workers who have lost their jobs—8.2 per cent.

The essence of the consequent industrial and economic problems, which I must convey to the Government today, is that, like a thief in the night, industrial slump has suddenly turned a whole area of traditionally low unemployment and usually widespread opportunities for skilled jobs into a seeming desert in terms of finding secure jobs. In Government terms, this means that an area which did not need to claim exceptional facilities, and which always worked hard to provide for itself, has now, quite suddenly, a substantial claim to be given speedy official help in order further to help itself.

The aspect that I want to take up in this debate is that of adult training facilities. The House could, on a suitable occasion, debate for hours the Government measures which are urgently necessary to preserve the diligent attitude to work and the extraordinarily high skills of this traditional manufacturing area, but I have selected the urgent need for further adult training facilities.

I emphasise at the start that, in this respect as well, the area believes even at this moment in starting by helping itself. For instance, the Colne Valley Woollen Training Group—a co-operative, staffed by private enterprise, established some years ago—is very active. Its secretary reports to me that the industry needs some assurance that a suitable central training centre will be set up and be available to give the specialist training necessary when the need arises in hopefully the not too distant future. Then there is the Kirklees Training Association, which is another co-operative of private enterprises. More than 75 businesses co-ordinate the selection of apprentices and various other aspects of technical training through the association, which is at present preparing its own training centre for apprentices.

Nor has Kirklees been benefiting from exceptionally generous facilities from the Government in the rest of Yorkshire, because for every 67 skillcentre places per 100,000 work force in Yorkshire, there are in Wales 134 places—more than twice as many—and 141 places in the far North of England.

This very sudden turnround—which is an appalling shock to an area which has not known severe unemployment since the 1930s—requires a completely new attitude. It means that all of us—Government, Opposition parties, trade unions, employers and the rest—must discard a great many notions of which we were perfectly convinced in good faith until a few months ago.

I hope that the Minister will not trot out the results of the Manpower Services Commission's survey of Yorkshire training, which was usefully completed in January of this year, because, alas, that is already seriously out of date in terms of the current need.

Industrial training will have to be looked at in a new light, and arguments against skillcentres which were understandable to some extent during the long years of fairly full employment should not be repeated in the entirely different position that we now face.

Furthermore, Kirklees is, unfortunately, no longer able to count absolutely on the many splendid apprentice schools of a very high standard in Kirklees industry being able to continue at completely full stretch for the present time, because their companies are very hard pressed indeed through the loss of export markets consequent on the gross over-valuation of sterling and for other reasons.

The reliance of Kirklees upon Wakefield, Leeds and Bradford skillcentres cannot be the answer for a large and rapidly increasing number of people who face the alternatives of total unemployment or constructive attempts to add to their skill, and thus to their chance of getting a good job when recovery comes. The same is true, I am told, of the neighbouring metropolitan borough of Calderdale, which is also without a skillcentre.

This basic change of approach must also be rapid, more rapid than is usual in any Government circles, because unemployment is still growing fast. Redundancies alone in Kirklees are growing at the rate of over 500 a month, apart from the outpouring of school leavers with, for the first time in Kirklees, dismal prospects.

I urge a rapid approach because we must recognise that the time scale for a new skillcentre, despite every effort, is bound to be about two years to completion, by which time I reckon the demand will be almost overwhelming, if the proper attitude to training is adopted. I advocate the use of converted buildings, in which Kirklees is rich, rather than a highly expensive, purpose-built centre, training people in surroundings that are unrealistic in relation to the jobs that they will be taking, if they are fortunate. Even so, a converted building will take many months to bring into operation.

It is also necessary that the content of courses be reviewed, so that there will not be quite the same heavy emphasis on vehicle engineering, miscellaneous engineering, welding and so on, valuable though they are.

There must also be regard to the fact that local authority training provision is, unfortunately, being cut—for example, textile training in Dewsbury. There will be a natural disposition on the part of many enterprising unemployed people in Kirklees to want training for high-quality, up-market production, where the hope of industrial recovery is probably greatest.

Here I must pose the Minister two questions, in the light of an answer that he gave me on the subject on 9 July At the end of the answer he said that the primary responsibility for overcoming skill shortages lies with industry and employers."— [Official Report, 9 July 1980; Vol. 988, c. 163.] Does that mean that primary responsibility for training the unemployed lies with industry and employers? Secondly, is it simply with employers and private industry that responsibility lies for seeing that when the recovery comes we do not have a repetition for the umpteenth time of a skill bottleneck?

West Germany, Switzerland and Austria have beaten us hands down on each occasion because of the great superiority of their training arrangements. While poor old Britain has been complaining that the boom has taken it unawares and that skilled labour is not available, these competitors have forged ahead and taken enormous advantage of us, because their much wiser and more farsighted training schemes have meant that skilled labour was immediately available—and to great effect.

In that connection, training the unemployed, I must point out what the West Yorkshire county council wrote only a few days ago on the subject of access to training facilities. The council's document says: Both Calderdale and Kirklees are Pennine areas, with consequently long lines of communication and lengthy commuting journeys to Wakefield, Bradford and Leeds, where the skill-centres are. Many potential trainees from Calderdale and Kirklees may well be deterred from making use of the facilities at these three existing centres. On grounds of equity, and taking into account commuting time and cost, it is desirable that the present Training Service Division's restrictions on catchment areas for a skillcentre should be set aside and its location and allocation of places be determined on the social cost involved to potential trainees. To that I add the enormous potential cost to industry if it is subjected yet again to an appalling lack of skilled labour when the need arises.

I also draw attention to the personal view of the secretary of the Kirklees chamber of commerce: One the economy recovers, so too will the structural weakness that we have in our labour market, and certain skilled vacancies, particularly in engineering, will prove very difficult to fill. Naturally, the council of the metropolitan borough of Kirklees takes the whole matter very seriously. After meeting all the local Members of Parliament at Westminster, leaders of all three parties on the council called a special conference on 4 July to discuss the employment position and the rapid turnabout from which Kirklees is suffering. Members of Parliament of all three parties, trade unions, the chamber of commerce, West Yorkshire county councillors and Kirklees councillors took part. One of the points in the official record of that meeting was the establishment of a skillcentre locally would be of considerable benefit, it was felt. I hope that the Minister will make it clear this afternoon that training for industry is regarded as a first-class national investment for the future—well worth the unavoidable risks of not always matching exactly the skills that will be required. Calculated ventures in faith are more acceptable to West Riding people than enforced idleness and the gradual loss of skill that that involves. Kirklees is the seventh most populous borough in the metropolitan counties of England. It is also one of the most far flung—and my constituency of Colne Valley is the most scattered of all. I have constituents near the top of the Pennines in the wool textile towns of Slaithwaite and Marsden for whom a journey to the nearest training centre at Wakefield is an expensive nightmare of high and increasing fares and unreliable service.

Kirklees people have maintained some of Britain's staple industries during good times and bad. They are entitled now to have the opportunity to gain new or upgraded skills within their borough and within reasonable travelling distance. They have shown the will to work, to acquire skills and to adapt to changing needs. I hope that the Minister, this afternoon, will give them real grounds for hope.

2.8 pm

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

I listened with interest and concern to the remarks of the hon. Member for Colne Valley (Mr. Wainwright) about the difficulties facing his constituency. It is not by any means the first that we have heard about those matters. The House knows that for several years the hon. Gentleman has been assiduous in pressing the claims of his constituents for improved training facilities. More recently, he met my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State to discuss that matter. In addition, I have received a report from the Secretary of State following his visit to Huddersfield earlier this month, when he met local employers and representatives of the West Yorkshire county council and the Kirklees metropolitan district. We take these matters seriously.

We share the hon. Gentleman's concern about the substantial rise in unemployment in Kirklees—about 58 per cent. during the past year. The increase has been markedly higher than for the remainder of West Yorkshire, or for the Yorkshire and Humberside region as a whole. For the first time in recent years the Kirklees unemployment rate has moved above the national average. The increase has mainly reflected the redundancies in textile and other manufacturing sectors but it has not been confined to those sectors. An especially worrying feature is the increased proportion of youngsters—especially ethnic minorities—among the unemployed. I am the first to acknowledge the value and the contribution that those work forces made in previous times.

The main solution to the problem of unemployment in West Yorkshire, as elsewhere in the country, is as recently stated in the Manpower Services Commission manpower review: a faster rate of employment growth, which depends on the control of inflation and the restoration of an efficient and effective economy. It is to the objective of a sustained improvement in job prospects, through the control of inflation and the creation of a more competitive economy, that the Government's policies are directed.

I turn to the vital question of skilled training. The main responsibility for meeting future skill needs rests with industry, assisted by the industrial training boards and other national training organisations. An important objective of the Manpower Services Commission's training-for-skills programme is to encourage industry to make realistic assessments of future manpower and training needs, and to prepare soundly based plans to meet them. This year the Government are providing, through the Manpower Services Commission, £ 51.8 million to support industry's training plans, a substantial proportion of which will be used to support about 23,500 training places for young people.

In addition, the Commission has announced that in view of the high level of youth unemployment and indications that present levels of apprentice recruitment may be falling substantially below last year's levels, already in terms of sharp action, extra grants have been made available through industrial training boards to support 1,500 extra apprenticeship places this year. The commission is currently consulting ITBs about the allocation of these places and hopes to make grants available by the end of next month. Priority will be given to regions of high unemployment and industries in which cutbacks in apprenticeships have been particularly severe. I shall ask the commission to consider, in its allocation of grants, the points that the hon. Member made about the needs of his constituency and the contribution that might be made by this scheme.

Mr. Richard Wainwright

I am grateful to the Minister, but will he come to the specific point that I raised about responsibility for training those at present unemployed, who will seek work as soon as it is available?

Mr. Lester

Yes, I shall come to that point shortly.

In his choice of a topic for today's debate, the hon. Member has deliberately concentrated on the contribution that so-called "speculative" training under the training opportunity scheme can make to economic growth. He is concerned that TOPS should make its fullest contribution to the attraction of industry and the encouragement of local enterprise, which are essential if Kirklees is to diversify its present narrow industrial base.

There is a general reservation to be entered here. This is not carping. The reservation is based on some evidence that speculative training, while it may contribute to economic regeneration, cannot of itself create jobs. It is not fair to the redundant worker or to the taxpayer to provide additional training facilities unless there is a reasonable expectation that a job will be available after training. There was a report in 1978 by Richard Berthoud, of the Policy Studies Institute, which stated that the ideal time for men to train was during a recession. One would always consider that. But that report also pointed out that only 5 per cent. of the men who did not immediately find jobs using their new skills subsequently did so. The remedy suggested by the report was extensive refresher training, but that is highly expensive. Training for stock is justifiable only where there is a real chance of using the new skills that are given. This has been borne out by a lot of work that we have done in Merseyside and the North-East.

I must say immediately that I do not think that in all the representations Ministers have received a case has been made for a new skillcentre at Kirklees. Even a small centre would require a minimum class size of between eight and 14, depending on the trades, and a minimum number of classes to form a viable group. To build, staff and equip a new centre would be very costly, and could not be justified unless there was a high probability that sufficient demand would be forthcoming from local industry to absorb the centre's output for a long time.

I am advised by the MSC—and this advice refers not to last January but to the present time—that its employment and training services covering Kirklees are unaware of any specific skill shortages in the area. For the foreseeable future it does not see sufficient demand coming from local employers to justify a new skillcentre, taking account of the training facilities already available locally or within reasonable travelling distance. The current TOPS programme includes skillcentres at Bradford, Wakefield and Leeds, and together these centres provide 750 places in a range of trades, including construction engineering and electrical and electronic trades. All three centres are accessible from Huddersfield, Dews-bury and Batley, with travelling time by public transport of one hour or less. The hon. Member raised the question of costs. I have always considered that grants are made to cover the cost of transport, even though it might be difficult.

Mr. Richard Wainwright

Yes, but the Minister mentioned only the main towns. I must point out that my constituents do not live in any of them. They live further afield, many of them virtually on the tops of the Pennines.

Mr. Lester

I am familiar with the area and I recognise the hon. Member's point, but there is the feeling that skill-centre provision in the Yorkshire and Humberside region has been constantly reviewed in recent years to ensure that it meets the labour market needs as adequately as possible. We have increased the share of Yorkshire and Humberside skillcentre places from 7.9 per cent. in the review that we have just completed. As a result, new classes are to start later in the year at Bradford on general construction and electronics and at the Wakefield skillcentre on general construction and bricklaying.

Help with the skill needs of existing and new enterprises can also be provided though our direct training services, on which we have put a great deal of accent and for which economic charges are made. Sponsored training is available in skillcentres across the full range of skills normally taught there. Our mobile instructor services are being expanded and will be available to offer to Kirklees employers, on their own premises, a full range of MSC instructional skills available within its Yorkshire and Humberside region. Skills taught include specific manual skills at semi-skilled and skilled level and training in the safety aspects of particular operations.

Turning from manual occupations, TOPS-supported courses in clerical, commercial, catering and business machine maintenance skills are running at both Huddersfield technical college and the Dewsbury and Batley technical and art college. TOPS supports a wide range of courses at educational and employers' establishments in other towns within daily travelling distance, Wakefield, Halifax, Bradford, Morley, Shipley, Barnsley, and Leeds. These courses include clerical, secretarial and business skills, heavy goods driving, catering and food preparation, computer skills and preparatory courses in communications and basic arithmetic skills. In addition, this year we are providing 100 per cent. funding for West Yorkshire LEA's language link that provides English language training for unemployed adults and young people as part of the wider opportunities course at the Bradford and Leeds skillcentres. These are pilot courses. They integrate language training, literacy, numeracy, life and social skills instruction with practical work sampling.

Overall, this year, TOPS plans to provide places for just under 3,300 people to start training in West Yorkshire. The adequacy of provision in relation to employers' needs is kept under constant review through the Manpower Services Commission's contacts with district manpower committees, industrial training boards, including the wool, jute and flax training board. Within available resources, the Manpower Services Commission is always ready to consider proposals for new courses to meet specific skill needs that cannot readily be met through employers' own training.

The TOPS scheme provides training for adults aged 19 and over. In addition, the youth opportunities programme, which provides work experience and training opportunities for unemployed young people of 16 to 18, will provide 7,400 places in West Yorkshire in 1980-81, compared to about 4,000 places last year. This is a measure of the seriousness of the situation and the response. In Kirk-lees, about 1,550 young people are provisionally expected to join the programme. Of these, 320 will follow short training courses or work in production courses. Most of these courses are college-based, but a number of places are provided by the West Yorkshire motor trades group through its introduction to the motor trades course.

A possible new development currently under discussion between Huddersfield technical college and the careers service is a work introduction course, including training in English as a second language. It is hoped that the course will benefit young people, particularly those from ethnic minorities with language difficulties. That course will begin in September.

The youth opportunities programme is essentially geared to local needs. The special programme area boards take into account any local labour market developments in preparing their annual plans. They are considering nationally how increased attention can be focused on increasing the schemes' relevance to labour market needs and the requirements of new technology.

In some areas there are indications of reduced levels of apprenticeship intake, resulting in fewer opportunities for young people to enter training. Again, in terms of instant response, the MSC is examining ways of using any spare training capacity that might emerge to provide suitable training opportunities under the youth opportunities programme. They would not surplant craft level training in skillcentres, nor offer a TOP-based alternative to first-year apprenticeships, but they would aim at offering pre-apprenticeship or basic training at a higher level than has been available under the youth opportunities programme.

There is also the important general principle that I have already mentioned but which cannot be too often emphasised, that training provision must be geared to a reasonable expectation of labour market demand sufficient to provide job opportunities for those who are trained.

Subject to those reservations, I repeat the undertaking given to the hon. Gentleman earlier this week by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State that we shall ask the Manpower Services Commission to take account of the rapid increase in unemployment in Kirklees over the past year when determining training provision under both the training opportunities scheme and the youth opportunities scheme. I shall also ask the Manpower Services Commission to consider the important additional matters raised by the hon. Gentleman during the debate.

Question put and agreed to.

Adjourned accordingly at twenty minutes past Two o'clock.