HC Deb 03 December 1985 vol 88 c142
4. Mr. Rowe

asked the Paymaster General if he has any plans to extend the scope or improve the effectiveness of local enterprise agencies.

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Employment (Mr. David Trippier)

The scope and effectiveness of local enterprise agencies is ultimately in the hands of the directors and boards of the agencies. However, the Government intend to encourage agencies to plan their businesses and extend their services by making the provision of a business plan one of the conditions for Government grant under the new scheme of support for them.

Mr. Rowe

I do not believe that it is entirely due to my having put down a question that my right hon. and learned Friend should have chosen to announce a £2.5 million scheme for the financial support of the enterprise agencies. Is he prepared to put the same effort into manpower extension, in particular by using the management extension scheme as one source of additional assistance to those desirable agencies?

Mr. Trippier

The announcement to increase funding to the local enterprise movement was made some three weeks ago and it was only the detail of how the Government would match every pound raised from the private sector that was given yesterday. My hon. Friend makes a compelling point about the management extension programme, and I am certainly prepared to consider it with the Manpower Services Commission.

Mr. Tony Lloyd

Does the Minister accept that the private sector is shedding jobs in manufacturing industry at a frightening rate? In my constituency, GEC has declared 300 further redundancies. How much effort realistically needs to be put in through local enterprise agencies before we can begin to create jobs? It will require an enormous effort by local authorities to wipe up the damage being done by that one company, let alone the damage being done by the private sector in manufacturing industry throughout the north of England.

Mr. Trippier

I draw the hon. Gentleman's attention to my constituency, which is only 16 miles away from his, where we saw the shedding of labour to which he referred, in particular between 1980 and 1982 in what I call the teeth of the recession. As a result of setting up the local enterprise agency, we have managed to reduce unemployment from 19.1 to 13.2 per cent. Those are pretty compelling figures, and I think that the hon. Gentleman will draw comfort from them. While I am on my feet, I should compliment the local enterprise agency operating in the hon. Gentleman's constituency, which I visited on two occasions. It is doing a fantastic job.