HC Deb 20 May 1986 vol 98 cc169-71
8. Mr Hardy

asked the Paymaster General what is the proportion of the population of the Rotherham metropolitan district which is in full-time employment; and what is the comparable national proportion.

Mr. Lang

The 1981 census of population showed that 55.3 per cent. of the population of working age resident in Rotherham were in full-time employment in April 1981. The corresponding proportion for Great Britain as a whole was 58.1 per cent.

Mr. Hardy

The situation has changed dramatically since 1981. Would not the updated figures show quite startlingly, not only the appaling scale of need in the Rotherham metropolitan area, but the almost criminal misrepresentation of the official employment statistics published by the Government, which disguise the sheer scale of the waste of human resources and the enormous and rapidly growing economic need in south Yorkshire and many other industrial areas in England?

Mr. Lang

The Government recognise that Rotherham has special problems. That is why we are applying special measures to the area. The hon. Gentleman may like to know that the Rotherham and Mexborough travel-to-work area has had almost £17 million worth of regional assistance since 1979, which has helped to create 3,000 jobs and save another 1,900. It also has an enterprise zone which, over two years, has helped 58 new and established companies employing around 1,500 people.

Mr. Barron

Does the Minister not realise that the help given to the Rotherham area has done nothing to alleviate unemployment? We have had six years during which the main employers in south Yorkshire, steel and coal, have been massively run down under direction from the Government. The aid that has gone to the area has done nothing to stop the masses of young people going straight from school on to the dole. Rotherham needs a more caring attitude from the Government. It does not just need money. The Government should do something in real terms.

Mr. Lang

The hon. Gentleman is right to mention steel and coal as problem areas where jobs have been lost. However, the Government have invested some £55 million in the new company being established by BSC and GKN in the engineering steel sector. There is also considerable encouragement for NCB (Enterprise) Ltd., with the establishment of new funds. to encourage ex-miners to develop new industries. The adult training facilities have been substantially increased over the past year, and 6,500 people are on youth training schemes in the Rotherham and Doncaster areas.

Mr. Phillip Oppenheim

Are not Opposition Members unconsciously admitting that Government spending does not create jobs?

Mr. Lang

My hon. Friend asks a broad philosophical question. The measures for which my Department is responsible are carefully prepared and costed, and are increasingly effective. I commend to my hon. Friend the booklet "Action for Jobs", which sets them all out in detail.

Mr. Crowther

Does the Minister accept from me, in reply to what his hon. Friend the Member for Amber Valley (Mr. Oppenheim) has just said, that what Opposition Members are saying is that until there is a dramatic change in the Government's economic policies, all the so-called assistance that is going into Rotherham and other areas with high unemployment will not solve the problem? Merely to produce artificial, cosmetic schemes is not getting at the root of the trouble. We need a complete change in the Government's total economic policy before we see a real cut in the level of unemployment.

Mr. Lang

The hon. Gentleman underrates the success in job generation of the Government's policies. Over the past three years we have generated around 1 million additional new jobs. Although the problems at Rotherham remain substantial, the hon. Gentleman might like to know that job placings there have risen by 16 per cent. over the past year.

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