Labour Mobility (Hansard, 9 February 1989)

§ Lord Skelmersdale
My Lords, the Government have taken a number of steps to assist the occupational and geographical mobility of labour. These include the provision of training opportunities, our reforms in the field of housing and personal pensions, the wider circulation of job vacancies and help with travel to job interviews.

§ Lord Rodney
My Lords, I thank my noble friend for that reassuring Answer. Will he expound a little further on the various measures that have been taken to circulate the availability of job vacancies?

§ Lord Skelmersdale
My Lords, each job centre has access to a computer network through which it can circulate vacancies within its local area and region as well as inter-regionally. That is known as VACS (the vacancy circulation system). In addition, employers can obtain access to main channel televison coverage of regional job vacancies via the Employment Service's "Jobfinder" programme. An agreement has recently been signed with Oracle Teletext Ltd. which will result in the development of a national Jobfinder network.

§ Lord Hatch of Lusby
My Lords, in his Answer the Minister talked about reform of housing provision. What does that mean? Has not the difficulty in labour mobility, which has led to a shortage of skilled workers in the South-East and unemployment in the North, largely been caused by the fact that workers in the North cannot afford to move to the South-East? What does he mean by reform of housing provision?

§ Lord Skelmersdale
My Lords, last year's Local Government and Housing Bill seeks to link public sector rents to the true value of the accommodation being provided. There is no intention to encourage wholesale migration as a result of any subsequent rent rises. Indeed, many noble Lords will recognise that the South-East is rapidly filling up. Government policy is that rents should be affordable with, if appropriate, a satisfactory level of housing benefit.

§ Baroness Turner of Camden
My Lords, accepting that mobility is important, as the Minister has just said that the South-East is becoming overcrowded, does he agree that we cannot all live in the South-East or the West Midlands? What steps are being taken to provide job opportunities for those areas of high unemployment from which it is not possible for people to move because there is no housing accommodation which they can afford in places where there is employment?

§ Lord Skelmersdale
My Lords, the noble Baroness will be well aware of the Government training schemes which are in operation, and which we are due to debate next week. That is the main way in which we can put people into work outside the South-East. The Employment Service gives considerable help to job seekers wherever they may be seeking work, either at home or abroad, as I pointed out earlier.

§ Lord Stallard
My Lords, does the Minister accept that his replies give a false picture to all those people 1661 who are trying to move jobs only to find that in the South-East, especially in inner London and places where there are jobs, houses are way, way beyond the income of anyone who is seeking employment from any other part of the country? The Government's policy has been totally counter-productive. In their attempt to create mobility of labour they have utterly failed.

§ Lord Skelmersdale
My Lords, that depends upon one's point of view. The recruitment and relocation of employees is primarily a matter for the employers concerned. Any relocation expenses incurred would be their responsibility. However various things have been happening recently. For instance, only last week it was announced that two insurance companies, the General Accident Insurance Group and Cornhill Insurance plc, are to offer cheap mortgages to part-time staff as the competition for scarce labour resources intensifies among financial services companies. The noble Lord may realistically say that this has nothing to do with the Government. The relocation of employees who are not government employees does not have a great deal to do with the Government.

§ Lord Geddes
My Lords, can my noble friend tell the House what advice regarding information on job vacancies either is available or is contemplated as being available in and after 1992 with regard to job vacancies on the Continent?

§ Lord Skelmersdale
My Lords, the Overseas Placing Unit of the Employment Service is able to provide a wide range of advice about working abroad, including job opportunities notified by other European Community member states and the European Commission itself. These vacancies are, also made available to job seekers by the VACS system which I mentioned earlier and its imminent replacement, the national VACS system.

§ Lord Molloy
My Lords, does the Minister not agree that notwithstanding his attempts to provide information on this subject we are talking about individuals and people? In many quarters the phrase "the shake-out of labour" is found to be highly distasteful. Does the noble Lord not agree that these are people, fellow countrymen and they are not allowed to be shaken out by anyone at any time? Could another phrase not be found?

§ Lord Skelmersdale
Yes, my Lords, I am well aware that we are talking about individual people, many of them currently not in work. I have explained the Government's training policies to help people to get into work. As regards the shake-out of labour, I may not have been listening to what I have been telling your Lordships but I do not recall having used that phrase.

§ Lord Cledwyn of Penrhos
My Lords, does the noble Lord not agree that it would be a grave error to repeat the mistakes of the 1920s and 1930s and force people from Scotland, Wales and the North to cross the borders to seek work here in the South- 1662 East? Will the noble Lord make it clear to the House that that is not government policy? If it is not government policy, why are the Government so parsimonious about regional policy and grants in aid to the regions? Is the noble Lord aware that the Government have cut aid to the regions substantially over the last two years?

§ Lord Skelmersdale
My Lords, I am not aware that the Government are in the least parsimonious. The Government give many millions of pounds a year for these purposes to Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, as we all know.

§ Lord Simon of Glaisdale
My Lords, would it not be advisable to encourage local wage and salary settlements, thus encouraging the work to move to the areas of cheaper housing where the workers are waiting for it?

§ Lord Skelmersdale
My Lords, yes, indeed, the Government have a policy of encouraging regional rather than national wage settlements. They see this as one of the ways ahead in what we all recognise is a very difficult problem.

§ Baroness Carnegy of Lour
My Lords, is the Minister aware that only yesterday there was a gathering in this House at which a large number of manufacturers in light industry met in order to hear about opportunities which they were keenly seeking to take their industries from the South and South-East of England to Scotland? One of the main reasons why they wished to do this was that under the new legislation housing will reflect the different values in different parts of the country and the position will be very advantageous in the Highlands of Scotland.

§ Lord Skelmersdale
My Lords, no, I was not aware of the background to what my noble friend mentioned. Of course she is perfectly right. Only recently in the Department of Social Security we have announced that over the next approximately two years we shall be moving 1,000 jobs out of London.

§ Lord Cledwyn of Penrhos
My Lords, returning to Government grants, is it not the case that the recently published Government White Paper on expenditure cuts regional aid by £10 million in cash terms during the next year? How does the Minister describe that as generous?

§ Lord Skelmersdale
My Lords, I was not aware of the figure in the recent White Paper on public expenditure to which the noble Lord the Leader of the Opposition has just referred. I am aware that next year's grant for the Highlands and Islands Development Board will be £43 million. I do not regard that as unreasonable.

§ Lord Cledwyn of Penrhos
My Lords, that is a very long way away.

Lord Wallace of Coslany
My Lords, is the Minister aware that some years ago, when Her Majesty's Stationery Office was moved to Norwich, the co- 1663 operation of the local authority was achieved when it made houses available from its housing stock? What arrangements are being made to house the thousands of civil servants shortly to be dispersed according to Government policy?

§ Lord Skelmersdale
My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Wallace, is quite right. In the past arrangements have been made with local authority housing departments for exactly this purpose. The current government policy is that by no means all housing for any particular purpose or area should be provided by local authorities. Therefore the Government or the Department of Social Security—which I know most about—will be helping its employees with their job moves.

§ Viscount Montgomery of Alamein
My Lords, in view of the periodic injunctions from high places about getting on bicycles, can my noble friend say whether he will give further consideration to the proposal made yesterday by the noble Lord, Lord Dormand of Easington, to provide increased cycle lanes?

§ Lord Skelmersdale
My Lords, that is rather a long way from the Question. However I can say that it is not government policy to provide 3 million bicycles.