Employment: Private Sector Jobs

Lord Harrison Excerpts

Thursday 30th January 2014 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Lord Harrison]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of the report by the Centre for Cities in respect of the proportion of private sector jobs created in London, what steps they are taking to rebalance the economy across the United Kingdom.

[Lord Newby (LD)]

My Lords, the Government are taking a number of steps to ensure that the recovery is balanced across the UK through local enterprise partnerships, enterprise zones, city deals and growth deals. The latest figures show an increase in private sector employment of 928,000 outside London over the past three years, compared to 307,000 in London over the same period, so nearly 80% of all private sector employment growth has come from outside London.

[Lord Harrison (Lab)]

My Lords, according to the recent report, most of the new jobs have come from London and the south-east. Does the Minister share my concern about that? Does he understand that concern against a background of declining exports, a parlous balance of payments situation and the matter of small businesses having access to finance in order to grow jobs still not having been resolved? How will we rebalance the economy and how and when will we know that the economy has indeed been rebalanced?

[Lord Newby]

My Lords, there are a number of measures but one of the key things is what is happening to employment and unemployment regionally. In the past quarter, unemployment fell more quickly in Scotland, Wales and four English regions than it did in London. There is big growth in a number of regions outside London, which is extremely welcome.