James Duddridge
Main Page: James Duddridge (Conservative - Rochford and Southend East)Department Debates - View all James Duddridge's debates with the Northern Ireland Office
(11 years, 10 months ago)
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The Prime Minister
No. The energy company obligation scheme is many times the size of the Warm Front scheme. Warm Front helped 80,000 families a year, but ECO could help up to 230,000 families a year, so it is a bigger and potentially better scheme.
James Duddridge (Rochford and Southend East) (Con)
What assessment has the Prime Minister made of unemployment in my constituency, particularly the fact that more women are in work than ever before?
The Prime Minister
The point my hon. Friend makes is absolutely right. There are now more people employed in the private sector than ever before, and there are also more women employed in our country than ever before. When we look at the unemployment figures that came out today, we see that what is remarkable is that in employment is up in almost every region and unemployment is down in almost every region. There is a huge amount more to do, but clearly over 500,000 new jobs were created in the private sector last year, the fastest job creation rate since 1989. That shows that we are on the right track.