Autumn Forecast

Jonathan Edwards Excerpts

Monday 29th November 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mr Osborne]

The OBR also makes a projection for private sector employment and takes into account all the potential impacts on that, and it finds that a net 1.1 million jobs will be created over the period: there will be 30 million people in employment at the end of this Parliament, compared with 29 million today.

[Jonathan Edwards (Carmarthen East and Dinefwr) (PC)]

In bringing forward their national insurance proposals the Government accept that their fiscal consolidation programme will have a disproportionate affect on those areas of the state that are more reliant on public expenditure. What other countervailing measures is the right hon. Gentleman considering?

[Mr Osborne]

We have created the regional growth fund to look specifically at areas that need support and investment. We have been able to announce some significant transport investment in other parts of our country. The national insurance tax reduction, which the hon. Gentleman mentions, refers explicitly and only to job creation outside the south-east and east, and I have deliberately taken that decision to try to create a more geographically balanced economy than the one I found when I took this job.