Economic Growth

Luciana Berger Excerpts

Wednesday 15th May 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mike Thornton (Eastleigh) (LD)]

May I say that just a few months ago I could only have dreamt that I would be able to follow such a distinguished and respected Member of the House as the hon. Member for Coventry North West (Mr Robinson)?

Hon. Members will be glad to know that I will be brief—I will also talk about something other than our coalition partner’s internal difficulties over Europe. My e-mail inbox—like, I imagine, everyone else’s—is filled with demands that we spend more on the health service, education, defence and so on. However, to be able to do so in the current budgetary situation requires the economy to grow faster than spending. Otherwise, the resultant increase in debt would act like a massive anchor on a ship, bringing the SS Great Britain to a shuddering halt and leaving it vulnerable to the international winds and tides of financial misfortune.

I want to consider five fundamental issues which I think the coalition is addressing. They are: jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs and jobs. Let me deal first with jobs in our small and medium-sized businesses. We are putting in place £2,000 for each business to help them to take on new staff. They include businesses as diverse as SPI Lasers, Oswald Bailey and La Fenice in my constituency. We are looking at helping young people to get jobs. Already, 1.2 million apprenticeships have started. In Eastleigh, that has meant a 65% increase in apprenticeships since we came to power.

[Luciana Berger (Liverpool, Wavertree) (Lab/Co-op)]

The hon. Gentleman will be aware that the unemployment figures came out today and that long-term youth unemployment is now more than double what it was when his Deputy Prime Minister introduced the Youth Contract. Does he think the Youth Contract is therefore working?

[Mike Thornton]

The Youth Contract still has a few months to go, but I think we can see that it has already been effective, and the March figures demonstrate a return to increasing employment and a reduction in unemployment. What is more, part of our work on apprenticeships is about preventing abuse of apprenticeships. We are setting out a definition of what an apprenticeship is, which will be a significant help in enabling businesses to take on more apprentices.

We have also seen an increase in jobs in manufacturing, with our continuing commitment to green energy and £5 billion of extra investment in science and high-tech. The electricity market reform alone could support as many as 250,000 jobs in that sector. Then there are jobs in the regions. I am lucky to have a very low rate of unemployment in my constituency, but a £2.6 billion investment in our regions is spurring economic growth in all our constituencies, not just mine. Finally, there are jobs through design. By making it easier for businesses to protect their designs, intellectual property rights will spur further investment in this British success story.

What do all those schemes mean? They mean more jobs, and more jobs mean a better life for millions of people, which I am sure all of us in this House would like to see. They also mean more revenue for the Government—more funds for the NHS, the disabled and our schools. What is more, the Lib Dem initiative to increase the tax allowance to £10,000—and, hopefully, onwards and upwards—means more take-home pay for every single one of those new employees. If that is what Liberal Democrats can achieve when they are in government as part of a coalition, just imagine what we could achieve with a Lib Dem majority in this place. [Laughter.] If Members want to hear, I will tell them what: a stronger economy and a fairer society, so that everyone can get on.

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[Luciana Berger (Liverpool, Wavertree) (Lab/Co-op)]

I am grateful for the opportunity to contribute to the last day of debate on the Gracious Speech.

I want to talk about this chaotic Government’s shambolic attempts to revive our flatlining economy. The Government are running on empty. When it comes to the questions the British people most want answered, they have nothing to say. On our flatlining economy, where is the plan for growth? On building more homes, 130,000 construction workers are out of work, but new home completions are at the lowest level since the 1920s.

What assistance is there for small businesses when 1,600 firms in my constituency are crying out for help? I agree with many of the tax evasion and avoidance concerns raised earlier by the hon. Member for Redcar (Ian Swales). When an estimated £120 billion is lost to our economy every year, how can the Government believe that it is a bright idea to slash 10,000 staff from Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs?

On the increase in child poverty, the explosion in food banks and, worst of all, unemployment, I have felt as if I am in a parallel universe sitting in the Chamber today. I remind Government Members that more than 2.5 million people are without a job, and that 900,000 have been without a job for more than a year—the highest long-term unemployment since 1996. That is nothing short of a crisis, but for this Prime Minister, this Chancellor and this Government, it appears that unemployment is a price worth paying. They have not met the 4,100 people in my constituency who cannot find work—more than a quarter of them are young people. It is an abomination that one out of every five 16 to 24-year-olds are not in employment, education or training.

Labour would rightly offer a guaranteed job for all young people who are out of work for more than a year, paid for by a bankers’ bonus tax. Labour Members understand that spending cuts that push young people into poverty are not savings—they are a cast-iron guarantee of increased welfare spending and higher borrowing, and of an entire generation being thrown on the scrap heap.

[Nigel Adams (Selby and Ainsty) (Con)]

Will the hon. Lady give way?

[Luciana Berger]

I would love to take the hon. Gentleman’s intervention, but I am conscious that there are still hon. Members who wish to speak.

The Government should be doing everything they can to get people into work—that is what should be keeping the Government up at night. I have been looking closely at those on the Front Bench and I do not see dark circles under Ministers’ eyes. I do not want to see just any kind of work. We need sustainable, high-quality jobs where employees are respected.

The Queen’s Speech states that the Government are

“committed to building an economy where people who work hard are properly rewarded.”

That is an aim I applaud, but it is not the reality for too many of my constituents. We have seen a massive increase in precarious employment: zero-hours contracts, temporary contracts and agency workers. One million people working part time want to work full time, and there is downright exploitation. There can be no clearer example of that than the experience of my constituent Sophie Growcoot. She is 20 years old, and she and her colleagues have been ruthlessly exploited by one of the most well known companies operating in the UK.

Sophie thought that she had landed her dream job when she was hired to join a Ryanair cabin crew after an intense recruitment process. It was not until she started that she learned she would not be paid for all the hours she put in, only the time when a plane she was working on was in the air. That meant not a penny for every pre-flight briefing she attended, nothing for sales meetings, nothing for turnaround time when a plane was on the ground between flights, and nothing for the hours waiting on the tarmac during delays and flight cancellations. She was only paid for four days each week, and on the fifth day she had to be available on unpaid standby, ready to come in at a moment’s notice but not receiving any payment if not called in. Sophie was told that she had to take three months of compulsory unpaid leave each year, and was forbidden from taking another job during that time. If she wanted to leave within nine months of joining the company, she had to pay Ryanair a €200 administration fee. To add insult to injury, she had to pay a staggering £1,800 to her employer for compulsory training.

Last year, Ryanair recorded profits of just under half a billion pounds. How can its chief executive, Michael O’Leary, think it is fair or acceptable for his company to be profiting on the back of poorly treated staff like Sophie? As her situation grew worse, Sophie knew that there were no other jobs out there for her.