Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation

Debate between Luciana Berger and Alison McGovern

Wednesday 20th March 2013 Commons Chamber

[Luciana Berger]

It is incredibly insensitive that that announcement was made today. People up and down this country will rightly be shocked by it. In a moment I will reference the fact that we are seeing the gap between the richest and the poorest in our society widen. The Government should be doing everything to ensure it is closed.

I acknowledge and welcome the extra money we have heard about today for infrastructure projects, but I note that the majority of it will not be delivered until 2015-16, while work on many of the projects is not expected to begin for years. We must not forget that the Chancellor has spent £12 billion less on infrastructure over the past three years than under the plans he inherited. What is needed is a plan to get our economy growing and to create more jobs across the country right now. The fact that we have a chronic shortage of jobs was reinforced to me last week when I held a jobs fair in my constituency, which was attended by 66 companies. They ranged from local businesses such as the Liverpool Dental Spa and Davey’s Chemists to big global companies such as Nutricia Danone. On the day, more than 500 different job and apprenticeship opportunities were on offer.

My jobs fair last Friday was a great event, with more than 2,000 people coming through the door. That far exceeded my expectations; we had printed only 1,000 welcome packs. Despite what the Chancellor would have us believe, I did not meet anyone whom he would describe as a shirker. That point was also made in a letter to the Liverpool Echo this week from Bernie Hunt of Kensington Fields, a section of which I want to share with the House. Bernie said:

“What a surprise I had on March 15. I called in at the Wavertree Jobs Fair…half expecting to have the car park to myself as Mr Cameron’s Welfare State dependents were supposed to be too busy watching daytime TV recovering from the dole fuelled bender from the night before. What I actually found was those desperate for the chance of a job, or even training for a job, packing the place to the rafters.”

The fantastic turnout reinforced the fact that people who are out of work are not shirkers, but the real problem is that there are not enough jobs. Even if we filled every one of those 500 job and apprenticeship opportunities available at the jobs fair, three quarters of those who attended would still have missed out.

We have learned today that 2.52 million people are still out of work, with youth unemployment at almost 1 million again. There are still more than five people chasing every job vacancy, and even those who can find work still have to accept lower living standards.

[Alison McGovern]

I hope that my hon. Friend will also comment at some point on apprenticeships and on the fact that part of the reason for the shortage of jobs in her constituency, and the mismatch of Government spin, is the rebadging of existing jobs as new apprenticeships. Does she not think that the Government should come clean about that?

[Luciana Berger]

I have spoken on a number of occasions on the issue of youth apprenticeships, particularly those for people under the age of 19. We have seen a decrease in the number of such apprenticeships. As my hon. Friend says, there is also the issue of the rebadging of different types of jobs. The House will have heard many a representation from the Labour Benches about the Government’s consistent claim to have created 1 million jobs in the private sector, but we know that many of those jobs are simply public sector jobs that have been rebadged.

There has also been a shift in the kind of jobs available. The number of people working in full-time jobs fell in the last quarter. It is now down 378,000 since the beginning of the 2008 recession, while the number of people in part-time work has risen by 572,000 in that period. Since the general election, people have taken an average £1,200 pay cut because jobs are so hard to come by.

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[Alison McGovern (Wirral South) (Lab)]

Thank you, Mr Speaker. I am pleased to have caught your eye in this debate on today’s Budget.

I want to talk about three issues: interest rates, under-employment and the place of young people in our economy. Before I do so, let me be clear that in today’s Budget we heard conclusively that the Government have failed on every economic test they set themselves. We heard the Chancellor having to announce those debt figures. How he must feel he has let himself down, but he has not just let himself down; he has let the whole country down. He is not just the downgraded Chancellor; he has now had to come and tell us how much more he is borrowing.

The Bank of England has kept interest rates at a historic low. The Chancellor had more to tell us about the framework within which the Bank of England operates. When he was talking about the arrangements for setting interest rates in the Monetary Policy Committee, I noticed that some Government Members’ eyes were glazing over slightly, so let me give them a warning. The Prime Minister has lauded the low interest rates, and he is right to do so, because, frankly, it is the only thing that has gone right. In fact, the Government’s saving grace of low interest rates has resulted from the use of the one economic tool that is not under their own management. While the Governor of the Bank of England has got his foot to the floor in holding interest rates low to try to support the economy, the Chancellor keeps slamming on the brakes. Is it any wonder that we are seeing such poor growth? Under the Chancellor’s stewardship, we should have had growth of about 5.5%; in fact, it has been less than 1%.

It is important that the Bank of England uses its economic tools properly. What the Chancellor said about having a broader remit and taking the long-term view on interest rates is extremely important, and I welcome that discussion. But let us be clear that using monetary policy in this way will not help rebalancing; in order to achieve this, we need serious investment. Government Members need not take my word for it; they need only listen to the Business Secretary, who has clearly been listening to the shadow Chancellor, because they seem to be in agreement that we need a different plan. When the Chancellor made his announcement about the national insurance position of small companies, I wondered whether he had taken a leaf out of the shadow Chancellor’s book and it was an announcement about the Government’s commencing our five-point plan. The Minister is giving me a tentative smile, and being a cheerful soul I will take that positively. Before Government Members talk in too-positive terms about the Budget and the level of income tax, they should worry about food prices, house prices, housing costs, and the real value of the money in people’s pockets.

The Government must address under-employment. Sadly, unemployment has gone up today, but we should be grateful that, despite the fallout from the crash, it has not reached the extreme levels of Greece and Spain. Some people say that they cannot understand why unemployment is not worse when growth is next to zero. In fact, the Chancellor said today that it continues to be a surprise. I do not know why he thinks that, because what is going on is under-employment. People cannot get the hours they want.

I have asked Ministers about under-employment on three occasions in the past month and they have not provided an answer. I have asked the Minister of State, Department for Work and Pensions, the hon. Member for Fareham (Mr Hoban), and the Leader of the House, and on 25 February the Chancellor dismissed out of hand my concern about under-employment. Nobody in government seems to accept that it is a problem. They talk about their 1 million new jobs, but I believe that up to a fifth of them could be the result of reclassification.

On the growth in part-time work, my constituents tell me that they cannot get the hours they want. I hope that I have made it abundantly clear to Ministers that this is a massive problem.

[Luciana Berger]

Has my hon. Friend, like me, heard stories of local supermarkets receiving more than 30 applications for increased hours in order to meet the new requirements for tax credits? The unavailability of those hours means that people are struggling to get by as a result of the decrease in tax credits.

[Alison McGovern]

Of course I have. I thank my hon. Friend for flagging up the issue of the changes made to tax credits, which mean that people now have to work for 24 hours, rather than 16 hours. That alteration has added insult to injury and disintegrated work incentives.

All Ministers need to do is look at their own labour force survey, which shows that between 2008 and 2012 under-employment went up from just over 2 million to just over 3 million. Do Ministers read the labour force survey? They should do so if not. Spare capacity in our economy is causing real problems. Not only does it hold back our economic development, but it causes real unhappiness.

Hon. Members may remember the Prime Minister talking about a general well-being index when he came into office, but I dread to think what its results would be given people’s misery at not being able to get all the hours they want at work in order to put food on the table for their family.

On the subject of unhappiness, I must mention youth unemployment. Just under 500,000 young people are claiming the dole. Treasury Ministers need to speak to people at the Department for Work and Pensions and find out what on earth is going on. They cancelled the successful future jobs fund in favour of the failed Work programme; the Government’s claims about apprenticeships are, as has been said, simply a rebadging exercise; and the DWP itself knows that its policies are failing. I have asked questions about the Department’s business planning projections, which show that the number of people under 24 to whom it will have to pay the dole before the end of this Parliament is going to increase. That is a disaster for our country. We need a better policy to help young people get into the labour market.

In the time remaining, I want to say what I think that policy should be. We have hammered local authorities despite the fact that it is basic economics to understand that unemployment forms in clusters. Specific localities face significant unemployment, especially among young people, who want a place in the labour market.