Job Insecurity

Nadine Dorries Excerpts

Wednesday 5th February 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Chuka Umunna (Streatham) (Lab)]

I beg to move,

That this House believes that insecurity at work has increased under this Government, compounding the cost of living crisis facing families; further believes that the Government’s policies have made life less secure for people at work by watering down their rights, including protections against unfair dismissal and by abandoning an evidence-based approach to health and safety; notes that the number of employees working part-time who want to work full-time has grown by over 350,000 since the Government took office to over 1.4 million, alongside a marked rise in zero-hours contracts; recognises that insecure jobs add to pressure on the social security budget by making it harder for people to buy a home or save for their own pension; calls on the Government to reverse the trend of rising insecurity at work by reforming zero-hours contracts so they are not exploitative, addressing false self-employment by closing loopholes which allow it to take place, scrapping the failed ‘shares for rights’ scheme, strengthening and properly enforcing the National Minimum Wage, including by increasing fines to £50,000 and giving local authorities enforcement powers, and incentivising employers to pay a Living Wage through ‘make work pay’ contracts; and further calls on the Government to adopt a proper industrial strategy to help create more high-skilled, better paid jobs so the UK can earn its way out of the cost of living crisis with stronger and better-balanced growth.

It is a pleasure, Madam Deputy Speaker, to serve for the first time under your chairship. I move the motion at a time when our country’s economy has thankfully returned to some growth after three years—[Hon. Members: “Hear, hear!”] Government Members will not be “Hear, hear-ing” later on, Madam Deputy Speaker. We are not out of the woods yet. In my constituency, the number of people claiming jobseeker’s allowance has fallen over the past 12 months and I welcome that, but the number of young people claiming JSA for more than 12 months in Streatham has increased by 75% and the number of adults claiming JSA for more than two years is five times what it was in May 2010. That is a tragedy for them and their families; they are not patting the Chancellor on the back.

We are all too aware that the fall in the headline rate of unemployment in some areas, such as mine, is not matched across the country. In the north-east and the south-west, for example, unemployment is up compared with this time last year. It might surprise people to learn that in London our unemployment rate is 8.1% compared with a national average of 7.1%. For those of our constituents who are in work, living standards have never before been under so much strain. A living standards crisis has impacted on households all over the country, which is why the shape and nature of growth matter. Will the rewards from growth deliver better living standards and security for the people we represent?

[Nadine Dorries (Mid Bedfordshire) (Con)]

The hon. Gentleman is incredibly generous to give way and I thought I might make an intervention to try to cheer him up a little. Center Parcs is bringing 1,700 jobs to my constituency in a project that has been on the table for long time—since I first became an MP nine years ago. It is happening now because Center Parcs has faith and confidence in the economy that means that it can go ahead with the project and create the jobs. I think that the hon. Gentleman will find that many employers will follow suit and the picture will be much brighter.

--- Later in debate ---

[Vince Cable]

I will get on to regional variation. I am surprised that the hon. Gentleman raises the issue of Wales, because I was studying the regional employment changes and Wales has done relatively well against almost every other region of the UK. Despite the terrible history of unemployment in Wales, its unemployment level is now at the UK average. Its increase in employment levels is greater than in any other part of the UK, including London and the south-east. There is a good story in Wales as well as many very deep problems, which I of course acknowledge.

[Nadine Dorries]

Does the Secretary of State agree that the Government do not create jobs? Many of the new jobs that have been created have come from the SMEs. The cost of living crisis will turn around quickly, and would do so even more quickly if the banks allowed funding to get to SMEs a little more quickly so that they can grow as they want to with the funding that they need.

[Vince Cable]

The hon. Lady is right, and it is one of the major casualties of the banking crisis that SME lending dried up. We are taking action on that through the business bank and in other ways. Restoring credit to the SMEs through the banking sector is a critical objective and it is a constraint on growth.

The shadow Minister’s conclusion was a good issue to embark on, and I just wish that he had spent more than two minutes and the last line of the motion on it. There is a real issue about how the recovery will be sustained. There are deep problems, including the lack of trained people and the rebuilding of supply chains. I would love to have a long debate with him about the industrial strategy, how we extend it, and what a Labour Government would do to reinforce it. I do not know whether the shadow Chancellor will come up with some more money, but I would be delighted to hear that it would have that kind of support. But the shadow Minister dismissed it as an afterthought in the last two minutes of a half hour speech, and I was, frankly, rather disappointed by that.

The shadow Minister chose to focus on jobs, and they are of course central. I want to address the issues of employment and employment conditions—