Job Insecurity

Debate between Vince Cable and Russell Brown

Wednesday 5th February 2014 Commons Chamber

[Vince Cable]

It is a current problem, but it is a declining problem. The trend over the past year is striking: the new jobs being created are full-time jobs and part-time employment is declining. Of course, there are a lot of people who took part-time employment under very difficult conditions who now want full-time work. If the recovery is sustained, as it must be, then this problem will resolve itself, but I accept that there are a lot of people in unsatisfactory employment situations.

[Mr Russell Brown (Dumfries and Galloway) (Lab)]

We have now had nearly four years of talking about the numbers of people who are unemployed and the number who are employed. Does the Secretary of State have the figures for the number of hours worked on a weekly basis? Is he able to track that over the past three or four years?

[Vince Cable]

I do not have those figures, but I am sure we could get them. I am sure my colleague the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions will dig them out for him. I am sure that they reflect the pattern I describe that, certainly over the last year, full-time employment is rising relative to part-time employment.

Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation

Debate between Vince Cable and Russell Brown

Thursday 21st March 2013 Commons Chamber

[Vince Cable]

I am sure that we would have free petrol in a perfect world.

Let me deal with some of the points of economic substance that have been raised. The first was about job creation. It is true that in the last set of figures there was a very small increase in unemployment. However, that happened against the context of the last three months, in which 130,000 new jobs were created, vacancies rose and redundancies fell. In this Parliament, we have created 1.25 million new private sector jobs. It is difficult to understand why, if the economy is performing as badly as the shadow Chancellor claims, a large number of new private sector companies are creating jobs in that way. There are regions of the country, such as the west midlands, that in the boom periods saw a decline in private sector employment. That is now being comprehensively reversed.

The question put by my hon. Friend the Member for Portsmouth North (Penny Mordaunt) is apposite: why does the Labour party think that 600,000 jobs are being predicted by the OBR in the coming year? We got the ludicrous answer that it has something to do with immigration, but immigration is about the supply of labour, not the demand. Where is the demand coming from, other than a favourable business environment that encourages small companies to establish and grow jobs?

[Mr Russell Brown (Dumfries and Galloway) (Lab)]

We have listened long and hard to the Government about the number of private sector jobs that have been created—it went from 1 million, to 1.2 million, fell back to 1 million for some reason, and yesterday we heard an announcement of 1.25 million new jobs. Will the Secretary of State put in the Library a complete breakdown of those jobs that states where they are located—not just percentage-wise but numbers-wise—which sectors they are in, and the hours that people are working, so that we know exactly what is happening?

[Vince Cable]

I understand that some of those details were placed in the Library yesterday, and the hon. Gentleman is free to consult them. I hope he is not trying to deny that the phenomenon is taking place.

Amendment of the Law

Debate between Vince Cable and Russell Brown

Thursday 22nd March 2012 Commons Chamber

[Vince Cable]

I will take the intervention in a moment.

A narrative has developed in which one man was responsible for this fiasco, but it was a genuine team effort, and the shadow Chancellor was an absolutely key member of that team. Being lectured now on how to manage an economy is a little bit like being given a talk on seamanship by the captain of the Costa Concordia—another believer in light-touch steering.

[Mr Russell Brown (Dumfries and Galloway) (Lab)]

The Secretary of State talked earlier about indebtedness. Can he share with the House how much of the debt was down to the previous Government having supported the banks and the finance houses to get through the potential economic crisis?

[Vince Cable]

It was actually on the back of an uncontrolled housing boom. Personal indebtedness as a share of people’s incomes doubled in the period of the last Government. Of course the process of deregulation beforehand did not help, but the core increase—the fundamental problem of indebtedness—arose when the shadow Chancellor was a key decision maker in that Government.

I want to talk about the Government’s basic economic strategy, but before I do, I want to address the issue of unfairness and distribution. There were two allegations. One was that the policies have had a damaging effect on the so-called squeezed middle; the other was about the millionaires. Let me deal with each in turn. On the squeezed middle, if hon. Members look at the distribution charts, they will see that the squeezed middle has been squeezed a great deal less than the squeezed top. The major cash impact of the Budget was on low and middle-income families, as a result of lifting the threshold to over £9,200, with £220 for more than 20 million taxpayers. That was right, not just because of the fairness involved, but because it gives a significant economic stimulus, and at the margin—the 1 million people being lifted out of tax—it is a major incentive to work. The policy also contrasts favourably with the strategy that the Labour Government adopted in office—which we discussed many times—of using tax credits. By increasing tax allowances in the way we have, we are giving people the freedom to choose how to spend their own money, not taking it from them and then giving it back to them, through a complex, means-tested system, with high marginal rates of withdrawal.

Postal Services Bill

Debate between Vince Cable and Russell Brown

Wednesday 27th October 2010 Commons Chamber

[Vince Cable]

I shall take further interventions later but I want to proceed with the next step of the argument.

Let me dwell a little on Royal Mail’s financial problems. When I came into government I was left in no doubt as to the real difficulties. I asked Richard Hooper to update his report from December 2008 because I wanted to ensure that the conclusions were still valid—and they are. Let no one in the House be under any illusion regarding Royal Mail’s predicament. I recognise that there has been some progress. Opposition Members who represent areas with sorting offices will know that unions and management are now working together better—we acknowledge that—but that the pension deficit has ballooned. It is now more than £8 billion and Royal Mail has, proportionately, the largest pension deficit of any major company in the United Kingdom. In addition, it loses almost £1 million a day on its trading activity. It is an inefficient business in a market that is declining faster than anyone predicted. Hooper now forecasts that letter volumes could fall by as much as 40% in the next five years if nothing is done. That is why we are moving further and faster.

[Mr Russell Brown (Dumfries and Galloway) (Lab)]

I appreciate that the right hon. Gentleman now finds himself in coalition with the Conservatives. There is a pension fund with a substantial amount of money in it; I know there is a deficit, but will he give the House a guarantee that the coalition Government will not do what a previous Conservative Government did to the bus employees superannuation fund? Under Margaret Thatcher they took money from that pension fund, which the Labour Government later had to replace.

[Vince Cable]

I shall address the pension proposals in some detail. They are virtually identical to what the previous Government were preparing to do. We are talking about taking on a massive liability from that fund. Let me remind the hon. Gentleman, who seems to be trying to defend the status quo, that he lost 13 post office branches under the previous Government. We are trying to deal with the problem that he and others have faced.

[Mr Russell Brown]

rose—

[Mr Angus Brendan MacNeil (Na h-Eileanan an Iar) (SNP)]

rose—

--- Later in debate ---

[Vince Cable]

As I reminded hon. Members a few moments ago, customers in the Hebrides have experienced a decline. We are going to turn that around, and I shall explain the process and investment by which we will do that.

[Mr Russell Brown]

On a point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker. I merely want to put the record straight. The Secretary of State has indicated that I lost 13 post offices but I did not; I lost two. I am anxious that he is bandying figures around.

[Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Lindsay Hoyle)]

That is not a point of order, but the hon. Gentleman has certainly made a point of clarification.