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Tonight, we're going to lift the lid on the hopes and fears for the | :00:03. | :00:06. | |
South's economy. Inflation may be falling but unemployment is rising | :00:06. | :00:07. | |
falling but unemployment is rising falling but unemployment is rising | :00:07. | :00:09. | |
and people are being squeezed, so how can this region, often the UK's | :00:09. | :00:17. | |
powerhouse, lift itself into recovery? That is what we are here | :00:17. | :00:27. | |
:00:27. | :00:47. | ||
to discuss tonight. Our economy, I'm Sally Taylor and welcome to the | :00:47. | :00:52. | |
UK headquarters of Linde. The company here sells forklift trucks | :00:52. | :00:58. | |
and there has been a unit here since 1949. More than 200 people | :00:58. | :01:03. | |
work here. Tonight I am joined by people from all walks of life and | :01:03. | :01:08. | |
we will begin by hearing from Ellie Hallmark, a mother of four. She has | :01:08. | :01:11. | |
regularly missed meals when there is not enough money to feed the | :01:11. | :01:21. | |
whole family. There just wasn't enough money to go round to buy the | :01:21. | :01:28. | |
food to feed us, so something has to give. My oldest daughter said, | :01:28. | :01:38. | |
Mum, I'm with you on this. We went without food. We just did not eat. | :01:38. | :01:42. | |
Everything was going up in price, but your wages do not go up. My | :01:42. | :01:46. | |
rent from the 2nd April will go up 7.1 per cent, so in effect it is | :01:46. | :01:49. | |
another �40 a month they are expecting me to find, from where I | :01:49. | :01:59. | |
:01:59. | :02:01. | ||
don't know. I'm not on minimum wage, far from it. I am willing to work | :02:01. | :02:04. | |
every hour there is but the more I learn, the more they take and I'm | :02:05. | :02:08. | |
sure of there's loads of other people like me out there and the | :02:08. | :02:15. | |
Government are just ignoring it, just ignoring it. | :02:15. | :02:19. | |
That is Ellie's story. Sadly Ellie cannot be with us tonight but it is | :02:19. | :02:26. | |
a typical story of some people and I will talk to Hayley. You are a | :02:26. | :02:31. | |
public sector worker. Most public sector workers have had their pay | :02:31. | :02:37. | |
frozen, you have had yours cut. How has it affected you? I'm basically | :02:37. | :02:40. | |
�250-�300 worse off because they have imposed a pay cut in order to | :02:40. | :02:50. | |
save jobs. We have not seen the jobs that have been saved but I | :02:50. | :02:54. | |
find it difficult. Every month I have to plan what I spend my money | :02:54. | :03:02. | |
on. What have you given up? I have to buy own-brand food now, I can't | :03:02. | :03:05. | |
not afford, my nutrition has probably suffered, I cannot buy as | :03:05. | :03:15. | |
:03:15. | :03:15. | ||
much fruit and veg as I would like to. Do you ask yourself, is it | :03:15. | :03:21. | |
worth me having this job or would I be better off on benefits? For me I | :03:21. | :03:25. | |
do not think it is an option. The reason I went into public service | :03:25. | :03:29. | |
work was I wanted to make a difference. Although it is | :03:29. | :03:32. | |
extremely difficult, I deal with people every day who are in worse | :03:32. | :03:35. | |
scenarios than I am, people who are living in poverty while in their | :03:35. | :03:45. | |
:03:45. | :03:46. | ||
sixties or seventies and eighties. Do you blame anyone? The Government | :03:46. | :03:50. | |
is likely to blame. A lot of these cuts have come and they will hit | :03:50. | :03:54. | |
women, especially women with children. We are expected to | :03:54. | :03:57. | |
continue to work but the attacks on child tax credit, working tax | :03:57. | :04:04. | |
credit, I do not see how we will get out of it. Penny, your party is | :04:04. | :04:11. | |
always saying we are always in this together. You heard this story of | :04:11. | :04:18. | |
Ellie and Hayley. They are not untypical. They will not think they | :04:18. | :04:24. | |
are in it with you. This is very common but I do encounter a lot of | :04:24. | :04:33. | |
people who are in... What do you say? We have managed to do quite a | :04:33. | :04:36. | |
lot and before we came in, someone in Ellie's position, there was no | :04:36. | :04:42. | |
incentive for them to work. If they tried to increase their salary, | :04:42. | :04:45. | |
they were taxed 98 per cent because of the benefits that were taken | :04:45. | :04:52. | |
away from them as their earnings went up. What we did was change | :04:52. | :04:59. | |
that. Should it have got to this stage where somebody decides it is | :04:59. | :05:04. | |
heating or eating? It should not. It is very difficult, I do not know | :05:04. | :05:07. | |
Ellie's whole situation but what we need to do is keep raising tax | :05:07. | :05:13. | |
thresholds. We have done that, we have lifted 1.1 million people out | :05:13. | :05:20. | |
of paying tax altogether, we have increased child tax credits. | :05:20. | :05:23. | |
could list these things but there are still people who are in these | :05:23. | :05:33. | |
pockets of poverty that we have. Daisy, Lib-Dem councillor. You are | :05:33. | :05:40. | |
in coalition here. It is partly for you to be blamed as well, is it? | :05:40. | :05:43. | |
can really relate to what Ellie was saying because in my ward, children | :05:43. | :05:53. | |
in poverty is an expanding number. You are in a position where you | :05:53. | :05:57. | |
were having to get rid of hundreds of jobs. We had tough choices to | :05:57. | :06:01. | |
make. I was in charge of adult social care and we had to look at a | :06:02. | :06:04. | |
situation where the council had to subsidise people who paid for that | :06:05. | :06:11. | |
care and I had to prioritise those who could not afford to pay. This | :06:11. | :06:15. | |
is an acute situation and I want to see an increase in the raising of | :06:15. | :06:24. | |
tax threshold. George, Labour peer. I am looking at a change to the | :06:24. | :06:27. | |
working tax credit situations coming in April, so that if you are | :06:27. | :06:30. | |
working like Ellie or Hayley, but if you are earning less than | :06:30. | :06:40. | |
:06:40. | :06:42. | ||
�17,500 you will be worse off as a result of those tax credit changes. | :06:42. | :06:49. | |
What is the solution? Some say you got us into this mess. We've raised | :06:49. | :06:52. | |
the issue of the working tax credit problem a month ago and we said how | :06:52. | :07:00. | |
we would pay for it by getting rid of the stamp duty loophole. I am | :07:00. | :07:03. | |
pleased to see on the BBC today George Osborne closing that | :07:03. | :07:06. | |
loophole but he did not say he would make work pay for those | :07:07. | :07:16. | |
:07:17. | :07:17. | ||
people on working tax credit. Andrew, you are a graduate. You | :07:17. | :07:23. | |
spent a long time trying to get a job. You now have a job. Can you | :07:23. | :07:33. | |
:07:33. | :07:35. | ||
tell me what that process was like? It was humiliating to say the least. | :07:35. | :07:38. | |
Seeking employment is hard enough at the moment but the very people | :07:38. | :07:41. | |
you come into contact with who are supposed to ease that process can | :07:41. | :07:44. | |
be quite judgmental and I am not saying the JobCentre is all | :07:44. | :07:52. | |
judgemental. There were some very nice people who were very helpful | :07:52. | :07:55. | |
but the process itself, that process they are working in is | :07:55. | :08:03. | |
repressive. How did it affect you? You are well qualified and there is | :08:03. | :08:08. | |
nothing. I'd got a good degree, I worked hard throughout university, | :08:09. | :08:12. | |
I got as much experience as I could and you would assume that | :08:12. | :08:22. | |
:08:22. | :08:23. | ||
employment would come with that naturally, but it did not. Aston, | :08:23. | :08:29. | |
you are from the Isle of Wight. You are what a recall a NEETs, not in | :08:29. | :08:35. | |
education, employment or training. Now you are an apprentice. Isle of | :08:35. | :08:41. | |
Wight, so many people chasing so few jobs, what was it like? It was | :08:41. | :08:46. | |
frustrating. You cannot find anything and if you do, it is | :08:46. | :08:49. | |
either working in a residential working in a residential home but I | :08:49. | :08:56. | |
cannot bring myself to do that. I don't have that kind of caring | :08:56. | :09:04. | |
instinct, and seasonal work as well. Then after that, you go back on the | :09:04. | :09:08. | |
dole for the winter months. Is it difficult to motivate yourself when | :09:08. | :09:14. | |
you get rejections? All the time. But I went on a course and that | :09:14. | :09:17. | |
ignited the spark of organisation and motivation in myself and with | :09:17. | :09:20. | |
these apprenticeship courses, I reckon that is a very good idea for | :09:20. | :09:23. | |
the government to be bringing up because it is very valuable and the | :09:23. | :09:33. | |
:09:33. | :09:34. | ||
variety is amazing. You are on an apprenticeship scheme now. What | :09:34. | :09:42. | |
about friends of yours? What is the future looking like for them? | :09:42. | :09:46. | |
There is not a lot there. Most of my friends are going off the island | :09:46. | :09:54. | |
now and it is awful. My friends are all having to go off and go to | :09:54. | :09:59. | |
other places. Some cannot seem to bring themselves to do anything. | :09:59. | :10:04. | |
Motivation has gone. You are sitting next to Michael from the | :10:04. | :10:11. | |
Institute of Personnel Development. You help people in recruitment. | :10:11. | :10:16. | |
What you are hearing from Aston, Andrew, is this typical? | :10:16. | :10:20. | |
certainly is typical. What we are doing, what we are producing out of | :10:20. | :10:22. | |
schools, out of university are individuals who are not necessarily | :10:22. | :10:26. | |
well prepared for the world of work, do not have the skills that we need, | :10:26. | :10:29. | |
so we need to find some way of bridging that from taking them from | :10:30. | :10:35. | |
education into work. Through apprenticeships, vocational | :10:35. | :10:42. | |
training that is the bridge you need. It is not a political point, | :10:42. | :10:46. | |
it is a point that we need to make sure that the young people today | :10:46. | :10:51. | |
are given these opportunities in order they make that transition. | :10:51. | :10:54. | |
it the case that you hear people, I have applied for hundreds of jobs, | :10:55. | :10:57. | |
is it that they are getting something wrong or is it simply | :10:58. | :11:06. | |
that it is that tough? It is tough. There is a tsunami of CVs out there | :11:06. | :11:08. | |
but if you ask employers, actually recruiting skilled, qualified | :11:09. | :11:16. | |
candidates is still remarkably difficult. There is a mismatch | :11:16. | :11:19. | |
between the skills and education people have got and the | :11:19. | :11:24. | |
opportunities. Where are the opportunities, the sectors where | :11:24. | :11:28. | |
there are jobs? Financial services, even manufacturing and construction, | :11:28. | :11:30. | |
IT, professional services - all these have got opportunities but | :11:31. | :11:34. | |
when we look at opportunities, all too often the people applying for | :11:34. | :11:42. | |
them do not have the prequisite skills. Linda, you run an IT | :11:42. | :11:47. | |
company. You are nodding, yes there are jobs out there. You started up | :11:47. | :11:51. | |
your company and would you say that to other people, go and do it | :11:51. | :11:58. | |
yourself? There is a need for some kind of bridging. There is a gap | :11:58. | :12:01. | |
because we have been hiring and the quality that we get, sometimes I | :12:01. | :12:04. | |
wonder how frustrated people really are in this sector, how much that | :12:04. | :12:14. | |
:12:14. | :12:14. | ||
plays a part. You employ a small number of people. That is right. We | :12:15. | :12:18. | |
have ended up having less staff because we have not been able to | :12:18. | :12:26. | |
fulfil the roles. I run, one of my businesses is a web internet | :12:26. | :12:29. | |
retailer and we try and get people to load product, write web sites | :12:29. | :12:39. | |
:12:39. | :12:40. | ||
and sometimes we cannot get anyone. Are they not trained? We put | :12:40. | :12:43. | |
adverts out and we are looking for basic requirements and we are | :12:43. | :12:50. | |
saying, where are these one million 16-24 year olds on these jobs? The | :12:51. | :13:00. | |
:13:01. | :13:03. | ||
other side is I put ads out and then I have 80 people. We need to | :13:03. | :13:07. | |
skill the young people up and equip them for the jobs for the future | :13:07. | :13:12. | |
which may not be retail, it may be in internet companies. It is making | :13:12. | :13:15. | |
sure because we have the young people, if they do not have skills, | :13:15. | :13:23. | |
they do not have the jobs. You run a company, how many do you employ? | :13:23. | :13:27. | |
We employ five people. We have grown 500 per cent, which is | :13:27. | :13:32. | |
fantastic and we want to grow more. There's plenty of applications and | :13:32. | :13:35. | |
we are not looking for certain skills, just people with the right | :13:35. | :13:43. | |
attitude and there were people like that with in the debate here. There | :13:43. | :13:46. | |
are lots of companies that are just looking for people that have the | :13:46. | :13:50. | |
right attitude, want to get involved and are passionate. | :13:50. | :13:55. | |
Unfortunately, SMEs are not as attractive as the big guys. SMEs, | :13:55. | :13:59. | |
small, medium enterprises. Just finding that information is like a | :13:59. | :14:05. | |
lost box. I felt like I was in the right place at the right time with | :14:05. | :14:14. | |
the right people trying to help me. Penny, as a Conservative MP, why | :14:14. | :14:17. | |
are you not listening to young people more instead of just saying | :14:17. | :14:27. | |
:14:27. | :14:27. | ||
this is what we are going to do. What we are going to do is change | :14:27. | :14:30. | |
in part the advice that people are being given because the theme | :14:30. | :14:33. | |
running through this is that the job hunter is given very poor | :14:33. | :14:43. | |
advice. One of the most depressing things I see is someone shows me a | :14:43. | :14:46. | |
file full of 200 certificates they have got from being put on one | :14:46. | :14:50. | |
course or another. No one has given them good, one to one advice about | :14:50. | :14:52. | |
the skills they have, their ambitions and what is happening in | :14:52. | :14:56. | |
the workplace where they live. The welfare-to-work programme is about | :14:56. | :14:58. | |
giving people that one-to-one advice, including people who have | :14:58. | :15:08. | |
:15:08. | :15:14. | ||
been out of work for a long time. That is a very welcome change. | :15:14. | :15:20. | |
have this business that basically has hit hard times because of the | :15:20. | :15:30. | |
:15:30. | :15:34. | ||
cuts in subsidy. How many people did you start with. Now we have 35. | :15:34. | :15:42. | |
That is because of the subsidies. It grew very fast because the | :15:42. | :15:52. | |
:15:52. | :15:53. | ||
subsidies were too generous. What is that like having to get rid of | :15:53. | :15:57. | |
people? That is very difficult especially in a climate when there | :15:57. | :16:06. | |
is not a lot fold them to go out to. It is a different kettle of fish | :16:06. | :16:14. | |
for you, Nick. You make these stair lifts. You have just given workers | :16:14. | :16:24. | |
:16:24. | :16:25. | ||
recently a 2% pay rise. You might be saying, what downturn? For us, | :16:25. | :16:31. | |
we are growing. We are exporting. Most of our sales are export sales | :16:31. | :16:37. | |
instead of market. We export all around the world and we know that | :16:37. | :16:43. | |
there is inflation and so we need to keep hold of our staff. What are | :16:43. | :16:51. | |
you doing right? For asked the sector we are in, it is a growing | :16:51. | :17:00. | |
market. That helps us a lot. Innovation is really important, | :17:00. | :17:03. | |
research and development, getting your product right, finding your | :17:03. | :17:09. | |
markets around the world is really critical. All of that comes from | :17:10. | :17:13. | |
having great people working for you and that is what is really | :17:13. | :17:20. | |
important. Listening to Aston, apprenticeships are really key. We | :17:20. | :17:23. | |
have apprenticeship schemes and that is really important in terms | :17:23. | :17:29. | |
of training. We will come on to that but I want you to meet another | :17:29. | :17:33. | |
businessman. Rick runs a coffee shop. He started it with his own | :17:33. | :17:38. | |
money because he could not get a loan from the bank. It is such a | :17:38. | :17:42. | |
success that he has now opened a second one. This time he has not | :17:42. | :17:52. | |
:17:52. | :17:55. | ||
We submitted our business plan to our new bank manager and our | :17:55. | :18:00. | |
business plan was passed around between three different branches | :18:00. | :18:04. | |
and on our opening day, as it became closer, we had no money so | :18:04. | :18:10. | |
in the end we had to take out personal loans. Week Max doubt our | :18:10. | :18:20. | |
:18:20. | :18:20. | ||
credit cards. It was really risky. Our business survival was at stake | :18:20. | :18:26. | |
and we felt really let down. To be honest, the large high street banks | :18:26. | :18:35. | |
do not really have a lot of interest. We were looking for | :18:35. | :18:42. | |
�40,000 and once our application went live on the internet, five or | :18:42. | :18:50. | |
six hours later, we had 40 grand. First of all, congratulations, but | :18:50. | :18:55. | |
what is your relationship like with the bank now? First, Aiko own the | :18:55. | :18:59. | |
coffee shop with my business partner and we took out loans | :18:59. | :19:05. | |
together. Our relationship with the bank is pretty good. But we do not | :19:05. | :19:09. | |
do a lot that involves the bank apart from taking our money there | :19:09. | :19:15. | |
on a weekly basis. Was it frustrating not getting a loan? | :19:15. | :19:23. | |
It was not so much frustrating, I could have accepted that because | :19:23. | :19:28. | |
they start a business can be high risk in an economic downturn, but | :19:28. | :19:32. | |
it was the way we were treated by the bank. What was that experience | :19:32. | :19:40. | |
like this? There was not a lot of input into our application. There | :19:40. | :19:44. | |
was not a lot of feedback in terms of what we would need to improve | :19:44. | :19:51. | |
our chances. Our application was passed around to different bank | :19:51. | :19:58. | |
managers because ours was on holiday. We could not track down | :19:58. | :20:03. | |
who had our application. There was a lot of confusion and you were not | :20:03. | :20:07. | |
focusing on one person. He went to something that is called peer-to- | :20:07. | :20:11. | |
peer funding. In a nutshell, very simply explain what that is. Peer- | :20:11. | :20:21. | |
to-peer funding is essentially Internet-based business which | :20:21. | :20:25. | |
matches buyers with lenders. If someone wants to lend money, they | :20:25. | :20:31. | |
can get a higher interest rate by going through the bank's and | :20:31. | :20:39. | |
borrowers can get a lower interest rate. Linda, it is possibly | :20:39. | :20:43. | |
something that you could think of here. You want to expand. Would you | :20:44. | :20:50. | |
go down that road of peer-to-peer funding? The idea is great. It is a | :20:50. | :20:56. | |
growing concept, and the internet makes it easier. With Investment, | :20:56. | :21:02. | |
the balance is more about the people you bring on board. People | :21:02. | :21:06. | |
in the internet world talk about a funding gap. It is getting the | :21:06. | :21:10. | |
right expertise on your board, getting the growth to join you. The | :21:10. | :21:16. | |
funding gap in the UK means the focus means you have to prove your | :21:16. | :21:21. | |
business more than in the States. Before I come to Geoff, I want to | :21:21. | :21:28. | |
go to David Branston. 70 % of small businesses, I am told, relied on | :21:28. | :21:32. | |
people starting up with a savings and family in hennaed -- family | :21:32. | :21:37. | |
inheritances because they cannot get loans. We are hearing this | :21:37. | :21:43. | |
story all the time. Banks are not performing as they should. The | :21:43. | :21:48. | |
targets have not been nest. They are �5 billion short of what they | :21:48. | :21:57. | |
should be. Where banks have the targets to loan to it new loans. | :21:57. | :22:03. | |
There are alternatives to this. You'd think it is a great idea? | :22:03. | :22:09. | |
There is nothing wrong with peer- to-peer funding. Indeed, there is | :22:09. | :22:12. | |
an emergence of money coming out of families into business just to make | :22:12. | :22:17. | |
sure they are going. We have to do something. The banks say they have | :22:18. | :22:20. | |
plenty of money to lend, but they do not lend it, or they put | :22:20. | :22:27. | |
restrictions on it that it is not worth. Let me bring in Geoff French. | :22:27. | :22:33. | |
What is your response? One of the things that got fed back to us was | :22:33. | :22:38. | |
this issue of accessing finance. Now we are working with the banks | :22:38. | :22:42. | |
to try and close that gap, to close the office this connect there is | :22:42. | :22:52. | |
:22:52. | :22:53. | ||
between the banks and business. That, sadly, is essential. That is | :22:53. | :23:00. | |
why you could say it to the government, that it is the link | :23:00. | :23:05. | |
between the two. They need to work together. Clearly that project | :23:05. | :23:11. | |
failed. It is great to hear about finance other than banks. The | :23:11. | :23:14. | |
publicity work the Federation of Small Businesses is doing is great, | :23:14. | :23:18. | |
though we cannot let the banks of the hook. There are two things that | :23:18. | :23:26. | |
need to happen. Those targets were having existing loans and calling | :23:26. | :23:31. | |
them new loans. Clearly, at the right so -- right structures were | :23:31. | :23:36. | |
not put in place by the government. Things have improved slightly, but | :23:36. | :23:41. | |
not enough. What it is going to take, we have got an opportunity, | :23:41. | :23:44. | |
we own part of banking and we should be setting the bar much | :23:44. | :23:50. | |
higher. We have got new providers coming on as well, with Virgin, | :23:50. | :23:54. | |
Metro, who are claiming they will be producing financial products | :23:54. | :23:57. | |
that will meet people's needs. We ought to be having more competition | :23:57. | :24:01. | |
in the banking world for people to do that. Two thing should happen: | :24:01. | :24:06. | |
First, we need to get back to people making local decisions, been | :24:06. | :24:10. | |
able to sit in front of people who are setting up start ups and making | :24:10. | :24:13. | |
good business judgments about what will work and what will not. That | :24:13. | :24:18. | |
does not happen now. We have got to have better services and products | :24:18. | :24:23. | |
for business, but also for people who want mortgages and so forth. | :24:23. | :24:28. | |
There is a complete disconnect between what people need to be | :24:28. | :24:32. | |
starting on the property ladder. You are talking about a wider | :24:32. | :24:39. | |
strategy. There is an increasing appetite for risk of. What Linda | :24:39. | :24:45. | |
was saying about in the US, there is not the same stigma attached to | :24:45. | :24:49. | |
business failure. It is regarded as something you can learn from so the | :24:49. | :24:53. | |
next business will be successful. Local bank managers are great if | :24:53. | :24:56. | |
they have more responsibility as long as they feel like they can | :24:56. | :25:00. | |
take a risk and some of a warm-up the work and it will not be scored | :25:00. | :25:04. | |
against them during their career. In your business, the business that | :25:04. | :25:13. | |
you set up his medical supermarket. It is to sell suppliers to GPs who | :25:13. | :25:17. | |
have this consortium now with the new health reforms. If the | :25:17. | :25:22. | |
government changed their mind over this, where does that leave you? | :25:22. | :25:28. | |
is interesting. Do you worry about it? To a degree, yes it. We are | :25:28. | :25:32. | |
slightly different because the economy is quite a buckle and what | :25:32. | :25:36. | |
we are doing naturally businesses are looking at their overheads and | :25:36. | :25:39. | |
challenging their existing cost so. That is what medical supermarket is | :25:39. | :25:46. | |
doing, helping those businesses in the health sector whether you are a | :25:46. | :25:50. | |
large care home group or a local GP service, looking out what they are | :25:50. | :25:54. | |
spending and hopefully challenging them and helping them achieve cost | :25:54. | :25:58. | |
savings. To a degree, if the government does change what is | :25:58. | :26:03. | |
going on, it could affect us, but not as bad as other industries. | :26:03. | :26:06. | |
you do not worry about the future in terms of changing government | :26:06. | :26:11. | |
policy that might impact you? necessarily, but we started again | :26:11. | :26:16. | |
through family savings, my business partner and I. If you want to grow | :26:16. | :26:20. | |
and prosper, we have proved we have got people that we want to employ | :26:20. | :26:28. | |
and do more, but banks are not supporting us. We are talking about | :26:28. | :26:36. | |
small businesses. The government talk the talk but they do not walk | :26:36. | :26:40. | |
the walk. Small businesses are always the poor relation. There is | :26:40. | :26:45. | |
not a Cabinet minister who has responsibility for small businesses, | :26:45. | :26:48. | |
yet the Prime Minister says small businesses are going to be the | :26:48. | :26:53. | |
salvation of the economy. Why do we have a Small Business | :26:53. | :26:57. | |
Administration like they have in America? We need to change our | :26:57. | :27:01. | |
mindset and take power back from banks and the government and say | :27:01. | :27:06. | |
councils have responsibility for economic development. Credit unions | :27:06. | :27:11. | |
are expanding rapidly in Berkshire for example. We need to take power | :27:11. | :27:15. | |
back and make decision-making easier. Councillors are the best | :27:15. | :27:19. | |
people in the world for that. A Cabinet minister may not have that | :27:19. | :27:23. | |
experience. This has to be a government initiative to support | :27:23. | :27:30. | |
the small businesses. Governments can make decisions on small | :27:30. | :27:33. | |
business. If you have got a champion around the Cabinet table, | :27:33. | :27:40. | |
that would help. The health service example, beat Solar subsidy, a | :27:40. | :27:45. | |
great example where decisions are clumsily made and can have a bad | :27:45. | :27:50. | |
effect. Equally, an investment in housing, but less than 100 | :27:50. | :27:54. | |
affordable houses were built around the country last year. It could | :27:54. | :28:01. | |
create a huge number of jobs. was talking about a Cabinet | :28:01. | :28:08. | |
minister champion there. You are a real industry champion, Nigel, | :28:08. | :28:18. | |
:28:18. | :28:21. | ||
onto? You believe let's sell I work in the marine sector which | :28:21. | :28:26. | |
is worth �1 billion to the country. We do not shout about that. The | :28:26. | :28:33. | |
marine sector is issued in Britain. Britain is all about quality yachts, | :28:33. | :28:38. | |
but you do not hear that. We have to go and shout about it. Why is | :28:38. | :28:45. | |
that? We are very English about it, very understated, we want people to | :28:45. | :28:53. | |
find out about a little gem and that we have. When people see the | :28:53. | :28:57. | |
quality we are doing, the hand- finished, we do not shout about | :28:57. | :29:05. | |
this. You are very much involved with the links to India and you are | :29:05. | :29:11. | |
saying, come on, let's shout about doing more trade with India. There | :29:11. | :29:18. | |
is no doubt the emerging economies provide us an opportunity to grow | :29:18. | :29:22. | |
hours or so. Our European counterparts are exporting more to | :29:22. | :29:27. | |
India, Brazil, China and given the traditional links we have to | :29:27. | :29:34. | |
India... You must be delighted that Vince Cable has been to India to | :29:34. | :29:40. | |
talk about trade. What is the problem? It is a combination of | :29:40. | :29:45. | |
factors. Once it is very much cold full, we are very much English and | :29:45. | :29:52. | |
we need to promote that bilateral trade. I think the government could | :29:52. | :29:58. | |
do more, so I think from -- the initiative is fantastic in | :29:58. | :30:08. | |
commercialising that. It is a combination of factors. Geoff, you | :30:08. | :30:15. | |
wanted to say something about that. It is just the basic statistic that | :30:15. | :30:19. | |
four-fifths of our export art to the developed world and not the | :30:19. | :30:24. | |
developing world and we have to change that focus. You want to do | :30:24. | :30:30. | |
more with other countries, but this year, what have you got, �15 | :30:30. | :30:40. | |
:30:40. | :30:44. | ||
million funding? Yes. Last year, there was 126 million. The Scottish | :30:44. | :30:50. | |
Enterprise has 300 million, how can you compete in a Chinese company | :30:51. | :30:55. | |
comes here? We would struggle to compete and the funding we have got | :30:56. | :31:05. | |
is not to encourage industry is to come in that way. The 50 million we | :31:05. | :31:10. | |
have -- 15 million is to invest in infrastructure that will promote | :31:10. | :31:16. | |
economic growth. It is the way we will be administering it in our | :31:16. | :31:22. | |
Beria, to invite bids for that money from both the public and | :31:22. | :31:25. | |
private sector and it has to be projects that promote economic | :31:25. | :31:34. | |
growth. Commercialisation is important for developing that | :31:35. | :31:38. | |
infrastructure. There must be certain sectors where we know there | :31:38. | :31:43. | |
is a potential for growth. It could be in renewable energy, the digital | :31:43. | :31:48. | |
economy, in services for the elderly because we know as we | :31:48. | :31:52. | |
project forward to the future that there are some industries where we | :31:52. | :31:58. | |
have a good chance of building growth. Let's talk more about | :31:58. | :32:04. | |
growth and bring in Nick. You work with apprenticeships. You believe | :32:04. | :32:09. | |
apprenticeships are crucial in your business. Absolutely. It is an | :32:09. | :32:14. | |
important part of our business in terms of being able to bring people | :32:14. | :32:19. | |
into our business and train them, give them the skills and experience | :32:19. | :32:23. | |
they need in our business. We are an engineering business, we have | :32:23. | :32:27. | |
lots of the print ships coming through our doors and that works | :32:27. | :32:36. | |
for us. The other thing is our customers tell us around the world, | :32:36. | :32:39. | |
in emerging economies, they love for buying British products and | :32:39. | :32:47. | |
that is great for us. We need to shout about that more. How much of | :32:47. | :32:53. | |
your workforce is apprenticeships. About 90 %. We started when there | :32:53. | :32:58. | |
was help to do it three or four years ago. The first year is the | :32:58. | :33:03. | |
hardest. The government needs to get behind companies in that first | :33:03. | :33:07. | |
year. After the first year they start to pay their way. You have to | :33:07. | :33:13. | |
put money in it to get these kids of the street. Tom, you are an | :33:13. | :33:19. | |
apprentice. Yes. The amount of training I get is substantial. I | :33:19. | :33:24. | |
have done a confined spaces training because I am in | :33:24. | :33:31. | |
construction. After the first year, I think they do need to be | :33:31. | :33:36. | |
supported because after the first year, you can give back. As an | :33:36. | :33:41. | |
apprentice do you feel positive about the future? Yes, because I | :33:41. | :33:48. | |
believe that I can after this are printed, I can go to university and | :33:48. | :33:52. | |
say to businesses, I have done this before, I know what this is about | :33:52. | :33:56. | |
that is why you should pick me. apprenticeships are really | :33:56. | :34:05. | |
important. What Geoff will take you is that with Enterprise is the | :34:05. | :34:10. | |
apprentice champion for enterprise emissary. I sit on the board in | :34:10. | :34:17. | |
Dorset. In many ways I am envious. He has a �15 million, I have six. | :34:17. | :34:24. | |
That will not even build a roundabout! I said earlier about | :34:24. | :34:28. | |
there is no doubt apprenticeships are really important but I also | :34:28. | :34:34. | |
think for people leaving school without qualifications, we need to | :34:34. | :34:38. | |
put work experience in there. It is a pity the debate recently was | :34:38. | :34:43. | |
about taking the benefit away from people because there is no doubt | :34:43. | :34:49. | |
work experience is the gateway in. A third of all work experience | :34:49. | :34:54. | |
leads to employment. For every school to offer work-related | :34:54. | :34:59. | |
learning to every pupil is essential. What I want to do is | :34:59. | :35:04. | |
move on to how we feel about the future and how we are looking to | :35:04. | :35:09. | |
the future and what sort of mood we are in. This is a big influence on | :35:09. | :35:14. | |
the economy. Even if you have the money or perhaps you are too afraid | :35:14. | :35:18. | |
or worried about spending it, here are some views from the street in | :35:18. | :35:28. | |
:35:28. | :35:29. | ||
Brighton. We are both retired and you make do. | :35:29. | :35:36. | |
The wages do not go up so you end up having one pizza between two. | :35:36. | :35:43. | |
are OK, we are fine. You have to have a positive attitude in life. | :35:43. | :35:49. | |
You can see many people are dining out, or the pubs of all. More I | :35:49. | :35:55. | |
partner is out of work and cannot supply our house, so there is only | :35:55. | :36:00. | |
one wage going in and that is tight. I am noticing that the shopping | :36:00. | :36:07. | |
bill is expensive now. And the petrol. Yes. On the whole, the | :36:07. | :36:11. | |
country is looking up rather than down so I think if everybody goes | :36:11. | :36:18. | |
about it with a good attitude, all is well. | :36:18. | :36:25. | |
The views on the streets of Brighton on Friday night. Hayley, | :36:25. | :36:31. | |
do you see light at the end of the tunnel? No, absolutely not. For me | :36:31. | :36:37. | |
my wages have gone down and will continue to go down and the prices | :36:37. | :36:43. | |
will go up. I do not see how this would end. I feel like I am a | :36:43. | :36:49. | |
choice -- I am left with a choice, I would like to have a family and | :36:49. | :36:55. | |
looking at barely's story, I do not want to be in that position. I do | :36:55. | :36:59. | |
not know whether I want to stay here, why should I put into a in | :36:59. | :37:06. | |
economy that will not support me. Hayley is talking about her | :37:06. | :37:11. | |
individual situation but what I have to say is the F S B carries | :37:11. | :37:18. | |
out a major survey. Two years ago there was a lot of pessimism. This | :37:18. | :37:22. | |
last survey, there were 12,000 small businesses and their shows | :37:22. | :37:27. | |
that people are beginning to think there is light at the end of the | :37:27. | :37:34. | |
tunnel. I worked for the public sector and it is pessimistic. | :37:34. | :37:37. | |
believe it is down to consumer confidence because if nobody is | :37:37. | :37:43. | |
willing to go for it and spend more in the economy and not cut back on | :37:43. | :37:50. | |
the luxury is so much, it will never pick up. If people are too | :37:50. | :37:55. | |
scared of a rainy day or they will be the next to have their job cuts, | :37:55. | :38:01. | |
we will not get any work. Aston, how do you feel about the future? | :38:01. | :38:06. | |
Definitely. I have a job I love and it is amazing just going out and | :38:06. | :38:12. | |
doing what I can. That is how I feel and it is not a broad sense of | :38:12. | :38:17. | |
everyone but for me, I am just carrying on going through life. | :38:17. | :38:21. | |
Maybe my social life has taken a battering, but my career is going | :38:21. | :38:26. | |
up tenfold and I am appreciative of the help I have gained and the | :38:26. | :38:33. | |
people I have met along the way. Thank you very much or the view for | :38:33. | :38:39. | |
being here tonight. The Chancellor's Budget is on Wednesday | :38:39. | :38:44. |