:00:53. > :00:56.In the South West: the young people in North Devon out of work and in
:00:56. > :01:00.the constituency with one of the biggest rises in youth unemployment
:01:00. > :01:10.since the election. And the new idea to help rural
:01:10. > :01:10.
:01:10. > :40:13.Apology for the loss of subtitles for 2342 seconds
:40:13. > :40:16.Hello and welcome to the Politics Show in the South West.
:40:16. > :40:19.The number of young people out of work has increased to its highest
:40:19. > :40:23.rate since records began. Official figures published on Wednesday show
:40:23. > :40:26.more than a million people under 24 are now without a job. Jenny Kumah
:40:26. > :40:30.has been to North Devon to meet young people who find themselves
:40:30. > :40:39.looking for work in a constituency which has seen one of the biggest
:40:39. > :40:43.rises in youth unemployment since the last election.
:40:43. > :40:47.Then Taylor has good GCSEs and has been looking for work for six
:40:47. > :40:51.months. His dream job is to become a table tennis coach, but so far,
:40:51. > :40:56.he has struggled to get the experience that he needs. Really
:40:56. > :41:01.hard, because I'm going to every shop icy, putting in a CV, but no
:41:01. > :41:05.reply from any of them. It is really annoying when you do that
:41:05. > :41:11.and there is no work out there so you can't do anything. He is part
:41:11. > :41:15.of a scheme run by an organisation in North Devon that assigns people
:41:15. > :41:20.mentors and help them gain experience to help them get work or
:41:20. > :41:27.further qualifications. 18-year-old Shawn has been out of work for
:41:27. > :41:30.eight months. I started off looking for mainly computer-based jobs, but
:41:30. > :41:35.in reality there isn't anything like that around here. Now I am
:41:35. > :41:40.looking for anything, retail or bar work, anything like that. This
:41:40. > :41:45.project aims to work with over 250 young people in North Devon by the
:41:45. > :41:49.end of 2013. Staff here say that, over the past two years, there has
:41:49. > :41:55.been a big demand for the schemes they offer to people who are not in
:41:55. > :41:58.employment, education or training. The situation here in terms of
:41:58. > :42:02.employment has actually become a pretty dire over the last couple of
:42:02. > :42:08.years. We are facing the fact that we have a lot of rural places
:42:08. > :42:12.around here, so people cannot travel, coupled with a lot of
:42:12. > :42:17.businesses closing down, a lot of redundancies. The kind of young
:42:17. > :42:20.people that we work with, he may well have good GCSE results, are
:42:20. > :42:24.now in a labour market where they are up against people who have been
:42:24. > :42:29.made redundant and perhaps have degrees and years of experience.
:42:29. > :42:33.North Devon is one of the top 10 areas that has seen the biggest
:42:33. > :42:36.increase in youth unemployment in the country. In 20th May 10, there
:42:36. > :42:42.were 30 under 25 claiming jobseeker's allowance for six
:42:42. > :42:45.months or more. That more than doubled by 20th September 11. There
:42:46. > :42:50.are only seven other constituencies in the country that had seen a
:42:50. > :42:53.bigger increases. The local MP points to the bigger picture.
:42:53. > :42:57.think it is a reflection of the global economy. Every time we think
:42:57. > :43:01.we're just beginning to pick up, there seems to be another problem,
:43:01. > :43:05.either in the Eurozone, or back in the summer with the American budget.
:43:05. > :43:09.It is very, very sluggish at the moment, and I am sorry to say it is
:43:09. > :43:13.going to be a little while yet before we begin to see any genuine
:43:13. > :43:16.signs of recovery. The impact of this is being felt on the high
:43:16. > :43:22.street. Here in Bedford, this trader told me she could barely
:43:22. > :43:29.afford to pay herself a wage, let alone take on any staff. I have had
:43:29. > :43:34.at least 10 applications for a non- existent job every single week.
:43:34. > :43:38.Either by Facebook, or CVs that come through my letterbox.
:43:38. > :43:41.Regretfully, I am not in a position to employ anybody because of the
:43:41. > :43:45.recession. This week, the Government announced it would
:43:45. > :43:50.expand its apprenticeship scheme and offer small businesses cash
:43:50. > :43:55.incentives to take on young people. We have got to tackle this in a
:43:55. > :43:59.different way. We recognise the seriousness of the problem, and we
:43:59. > :44:03.are open to new ideas of had to deal with it. There are now more
:44:03. > :44:07.than one million under 25s out of work, according to figures released
:44:07. > :44:11.this week. That means that they make up more than one-third of the
:44:11. > :44:18.total number of unemployed. There is increasing concern on the Labour
:44:18. > :44:23.benches. Is it the case that no minister in the Treasury, no
:44:23. > :44:28.official, none of their excellent economists or statisticians, have a
:44:28. > :44:34.view on when unemployment, especially for young people, will
:44:34. > :44:38.become a rate of decrease? response, Lord Freud from the
:44:38. > :44:41.Department of work can pensions said that the Government had been
:44:41. > :44:48.expecting youth and overall unemployment defaulter was the end
:44:48. > :44:51.of next year, but this will now have to be reviewed. -- to fall.
:44:51. > :44:58.Clearly, the implications of what the Governor of the Bank of England
:44:58. > :45:02.has just said, that growth will be running at 1% this year and next,
:45:02. > :45:06.and that will presumably be built into those kind of forecasts.
:45:06. > :45:09.everyone hopes that the economy will pick up soon, and that
:45:09. > :45:12.government policies will make a difference, a generation of
:45:12. > :45:14.youngsters eagerly awaits the opportunity to turn their lives
:45:14. > :45:17.around. Well, earlier I spoke to the
:45:17. > :45:20.Conservative MP for Camborne and Redruth, George Eustice, and the
:45:20. > :45:22.Labour MP for Exeter, Ben Bradshaw. I began by asking Mr Eustice
:45:22. > :45:30.whether he worries the Coalition's economic policies aren't working,
:45:30. > :45:33.given the number of young people out of work.
:45:34. > :45:36.Well, these figures are disappointing, but I take exception
:45:36. > :45:40.with the idea that we're not sorting out the economy. We
:45:40. > :45:43.inherited a huge black hole in public finances and we started to
:45:43. > :45:48.get to grips with that. I think we have done quite a lot of things to
:45:48. > :45:52.try to get our economy going again. The growth fund to get projects
:45:52. > :45:56.going to create new jobs. We have expanded the apprenticeship scheme
:45:56. > :46:00.so there will be an extra 250,000 new apprenticeships over the next
:46:00. > :46:04.four years. And recently, announcing this idea of a work
:46:04. > :46:07.experience programme, loosening the rules for it -- so that people who
:46:07. > :46:10.are unemployed can get some work experience, which is often the
:46:10. > :46:14.first step to getting back onto the job ladder. There is a lot of work
:46:14. > :46:18.going on, but this is all in a wider context and it is a difficult
:46:18. > :46:22.situation at the moment with the crisis in the euro-zone and the
:46:22. > :46:26.sluggish growth as a result of that. So this is not the Tories doing, is
:46:26. > :46:30.it? Labour did give them a dire economy to deal with. The Eurozone
:46:30. > :46:34.crisis is compounding that problem. Surely this unemployment problem we
:46:34. > :46:37.have got now is purely a consequence of that legacy? It is a
:46:37. > :46:41.tragedy for the young people concerned, and it is a scandalous
:46:41. > :46:44.waste to our economy in the South West and the rest of the country.
:46:44. > :46:48.Remember, the economy was growing when Labour left office.
:46:48. > :46:52.Unemployment was coming down. That recovery has been destroyed by
:46:52. > :46:55.George Osborne's extreme austerity programme. What we desperately need
:46:55. > :46:58.in this country now our policies for growth to get the economy
:46:58. > :47:03.growing again, but we also need ambitious policies directed at
:47:03. > :47:07.young people. We had something called the future jobs fund, which
:47:07. > :47:11.got 100,000 young people back into work after the 2008 international
:47:11. > :47:14.banking crisis. We need something as bold as that because we are
:47:14. > :47:18.actually borrowing �46 billion more under this government that we would
:47:18. > :47:22.have been under Labour because we have no growth in our economy.
:47:22. > :47:25.they have introduced these apprenticeships schemes. It is a
:47:25. > :47:30.drop in the ocean. We need something for -- far more ambitious
:47:30. > :47:34.than that. What we need most of all is growth. George Osborne is
:47:34. > :47:36.parroting this idea that the economy is doing fine. We are
:47:36. > :47:41.borrowing �46 billion more and his government of that Labour would
:47:41. > :47:47.have done because our growth has ground completely to a halt. We are
:47:48. > :47:51.in danger of creating a generation, a lost generation of young people.
:47:51. > :47:55.We are in danger of creating a lost generation of young people, and the
:47:55. > :47:59.growth isn't there. Baby you have cut the public sector too quickly
:47:59. > :48:04.and the private sector can't catch up? Looking at the public spending,
:48:04. > :48:07.I think Labour and people like Ben Bradshaw and Gordon Brown always
:48:07. > :48:10.confuse public spending with economic growth. They are not one
:48:10. > :48:13.and the same. Growth comes from creating new jobs, starting up new
:48:13. > :48:16.businesses, and we do have programmes here. We have got the
:48:16. > :48:21.new Enterprise Allowance which helps people to set up their own
:48:21. > :48:24.business. We have also got the apprenticeships - it is a
:48:24. > :48:26.significant step forward. Could you be doing more to help small
:48:26. > :48:30.businesses like there are in Devon and Cornwall where, perhaps, they
:48:30. > :48:34.say that taking on a new trainee is going to cost them money. Maybe you
:48:35. > :48:41.could actually help and give money towards taxes, it was National
:48:41. > :48:43.Insurance costs? Well, we stopped the rise that the Labour Party were
:48:43. > :48:47.going to introduced on national insurance, so we reversed that. We
:48:47. > :48:50.did so that it was wrong to have this tax on jobs. There are other
:48:50. > :48:54.things we are doing. We have got the work programme that has been
:48:54. > :48:57.set up to replace the future jobs fund, which is doing a great deal
:48:57. > :49:01.to get people back into work. going to stop you there because I
:49:01. > :49:05.would like to bring us on to this issue of foreign workers. At the
:49:05. > :49:07.same time as we are seeing young people struggle to get work, we are
:49:07. > :49:12.seeing an increase in foreign workers who are getting jobs. Is
:49:12. > :49:15.this something we should be doing something about? There is an issue
:49:15. > :49:18.here in the sense that the number of people actually employed has
:49:18. > :49:22.grown in the last 18 months. An employment has grown as well, I am
:49:22. > :49:25.not denying that, but the number of people in work has grown. A lot of
:49:25. > :49:29.those jobs have been filled by people coming from abroad. We see
:49:29. > :49:32.it down here in Cornwall - if you look at farming and food processing,
:49:32. > :49:37.employers to say they find it quite difficult to get local people to
:49:37. > :49:41.take that sort of work. We have to change the culture here so that
:49:41. > :49:45.people realise that quite often the way you progress through your
:49:45. > :49:47.career is starting somewhere, and starting with a job. We have got to
:49:47. > :49:51.break this culture where people think there are certain jobs that
:49:51. > :49:57.are beneath them. We need people to get used to working and being part
:49:57. > :50:00.of a team and being relied on. Bradshaw, George is saying that the
:50:00. > :50:02.number of jobs is growing, but young people are not paying them.
:50:02. > :50:06.Do you think something should be done about this issue of foreign
:50:06. > :50:11.workers? Gordon Brown pledged to deliver British jobs for British
:50:11. > :50:14.people - is this will a Labour pledge? Unemployment is rising
:50:14. > :50:17.after David Cameron promised it would for every year. But we do
:50:17. > :50:20.have to improve the skills of our young people, but you don't do that
:50:20. > :50:24.by abolishing things like the Educational Maintenance Allowance,
:50:24. > :50:28.which has been an absolute disaster in terms of encouraging our young
:50:28. > :50:32.people in Britain to stay on in work and education. That, I think,
:50:32. > :50:36.will prove to have been a terrible mistake. Thank you both, but don't
:50:36. > :50:41.go away just yet because we would like to talk to you about our next
:50:42. > :50:45.subject, which is fuel duty. On Tuesday, the owner of a small
:50:45. > :50:48.haulage company in Devon added his voice to those calling on the
:50:48. > :50:53.Government to bring down the cost of fuel. Julian Webber says his
:50:53. > :50:57.diesel bill has written to �400,000 a year, now equal to half his total
:50:57. > :51:01.costs. I just think that they ought to
:51:01. > :51:06.look at the possible tax relief for hauliers. It is a necessary
:51:06. > :51:12.expenditure. We have to move stuff, and some sort of tax relief would
:51:12. > :51:15.really help. The way things are going, this is hard on us. Julian
:51:15. > :51:20.Webber's plea came on the day that MPs were debating the rise in the
:51:20. > :51:23.cost of fuel in response to an online petition. In the debate,
:51:23. > :51:26.George Eustace asked ministers to provide a fuel tax break for
:51:26. > :51:30.businesses in remote counties like Cornwall.
:51:30. > :51:34.I think we should consider, perhaps as a strand of regional policy,
:51:34. > :51:38.some kind of Rebate for businesses that are specifically located in
:51:38. > :51:44.those peripheral regions like Cornwall. I don't think it should
:51:44. > :51:47.be beyond the wit of man to devise such a scheme. Welcoming back Ben
:51:47. > :51:51.Bradshaw and George Eustace. George, this is an issue close to your
:51:51. > :51:55.heart, I know. You used to run a business in Cornwall which involved
:51:55. > :51:58.driving strawberries from Cornwall to Birmingham. This would obviously
:51:58. > :52:03.help businesses like yours, wouldn't it? The point that I was
:52:03. > :52:06.trying to get across is that fuel tax is a regressive tax, not just
:52:06. > :52:10.on people who are the poorest or those in rural areas, but
:52:10. > :52:16.specifically areas that are remote, geographically, and a long way from
:52:16. > :52:20.the main markets. And yes, I was in business and I knew exactly this
:52:21. > :52:28.problem - the cost of running a lorry on a single trip to London
:52:28. > :52:31.and back would be �220 in tax alone. The difference for I company based
:52:31. > :52:36.in, say, Birmingham going to London and back, would only pay about �80
:52:36. > :52:39.in tax. This tax hits businesses located in rural areas. If you want
:52:39. > :52:43.to create jobs and have employers here who produce things and make
:52:43. > :52:47.things, and we do have an embryonic food processing industry down here
:52:47. > :52:50.in Cornwall, we have got to make it easier for them to transport their
:52:50. > :52:55.goods to market. One of the problems icy is that, on the one
:52:55. > :52:58.hand, we have EU grants and the job growth fund to encourage businesses
:52:58. > :53:02.to set up here, and then the other hand we are exacerbating the single
:53:02. > :53:08.most important disadvantage we have here in Cornwall, which is our
:53:08. > :53:12.distance from the market. We have got to tackle that. I have seen bad
:53:12. > :53:15.Bramshaw -- Ben Bradshaw shaking his head. We certainly need to do
:53:15. > :53:19.something to help hard-pressed motorist, but the idea that you
:53:19. > :53:24.could have a differential price for a rural areas - where do you draw
:53:25. > :53:29.the line? Along the tamer? What happens to my voters in Exeter? Do
:53:29. > :53:33.they pay more for their fuel? What motorists need, and what we all
:53:33. > :53:37.meet at the moment, is a reversal of the Government's disastrous
:53:37. > :53:41.increase in VAT earlier this year. If we had that now, that would be
:53:41. > :53:44.three p of a litre of fuel right now. That would help motorists and
:53:44. > :53:48.none motorists, and give our economy that desperate injection of
:53:48. > :53:55.growth that it needs. Do you support the score for a reduction
:53:55. > :53:59.in VAT? In January, the Chancellor is going to put up, potentially,
:53:59. > :54:04.tax on fuel. What is your position on that? The government did the
:54:04. > :54:08.right thing, which is to cut fuel tax. Never mind the VAT. They cut
:54:08. > :54:12.it by 1p. They scrapped the fuel duty escalator which the last
:54:12. > :54:16.Government had increased. What about in January, this increase of
:54:16. > :54:20.three pence? I would like to see that stopped as well because I do
:54:20. > :54:24.think that this is a regressive tax. I think Ben is wrong to say that
:54:24. > :54:28.this can't be done. Some countries do this better than we do, and the
:54:28. > :54:34.Government at the moment is in the process of piloting some schemes
:54:34. > :54:39.which will look at eight rural fuel rebate of 5p a litre. But a scheme
:54:39. > :54:47.on the Isles of Scilly, how many cars are they on the Isles of
:54:47. > :54:52.Scilly? That's why it is the right place to do a pilot scheme. They
:54:52. > :54:56.are also piloting some in Scotland as well. The point about a pilot is
:54:56. > :55:02.to look at these things. I would like to see that rolled out. Where
:55:02. > :55:09.there is a will there is a way. It should not be a -- beyond the wit
:55:09. > :55:13.of man to create such a scheme. I am going to have to stop you
:55:13. > :55:16.there. Thank you both very much for joining us. There are warnings from
:55:16. > :55:20.business leaders that millions of pounds of European money could soon
:55:20. > :55:23.be sent back to Brussels. The money is supposed to be used to nurture
:55:23. > :55:26.new business ventures and hence provide much needed jobs for the
:55:26. > :55:29.region. But those concerned say the all-important match funding has
:55:29. > :55:37.dried up since the recession and strict rules mean the money often
:55:37. > :55:42.isn't available to small businesses. John Henderson has more.
:55:42. > :55:47.This is what Europe can do for the South West. Hairdresser Becky is
:55:47. > :55:50.hard at it, but in that finishing touches to a new business - a salon
:55:50. > :55:54.in Torquay, where she is confident the risk she is taking will be
:55:54. > :55:58.successful and provide work for others.
:55:58. > :56:03.I have got an apprentice who is coming to work for me, and also
:56:03. > :56:06.another girl that is going to come and help out. She is doing a nail
:56:06. > :56:09.caused as well. I have got a beauty room at the back which I am renting
:56:10. > :56:14.out, so there is another job opening there as well, and another
:56:14. > :56:21.hairdresser will come in to rent a chair from me two days a week. I am
:56:21. > :56:27.getting a job out of this, and more people as well. Like 50 people this
:56:27. > :56:31.year, Becky got help and advice from outset Torbay. They got some
:56:31. > :56:35.funding from the regional European Development Fund. This fund offers
:56:35. > :56:39.money in various programmes and sub-funds, but it seems there is
:56:39. > :56:45.still a sizable chunk that has not been earmarked for projects. For
:56:45. > :56:47.instance, the Politics Show has seen documents that revealed just
:56:47. > :56:52.over �20 million designated specifically to regenerate the most
:56:52. > :56:57.deprived areas of Torbay, Plymouth and Bristol is uncommitted. There
:56:57. > :57:00.is money remaining which is no longer viable for it be used for
:57:00. > :57:04.the projects in which it was originally intended to be used.
:57:04. > :57:08.That is an issue. At the moment, that money is not being used. It is
:57:08. > :57:14.sitting, waiting for someone to come up with an alternative plan.
:57:14. > :57:18.This money is from the E R D F competitiveness programme, set up
:57:18. > :57:23.in 2006 for big capital projects in the South West - things like the
:57:23. > :57:28.Brixham fish market. Now, some believe it should be Tweet to offer
:57:28. > :57:33.help to smaller businesses. -- Tweet. We do a lot of work with
:57:33. > :57:36.smaller businesses. The majority of people in the -- businesses in the
:57:36. > :57:42.South West is predominately in rural areas and most are small with
:57:42. > :57:45.less than 10 employees. They have a turnover of �100,000 or less. These
:57:45. > :57:49.businesses have ambitions and plans. They don't fit with the original
:57:49. > :57:53.ideas of the competitiveness Fund, but they have fantastic ideas and
:57:53. > :57:58.can deliver growth and create jobs. They don't need large amounts of of
:57:58. > :58:02.funding, they need small amounts of funding. The fund, in my view, this
:58:02. > :58:07.fund needs to be more flexible. They know all about the value of
:58:07. > :58:13.small-scale grants at this Sauchen based firm. It employs 10 people,
:58:13. > :58:16.making Retail Systems for bank card pin machines. Sometimes the grants
:58:16. > :58:19.supporters for large projects, but Eden delivers its value through the
:58:19. > :58:25.employment of a lot of smaller people. It is difficult for
:58:25. > :58:31.European bodies to get the costs per grant down so that it is more
:58:31. > :58:34.attractive, but I've been smaller grants are what time needed for
:58:34. > :58:38.small operations, the goddess -- because that is fostering
:58:38. > :58:41.entrepreneurial son. The Department for communities and local
:58:41. > :58:46.government administers the fund and says it will consider all
:58:46. > :58:48.applications from verbs, both large and small, but it says to a sure
:58:49. > :58:52.businesses remain viable and sustainable, any applications have
:58:52. > :58:56.to be matched thundered. With regional development agencies being
:58:56. > :58:59.wound up, budgets for local authorities being cut, and bank
:58:59. > :59:04.lending remaining tight, for those at the sharp end, it is difficult
:59:04. > :59:09.to match any grant. There aren't that many around, as far as I know,
:59:09. > :59:14.and there is not much money around, as far as I know, since the idea
:59:14. > :59:17.got shut down - the funding is not there. I am not looking very hard,
:59:17. > :59:23.I have other things to do with my time, but it does mean that I am
:59:23. > :59:25.not taking risks and employing people. Some in the South West that
:59:25. > :59:29.his committee believe the Department has listened to their
:59:29. > :59:34.concerns, thus avoiding the remote possibility of EU money destined
:59:34. > :59:38.for the South West being returned to Brussels.
:59:38. > :59:42.Absolutely. But has got to be a concern. It is not even just that.
:59:42. > :59:46.We could be making a difference now, and we are not. The longer they sit
:59:46. > :59:49.on it, the longer it is not making a difference for business.
:59:49. > :59:53.Businesses have got ideas now. They could create jobs now so there is
:59:53. > :59:57.even more of an incentive to get things moving. Europe is one thing.