20/11/2011 The Politics Show South West


20/11/2011

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In the South West: the young people in North Devon out of work and in

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the constituency with one of the biggest rises in youth unemployment

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since the election. And the new idea to help rural

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Apology for the loss of subtitles for 2342 seconds

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Hello and welcome to the Politics Show in the South West.

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The number of young people out of work has increased to its highest

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rate since records began. Official figures published on Wednesday show

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more than a million people under 24 are now without a job. Jenny Kumah

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has been to North Devon to meet young people who find themselves

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looking for work in a constituency which has seen one of the biggest

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rises in youth unemployment since the last election.

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Then Taylor has good GCSEs and has been looking for work for six

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months. His dream job is to become a table tennis coach, but so far,

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he has struggled to get the experience that he needs. Really

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hard, because I'm going to every shop icy, putting in a CV, but no

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reply from any of them. It is really annoying when you do that

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and there is no work out there so you can't do anything. He is part

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of a scheme run by an organisation in North Devon that assigns people

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mentors and help them gain experience to help them get work or

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further qualifications. 18-year-old Shawn has been out of work for

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eight months. I started off looking for mainly computer-based jobs, but

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in reality there isn't anything like that around here. Now I am

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looking for anything, retail or bar work, anything like that. This

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project aims to work with over 250 young people in North Devon by the

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end of 2013. Staff here say that, over the past two years, there has

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been a big demand for the schemes they offer to people who are not in

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employment, education or training. The situation here in terms of

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employment has actually become a pretty dire over the last couple of

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years. We are facing the fact that we have a lot of rural places

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around here, so people cannot travel, coupled with a lot of

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businesses closing down, a lot of redundancies. The kind of young

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people that we work with, he may well have good GCSE results, are

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now in a labour market where they are up against people who have been

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made redundant and perhaps have degrees and years of experience.

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North Devon is one of the top 10 areas that has seen the biggest

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increase in youth unemployment in the country. In 20th May 10, there

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were 30 under 25 claiming jobseeker's allowance for six

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months or more. That more than doubled by 20th September 11. There

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are only seven other constituencies in the country that had seen a

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bigger increases. The local MP points to the bigger picture.

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think it is a reflection of the global economy. Every time we think

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we're just beginning to pick up, there seems to be another problem,

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either in the Eurozone, or back in the summer with the American budget.

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It is very, very sluggish at the moment, and I am sorry to say it is

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going to be a little while yet before we begin to see any genuine

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signs of recovery. The impact of this is being felt on the high

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street. Here in Bedford, this trader told me she could barely

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afford to pay herself a wage, let alone take on any staff. I have had

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at least 10 applications for a non- existent job every single week.

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Either by Facebook, or CVs that come through my letterbox.

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Regretfully, I am not in a position to employ anybody because of the

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recession. This week, the Government announced it would

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expand its apprenticeship scheme and offer small businesses cash

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incentives to take on young people. We have got to tackle this in a

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different way. We recognise the seriousness of the problem, and we

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are open to new ideas of had to deal with it. There are now more

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than one million under 25s out of work, according to figures released

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this week. That means that they make up more than one-third of the

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total number of unemployed. There is increasing concern on the Labour

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benches. Is it the case that no minister in the Treasury, no

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official, none of their excellent economists or statisticians, have a

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view on when unemployment, especially for young people, will

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become a rate of decrease? response, Lord Freud from the

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Department of work can pensions said that the Government had been

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expecting youth and overall unemployment defaulter was the end

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of next year, but this will now have to be reviewed. -- to fall.

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Clearly, the implications of what the Governor of the Bank of England

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has just said, that growth will be running at 1% this year and next,

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and that will presumably be built into those kind of forecasts.

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everyone hopes that the economy will pick up soon, and that

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government policies will make a difference, a generation of

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youngsters eagerly awaits the opportunity to turn their lives

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around. Well, earlier I spoke to the

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Conservative MP for Camborne and Redruth, George Eustice, and the

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Labour MP for Exeter, Ben Bradshaw. I began by asking Mr Eustice

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whether he worries the Coalition's economic policies aren't working,

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given the number of young people out of work.

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Well, these figures are disappointing, but I take exception

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with the idea that we're not sorting out the economy. We

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inherited a huge black hole in public finances and we started to

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get to grips with that. I think we have done quite a lot of things to

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try to get our economy going again. The growth fund to get projects

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going to create new jobs. We have expanded the apprenticeship scheme

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so there will be an extra 250,000 new apprenticeships over the next

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four years. And recently, announcing this idea of a work

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experience programme, loosening the rules for it -- so that people who

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are unemployed can get some work experience, which is often the

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first step to getting back onto the job ladder. There is a lot of work

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going on, but this is all in a wider context and it is a difficult

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situation at the moment with the crisis in the euro-zone and the

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sluggish growth as a result of that. So this is not the Tories doing, is

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it? Labour did give them a dire economy to deal with. The Eurozone

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crisis is compounding that problem. Surely this unemployment problem we

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have got now is purely a consequence of that legacy? It is a

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tragedy for the young people concerned, and it is a scandalous

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waste to our economy in the South West and the rest of the country.

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Remember, the economy was growing when Labour left office.

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Unemployment was coming down. That recovery has been destroyed by

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George Osborne's extreme austerity programme. What we desperately need

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in this country now our policies for growth to get the economy

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growing again, but we also need ambitious policies directed at

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young people. We had something called the future jobs fund, which

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got 100,000 young people back into work after the 2008 international

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banking crisis. We need something as bold as that because we are

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actually borrowing �46 billion more under this government that we would

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have been under Labour because we have no growth in our economy.

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they have introduced these apprenticeships schemes. It is a

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drop in the ocean. We need something for -- far more ambitious

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than that. What we need most of all is growth. George Osborne is

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parroting this idea that the economy is doing fine. We are

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borrowing �46 billion more and his government of that Labour would

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have done because our growth has ground completely to a halt. We are

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in danger of creating a generation, a lost generation of young people.

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We are in danger of creating a lost generation of young people, and the

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growth isn't there. Baby you have cut the public sector too quickly

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and the private sector can't catch up? Looking at the public spending,

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I think Labour and people like Ben Bradshaw and Gordon Brown always

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confuse public spending with economic growth. They are not one

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and the same. Growth comes from creating new jobs, starting up new

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businesses, and we do have programmes here. We have got the

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new Enterprise Allowance which helps people to set up their own

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business. We have also got the apprenticeships - it is a

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significant step forward. Could you be doing more to help small

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businesses like there are in Devon and Cornwall where, perhaps, they

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say that taking on a new trainee is going to cost them money. Maybe you

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could actually help and give money towards taxes, it was National

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Insurance costs? Well, we stopped the rise that the Labour Party were

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going to introduced on national insurance, so we reversed that. We

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did so that it was wrong to have this tax on jobs. There are other

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things we are doing. We have got the work programme that has been

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set up to replace the future jobs fund, which is doing a great deal

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to get people back into work. going to stop you there because I

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would like to bring us on to this issue of foreign workers. At the

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same time as we are seeing young people struggle to get work, we are

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seeing an increase in foreign workers who are getting jobs. Is

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this something we should be doing something about? There is an issue

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here in the sense that the number of people actually employed has

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grown in the last 18 months. An employment has grown as well, I am

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not denying that, but the number of people in work has grown. A lot of

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those jobs have been filled by people coming from abroad. We see

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it down here in Cornwall - if you look at farming and food processing,

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employers to say they find it quite difficult to get local people to

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take that sort of work. We have to change the culture here so that

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people realise that quite often the way you progress through your

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career is starting somewhere, and starting with a job. We have got to

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break this culture where people think there are certain jobs that

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are beneath them. We need people to get used to working and being part

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of a team and being relied on. Bradshaw, George is saying that the

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number of jobs is growing, but young people are not paying them.

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Do you think something should be done about this issue of foreign

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workers? Gordon Brown pledged to deliver British jobs for British

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people - is this will a Labour pledge? Unemployment is rising

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after David Cameron promised it would for every year. But we do

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have to improve the skills of our young people, but you don't do that

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by abolishing things like the Educational Maintenance Allowance,

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which has been an absolute disaster in terms of encouraging our young

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people in Britain to stay on in work and education. That, I think,

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will prove to have been a terrible mistake. Thank you both, but don't

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go away just yet because we would like to talk to you about our next

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subject, which is fuel duty. On Tuesday, the owner of a small

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haulage company in Devon added his voice to those calling on the

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Government to bring down the cost of fuel. Julian Webber says his

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diesel bill has written to �400,000 a year, now equal to half his total

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costs. I just think that they ought to

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look at the possible tax relief for hauliers. It is a necessary

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expenditure. We have to move stuff, and some sort of tax relief would

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really help. The way things are going, this is hard on us. Julian

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Webber's plea came on the day that MPs were debating the rise in the

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cost of fuel in response to an online petition. In the debate,

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George Eustace asked ministers to provide a fuel tax break for

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businesses in remote counties like Cornwall.

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I think we should consider, perhaps as a strand of regional policy,

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some kind of Rebate for businesses that are specifically located in

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those peripheral regions like Cornwall. I don't think it should

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be beyond the wit of man to devise such a scheme. Welcoming back Ben

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Bradshaw and George Eustace. George, this is an issue close to your

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heart, I know. You used to run a business in Cornwall which involved

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driving strawberries from Cornwall to Birmingham. This would obviously

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help businesses like yours, wouldn't it? The point that I was

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trying to get across is that fuel tax is a regressive tax, not just

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on people who are the poorest or those in rural areas, but

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specifically areas that are remote, geographically, and a long way from

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the main markets. And yes, I was in business and I knew exactly this

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problem - the cost of running a lorry on a single trip to London

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and back would be �220 in tax alone. The difference for I company based

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in, say, Birmingham going to London and back, would only pay about �80

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in tax. This tax hits businesses located in rural areas. If you want

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to create jobs and have employers here who produce things and make

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things, and we do have an embryonic food processing industry down here

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in Cornwall, we have got to make it easier for them to transport their

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goods to market. One of the problems icy is that, on the one

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hand, we have EU grants and the job growth fund to encourage businesses

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to set up here, and then the other hand we are exacerbating the single

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most important disadvantage we have here in Cornwall, which is our

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distance from the market. We have got to tackle that. I have seen bad

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Bramshaw -- Ben Bradshaw shaking his head. We certainly need to do

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something to help hard-pressed motorist, but the idea that you

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could have a differential price for a rural areas - where do you draw

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the line? Along the tamer? What happens to my voters in Exeter? Do

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they pay more for their fuel? What motorists need, and what we all

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meet at the moment, is a reversal of the Government's disastrous

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increase in VAT earlier this year. If we had that now, that would be

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three p of a litre of fuel right now. That would help motorists and

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none motorists, and give our economy that desperate injection of

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growth that it needs. Do you support the score for a reduction

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in VAT? In January, the Chancellor is going to put up, potentially,

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tax on fuel. What is your position on that? The government did the

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right thing, which is to cut fuel tax. Never mind the VAT. They cut

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it by 1p. They scrapped the fuel duty escalator which the last

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Government had increased. What about in January, this increase of

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three pence? I would like to see that stopped as well because I do

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think that this is a regressive tax. I think Ben is wrong to say that

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this can't be done. Some countries do this better than we do, and the

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Government at the moment is in the process of piloting some schemes

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which will look at eight rural fuel rebate of 5p a litre. But a scheme

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on the Isles of Scilly, how many cars are they on the Isles of

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Scilly? That's why it is the right place to do a pilot scheme. They

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are also piloting some in Scotland as well. The point about a pilot is

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to look at these things. I would like to see that rolled out. Where

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there is a will there is a way. It should not be a -- beyond the wit

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of man to create such a scheme. I am going to have to stop you

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there. Thank you both very much for joining us. There are warnings from

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business leaders that millions of pounds of European money could soon

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be sent back to Brussels. The money is supposed to be used to nurture

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new business ventures and hence provide much needed jobs for the

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region. But those concerned say the all-important match funding has

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dried up since the recession and strict rules mean the money often

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isn't available to small businesses. John Henderson has more.

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This is what Europe can do for the South West. Hairdresser Becky is

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hard at it, but in that finishing touches to a new business - a salon

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in Torquay, where she is confident the risk she is taking will be

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successful and provide work for others.

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I have got an apprentice who is coming to work for me, and also

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another girl that is going to come and help out. She is doing a nail

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caused as well. I have got a beauty room at the back which I am renting

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out, so there is another job opening there as well, and another

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hairdresser will come in to rent a chair from me two days a week. I am

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getting a job out of this, and more people as well. Like 50 people this

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year, Becky got help and advice from outset Torbay. They got some

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funding from the regional European Development Fund. This fund offers

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money in various programmes and sub-funds, but it seems there is

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still a sizable chunk that has not been earmarked for projects. For

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instance, the Politics Show has seen documents that revealed just

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over �20 million designated specifically to regenerate the most

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deprived areas of Torbay, Plymouth and Bristol is uncommitted. There

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is money remaining which is no longer viable for it be used for

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the projects in which it was originally intended to be used.

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That is an issue. At the moment, that money is not being used. It is

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sitting, waiting for someone to come up with an alternative plan.

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This money is from the E R D F competitiveness programme, set up

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in 2006 for big capital projects in the South West - things like the

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Brixham fish market. Now, some believe it should be Tweet to offer

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help to smaller businesses. -- Tweet. We do a lot of work with

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smaller businesses. The majority of people in the -- businesses in the

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South West is predominately in rural areas and most are small with

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less than 10 employees. They have a turnover of �100,000 or less. These

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businesses have ambitions and plans. They don't fit with the original

:57:45.:57:49.

ideas of the competitiveness Fund, but they have fantastic ideas and

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can deliver growth and create jobs. They don't need large amounts of of

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funding, they need small amounts of funding. The fund, in my view, this

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fund needs to be more flexible. They know all about the value of

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small-scale grants at this Sauchen based firm. It employs 10 people,

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making Retail Systems for bank card pin machines. Sometimes the grants

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supporters for large projects, but Eden delivers its value through the

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employment of a lot of smaller people. It is difficult for

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European bodies to get the costs per grant down so that it is more

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attractive, but I've been smaller grants are what time needed for

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small operations, the goddess -- because that is fostering

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entrepreneurial son. The Department for communities and local

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government administers the fund and says it will consider all

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applications from verbs, both large and small, but it says to a sure

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businesses remain viable and sustainable, any applications have

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to be matched thundered. With regional development agencies being

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wound up, budgets for local authorities being cut, and bank

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lending remaining tight, for those at the sharp end, it is difficult

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to match any grant. There aren't that many around, as far as I know,

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and there is not much money around, as far as I know, since the idea

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got shut down - the funding is not there. I am not looking very hard,

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I have other things to do with my time, but it does mean that I am

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not taking risks and employing people. Some in the South West that

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his committee believe the Department has listened to their

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concerns, thus avoiding the remote possibility of EU money destined

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for the South West being returned to Brussels.

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Absolutely. But has got to be a concern. It is not even just that.

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We could be making a difference now, and we are not. The longer they sit

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on it, the longer it is not making a difference for business.

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Businesses have got ideas now. They could create jobs now so there is

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even more of an incentive to get things moving. Europe is one thing.

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