Browse content similar to 20/11/2011. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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In the South West: the young people in North Devon out of work and in | :00:53. | :00:56. | |
the constituency with one of the biggest rises in youth unemployment | :00:56. | :01:00. | |
since the election. And the new idea to help rural | :01:00. | :01:10. | |
:01:10. | :01:10. | ||
Apology for the loss of subtitles for 2342 seconds | :01:10. | :40:13. | |
Hello and welcome to the Politics Show in the South West. | :40:13. | :40:16. | |
The number of young people out of work has increased to its highest | :40:16. | :40:19. | |
rate since records began. Official figures published on Wednesday show | :40:19. | :40:23. | |
more than a million people under 24 are now without a job. Jenny Kumah | :40:23. | :40:26. | |
has been to North Devon to meet young people who find themselves | :40:26. | :40:30. | |
looking for work in a constituency which has seen one of the biggest | :40:30. | :40:39. | |
rises in youth unemployment since the last election. | :40:39. | :40:43. | |
Then Taylor has good GCSEs and has been looking for work for six | :40:43. | :40:47. | |
months. His dream job is to become a table tennis coach, but so far, | :40:47. | :40:51. | |
he has struggled to get the experience that he needs. Really | :40:51. | :40:56. | |
hard, because I'm going to every shop icy, putting in a CV, but no | :40:56. | :41:01. | |
reply from any of them. It is really annoying when you do that | :41:01. | :41:05. | |
and there is no work out there so you can't do anything. He is part | :41:05. | :41:11. | |
of a scheme run by an organisation in North Devon that assigns people | :41:11. | :41:15. | |
mentors and help them gain experience to help them get work or | :41:15. | :41:20. | |
further qualifications. 18-year-old Shawn has been out of work for | :41:20. | :41:27. | |
eight months. I started off looking for mainly computer-based jobs, but | :41:27. | :41:30. | |
in reality there isn't anything like that around here. Now I am | :41:30. | :41:35. | |
looking for anything, retail or bar work, anything like that. This | :41:35. | :41:40. | |
project aims to work with over 250 young people in North Devon by the | :41:40. | :41:45. | |
end of 2013. Staff here say that, over the past two years, there has | :41:45. | :41:49. | |
been a big demand for the schemes they offer to people who are not in | :41:49. | :41:55. | |
employment, education or training. The situation here in terms of | :41:55. | :41:58. | |
employment has actually become a pretty dire over the last couple of | :41:58. | :42:02. | |
years. We are facing the fact that we have a lot of rural places | :42:02. | :42:08. | |
around here, so people cannot travel, coupled with a lot of | :42:08. | :42:12. | |
businesses closing down, a lot of redundancies. The kind of young | :42:12. | :42:17. | |
people that we work with, he may well have good GCSE results, are | :42:17. | :42:20. | |
now in a labour market where they are up against people who have been | :42:20. | :42:24. | |
made redundant and perhaps have degrees and years of experience. | :42:24. | :42:29. | |
North Devon is one of the top 10 areas that has seen the biggest | :42:29. | :42:33. | |
increase in youth unemployment in the country. In 20th May 10, there | :42:33. | :42:36. | |
were 30 under 25 claiming jobseeker's allowance for six | :42:36. | :42:42. | |
months or more. That more than doubled by 20th September 11. There | :42:42. | :42:45. | |
are only seven other constituencies in the country that had seen a | :42:46. | :42:50. | |
bigger increases. The local MP points to the bigger picture. | :42:50. | :42:53. | |
think it is a reflection of the global economy. Every time we think | :42:53. | :42:57. | |
we're just beginning to pick up, there seems to be another problem, | :42:57. | :43:01. | |
either in the Eurozone, or back in the summer with the American budget. | :43:01. | :43:05. | |
It is very, very sluggish at the moment, and I am sorry to say it is | :43:05. | :43:09. | |
going to be a little while yet before we begin to see any genuine | :43:09. | :43:13. | |
signs of recovery. The impact of this is being felt on the high | :43:13. | :43:16. | |
street. Here in Bedford, this trader told me she could barely | :43:16. | :43:22. | |
afford to pay herself a wage, let alone take on any staff. I have had | :43:22. | :43:29. | |
at least 10 applications for a non- existent job every single week. | :43:29. | :43:34. | |
Either by Facebook, or CVs that come through my letterbox. | :43:34. | :43:38. | |
Regretfully, I am not in a position to employ anybody because of the | :43:38. | :43:41. | |
recession. This week, the Government announced it would | :43:41. | :43:45. | |
expand its apprenticeship scheme and offer small businesses cash | :43:45. | :43:50. | |
incentives to take on young people. We have got to tackle this in a | :43:50. | :43:55. | |
different way. We recognise the seriousness of the problem, and we | :43:55. | :43:59. | |
are open to new ideas of had to deal with it. There are now more | :43:59. | :44:03. | |
than one million under 25s out of work, according to figures released | :44:03. | :44:07. | |
this week. That means that they make up more than one-third of the | :44:07. | :44:11. | |
total number of unemployed. There is increasing concern on the Labour | :44:11. | :44:18. | |
benches. Is it the case that no minister in the Treasury, no | :44:18. | :44:23. | |
official, none of their excellent economists or statisticians, have a | :44:23. | :44:28. | |
view on when unemployment, especially for young people, will | :44:28. | :44:34. | |
become a rate of decrease? response, Lord Freud from the | :44:34. | :44:38. | |
Department of work can pensions said that the Government had been | :44:38. | :44:41. | |
expecting youth and overall unemployment defaulter was the end | :44:41. | :44:48. | |
of next year, but this will now have to be reviewed. -- to fall. | :44:48. | :44:51. | |
Clearly, the implications of what the Governor of the Bank of England | :44:51. | :44:58. | |
has just said, that growth will be running at 1% this year and next, | :44:58. | :45:02. | |
and that will presumably be built into those kind of forecasts. | :45:02. | :45:06. | |
everyone hopes that the economy will pick up soon, and that | :45:06. | :45:09. | |
government policies will make a difference, a generation of | :45:09. | :45:12. | |
youngsters eagerly awaits the opportunity to turn their lives | :45:12. | :45:14. | |
around. Well, earlier I spoke to the | :45:14. | :45:17. | |
Conservative MP for Camborne and Redruth, George Eustice, and the | :45:17. | :45:20. | |
Labour MP for Exeter, Ben Bradshaw. I began by asking Mr Eustice | :45:20. | :45:22. | |
whether he worries the Coalition's economic policies aren't working, | :45:22. | :45:30. | |
given the number of young people out of work. | :45:30. | :45:33. | |
Well, these figures are disappointing, but I take exception | :45:34. | :45:36. | |
with the idea that we're not sorting out the economy. We | :45:36. | :45:40. | |
inherited a huge black hole in public finances and we started to | :45:40. | :45:43. | |
get to grips with that. I think we have done quite a lot of things to | :45:43. | :45:48. | |
try to get our economy going again. The growth fund to get projects | :45:48. | :45:52. | |
going to create new jobs. We have expanded the apprenticeship scheme | :45:52. | :45:56. | |
so there will be an extra 250,000 new apprenticeships over the next | :45:56. | :46:00. | |
four years. And recently, announcing this idea of a work | :46:00. | :46:04. | |
experience programme, loosening the rules for it -- so that people who | :46:04. | :46:07. | |
are unemployed can get some work experience, which is often the | :46:07. | :46:10. | |
first step to getting back onto the job ladder. There is a lot of work | :46:10. | :46:14. | |
going on, but this is all in a wider context and it is a difficult | :46:14. | :46:18. | |
situation at the moment with the crisis in the euro-zone and the | :46:18. | :46:22. | |
sluggish growth as a result of that. So this is not the Tories doing, is | :46:22. | :46:26. | |
it? Labour did give them a dire economy to deal with. The Eurozone | :46:26. | :46:30. | |
crisis is compounding that problem. Surely this unemployment problem we | :46:30. | :46:34. | |
have got now is purely a consequence of that legacy? It is a | :46:34. | :46:37. | |
tragedy for the young people concerned, and it is a scandalous | :46:37. | :46:41. | |
waste to our economy in the South West and the rest of the country. | :46:41. | :46:44. | |
Remember, the economy was growing when Labour left office. | :46:44. | :46:48. | |
Unemployment was coming down. That recovery has been destroyed by | :46:48. | :46:52. | |
George Osborne's extreme austerity programme. What we desperately need | :46:52. | :46:55. | |
in this country now our policies for growth to get the economy | :46:55. | :46:58. | |
growing again, but we also need ambitious policies directed at | :46:58. | :47:03. | |
young people. We had something called the future jobs fund, which | :47:03. | :47:07. | |
got 100,000 young people back into work after the 2008 international | :47:07. | :47:11. | |
banking crisis. We need something as bold as that because we are | :47:11. | :47:14. | |
actually borrowing �46 billion more under this government that we would | :47:14. | :47:18. | |
have been under Labour because we have no growth in our economy. | :47:18. | :47:22. | |
they have introduced these apprenticeships schemes. It is a | :47:22. | :47:25. | |
drop in the ocean. We need something for -- far more ambitious | :47:25. | :47:30. | |
than that. What we need most of all is growth. George Osborne is | :47:30. | :47:34. | |
parroting this idea that the economy is doing fine. We are | :47:34. | :47:36. | |
borrowing �46 billion more and his government of that Labour would | :47:36. | :47:41. | |
have done because our growth has ground completely to a halt. We are | :47:41. | :47:47. | |
in danger of creating a generation, a lost generation of young people. | :47:48. | :47:51. | |
We are in danger of creating a lost generation of young people, and the | :47:51. | :47:55. | |
growth isn't there. Baby you have cut the public sector too quickly | :47:55. | :47:59. | |
and the private sector can't catch up? Looking at the public spending, | :47:59. | :48:04. | |
I think Labour and people like Ben Bradshaw and Gordon Brown always | :48:04. | :48:07. | |
confuse public spending with economic growth. They are not one | :48:07. | :48:10. | |
and the same. Growth comes from creating new jobs, starting up new | :48:10. | :48:13. | |
businesses, and we do have programmes here. We have got the | :48:13. | :48:16. | |
new Enterprise Allowance which helps people to set up their own | :48:16. | :48:21. | |
business. We have also got the apprenticeships - it is a | :48:21. | :48:24. | |
significant step forward. Could you be doing more to help small | :48:24. | :48:26. | |
businesses like there are in Devon and Cornwall where, perhaps, they | :48:26. | :48:30. | |
say that taking on a new trainee is going to cost them money. Maybe you | :48:30. | :48:34. | |
could actually help and give money towards taxes, it was National | :48:35. | :48:41. | |
Insurance costs? Well, we stopped the rise that the Labour Party were | :48:41. | :48:43. | |
going to introduced on national insurance, so we reversed that. We | :48:43. | :48:47. | |
did so that it was wrong to have this tax on jobs. There are other | :48:47. | :48:50. | |
things we are doing. We have got the work programme that has been | :48:50. | :48:54. | |
set up to replace the future jobs fund, which is doing a great deal | :48:54. | :48:57. | |
to get people back into work. going to stop you there because I | :48:57. | :49:01. | |
would like to bring us on to this issue of foreign workers. At the | :49:01. | :49:05. | |
same time as we are seeing young people struggle to get work, we are | :49:05. | :49:07. | |
seeing an increase in foreign workers who are getting jobs. Is | :49:07. | :49:12. | |
this something we should be doing something about? There is an issue | :49:12. | :49:15. | |
here in the sense that the number of people actually employed has | :49:15. | :49:18. | |
grown in the last 18 months. An employment has grown as well, I am | :49:18. | :49:22. | |
not denying that, but the number of people in work has grown. A lot of | :49:22. | :49:25. | |
those jobs have been filled by people coming from abroad. We see | :49:25. | :49:29. | |
it down here in Cornwall - if you look at farming and food processing, | :49:29. | :49:32. | |
employers to say they find it quite difficult to get local people to | :49:32. | :49:37. | |
take that sort of work. We have to change the culture here so that | :49:37. | :49:41. | |
people realise that quite often the way you progress through your | :49:41. | :49:45. | |
career is starting somewhere, and starting with a job. We have got to | :49:45. | :49:47. | |
break this culture where people think there are certain jobs that | :49:47. | :49:51. | |
are beneath them. We need people to get used to working and being part | :49:51. | :49:57. | |
of a team and being relied on. Bradshaw, George is saying that the | :49:57. | :50:00. | |
number of jobs is growing, but young people are not paying them. | :50:00. | :50:02. | |
Do you think something should be done about this issue of foreign | :50:02. | :50:06. | |
workers? Gordon Brown pledged to deliver British jobs for British | :50:06. | :50:11. | |
people - is this will a Labour pledge? Unemployment is rising | :50:11. | :50:14. | |
after David Cameron promised it would for every year. But we do | :50:14. | :50:17. | |
have to improve the skills of our young people, but you don't do that | :50:17. | :50:20. | |
by abolishing things like the Educational Maintenance Allowance, | :50:20. | :50:24. | |
which has been an absolute disaster in terms of encouraging our young | :50:24. | :50:28. | |
people in Britain to stay on in work and education. That, I think, | :50:28. | :50:32. | |
will prove to have been a terrible mistake. Thank you both, but don't | :50:32. | :50:36. | |
go away just yet because we would like to talk to you about our next | :50:36. | :50:41. | |
subject, which is fuel duty. On Tuesday, the owner of a small | :50:42. | :50:45. | |
haulage company in Devon added his voice to those calling on the | :50:45. | :50:48. | |
Government to bring down the cost of fuel. Julian Webber says his | :50:48. | :50:53. | |
diesel bill has written to �400,000 a year, now equal to half his total | :50:53. | :50:57. | |
costs. I just think that they ought to | :50:57. | :51:01. | |
look at the possible tax relief for hauliers. It is a necessary | :51:01. | :51:06. | |
expenditure. We have to move stuff, and some sort of tax relief would | :51:06. | :51:12. | |
really help. The way things are going, this is hard on us. Julian | :51:12. | :51:15. | |
Webber's plea came on the day that MPs were debating the rise in the | :51:15. | :51:20. | |
cost of fuel in response to an online petition. In the debate, | :51:20. | :51:23. | |
George Eustace asked ministers to provide a fuel tax break for | :51:23. | :51:26. | |
businesses in remote counties like Cornwall. | :51:26. | :51:30. | |
I think we should consider, perhaps as a strand of regional policy, | :51:30. | :51:34. | |
some kind of Rebate for businesses that are specifically located in | :51:34. | :51:38. | |
those peripheral regions like Cornwall. I don't think it should | :51:38. | :51:44. | |
be beyond the wit of man to devise such a scheme. Welcoming back Ben | :51:44. | :51:47. | |
Bradshaw and George Eustace. George, this is an issue close to your | :51:47. | :51:51. | |
heart, I know. You used to run a business in Cornwall which involved | :51:51. | :51:55. | |
driving strawberries from Cornwall to Birmingham. This would obviously | :51:55. | :51:58. | |
help businesses like yours, wouldn't it? The point that I was | :51:58. | :52:03. | |
trying to get across is that fuel tax is a regressive tax, not just | :52:03. | :52:06. | |
on people who are the poorest or those in rural areas, but | :52:06. | :52:10. | |
specifically areas that are remote, geographically, and a long way from | :52:10. | :52:16. | |
the main markets. And yes, I was in business and I knew exactly this | :52:16. | :52:20. | |
problem - the cost of running a lorry on a single trip to London | :52:21. | :52:28. | |
and back would be �220 in tax alone. The difference for I company based | :52:28. | :52:31. | |
in, say, Birmingham going to London and back, would only pay about �80 | :52:31. | :52:36. | |
in tax. This tax hits businesses located in rural areas. If you want | :52:36. | :52:39. | |
to create jobs and have employers here who produce things and make | :52:39. | :52:43. | |
things, and we do have an embryonic food processing industry down here | :52:43. | :52:47. | |
in Cornwall, we have got to make it easier for them to transport their | :52:47. | :52:50. | |
goods to market. One of the problems icy is that, on the one | :52:50. | :52:55. | |
hand, we have EU grants and the job growth fund to encourage businesses | :52:55. | :52:58. | |
to set up here, and then the other hand we are exacerbating the single | :52:58. | :53:02. | |
most important disadvantage we have here in Cornwall, which is our | :53:02. | :53:08. | |
distance from the market. We have got to tackle that. I have seen bad | :53:08. | :53:12. | |
Bramshaw -- Ben Bradshaw shaking his head. We certainly need to do | :53:12. | :53:15. | |
something to help hard-pressed motorist, but the idea that you | :53:15. | :53:19. | |
could have a differential price for a rural areas - where do you draw | :53:19. | :53:24. | |
the line? Along the tamer? What happens to my voters in Exeter? Do | :53:25. | :53:29. | |
they pay more for their fuel? What motorists need, and what we all | :53:29. | :53:33. | |
meet at the moment, is a reversal of the Government's disastrous | :53:33. | :53:37. | |
increase in VAT earlier this year. If we had that now, that would be | :53:37. | :53:41. | |
three p of a litre of fuel right now. That would help motorists and | :53:41. | :53:44. | |
none motorists, and give our economy that desperate injection of | :53:44. | :53:48. | |
growth that it needs. Do you support the score for a reduction | :53:48. | :53:55. | |
in VAT? In January, the Chancellor is going to put up, potentially, | :53:55. | :53:59. | |
tax on fuel. What is your position on that? The government did the | :53:59. | :54:04. | |
right thing, which is to cut fuel tax. Never mind the VAT. They cut | :54:04. | :54:08. | |
it by 1p. They scrapped the fuel duty escalator which the last | :54:08. | :54:12. | |
Government had increased. What about in January, this increase of | :54:12. | :54:16. | |
three pence? I would like to see that stopped as well because I do | :54:16. | :54:20. | |
think that this is a regressive tax. I think Ben is wrong to say that | :54:20. | :54:24. | |
this can't be done. Some countries do this better than we do, and the | :54:24. | :54:28. | |
Government at the moment is in the process of piloting some schemes | :54:28. | :54:34. | |
which will look at eight rural fuel rebate of 5p a litre. But a scheme | :54:34. | :54:39. | |
on the Isles of Scilly, how many cars are they on the Isles of | :54:39. | :54:47. | |
Scilly? That's why it is the right place to do a pilot scheme. They | :54:47. | :54:52. | |
are also piloting some in Scotland as well. The point about a pilot is | :54:52. | :54:56. | |
to look at these things. I would like to see that rolled out. Where | :54:56. | :55:02. | |
there is a will there is a way. It should not be a -- beyond the wit | :55:02. | :55:09. | |
of man to create such a scheme. I am going to have to stop you | :55:09. | :55:13. | |
there. Thank you both very much for joining us. There are warnings from | :55:13. | :55:16. | |
business leaders that millions of pounds of European money could soon | :55:16. | :55:20. | |
be sent back to Brussels. The money is supposed to be used to nurture | :55:20. | :55:23. | |
new business ventures and hence provide much needed jobs for the | :55:23. | :55:26. | |
region. But those concerned say the all-important match funding has | :55:26. | :55:29. | |
dried up since the recession and strict rules mean the money often | :55:29. | :55:37. | |
isn't available to small businesses. John Henderson has more. | :55:37. | :55:42. | |
This is what Europe can do for the South West. Hairdresser Becky is | :55:42. | :55:47. | |
hard at it, but in that finishing touches to a new business - a salon | :55:47. | :55:50. | |
in Torquay, where she is confident the risk she is taking will be | :55:50. | :55:54. | |
successful and provide work for others. | :55:54. | :55:58. | |
I have got an apprentice who is coming to work for me, and also | :55:58. | :56:03. | |
another girl that is going to come and help out. She is doing a nail | :56:03. | :56:06. | |
caused as well. I have got a beauty room at the back which I am renting | :56:06. | :56:09. | |
out, so there is another job opening there as well, and another | :56:10. | :56:14. | |
hairdresser will come in to rent a chair from me two days a week. I am | :56:14. | :56:21. | |
getting a job out of this, and more people as well. Like 50 people this | :56:21. | :56:27. | |
year, Becky got help and advice from outset Torbay. They got some | :56:27. | :56:31. | |
funding from the regional European Development Fund. This fund offers | :56:31. | :56:35. | |
money in various programmes and sub-funds, but it seems there is | :56:35. | :56:39. | |
still a sizable chunk that has not been earmarked for projects. For | :56:39. | :56:45. | |
instance, the Politics Show has seen documents that revealed just | :56:45. | :56:47. | |
over �20 million designated specifically to regenerate the most | :56:47. | :56:52. | |
deprived areas of Torbay, Plymouth and Bristol is uncommitted. There | :56:52. | :56:57. | |
is money remaining which is no longer viable for it be used for | :56:57. | :57:00. | |
the projects in which it was originally intended to be used. | :57:00. | :57:04. | |
That is an issue. At the moment, that money is not being used. It is | :57:04. | :57:08. | |
sitting, waiting for someone to come up with an alternative plan. | :57:08. | :57:14. | |
This money is from the E R D F competitiveness programme, set up | :57:14. | :57:18. | |
in 2006 for big capital projects in the South West - things like the | :57:18. | :57:23. | |
Brixham fish market. Now, some believe it should be Tweet to offer | :57:23. | :57:28. | |
help to smaller businesses. -- Tweet. We do a lot of work with | :57:28. | :57:33. | |
smaller businesses. The majority of people in the -- businesses in the | :57:33. | :57:36. | |
South West is predominately in rural areas and most are small with | :57:36. | :57:42. | |
less than 10 employees. They have a turnover of �100,000 or less. These | :57:42. | :57:45. | |
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 | :57:49. | :57:53. | |
can deliver growth and create jobs. They don't need large amounts of of | :57:53. | :57:58. | |
funding, they need small amounts of funding. The fund, in my view, this | :57:58. | :58:02. | |
fund needs to be more flexible. They know all about the value of | :58:02. | :58:07. | |
small-scale grants at this Sauchen based firm. It employs 10 people, | :58:07. | :58:13. | |
making Retail Systems for bank card pin machines. Sometimes the grants | :58:13. | :58:16. | |
supporters for large projects, but Eden delivers its value through the | :58:16. | :58:19. | |
employment of a lot of smaller people. It is difficult for | :58:19. | :58:25. | |
European bodies to get the costs per grant down so that it is more | :58:25. | :58:31. | |
attractive, but I've been smaller grants are what time needed for | :58:31. | :58:34. | |
small operations, the goddess -- because that is fostering | :58:34. | :58:38. | |
entrepreneurial son. The Department for communities and local | :58:38. | :58:41. | |
government administers the fund and says it will consider all | :58:41. | :58:46. | |
applications from verbs, both large and small, but it says to a sure | :58:46. | :58:48. | |
businesses remain viable and sustainable, any applications have | :58:49. | :58:52. | |
to be matched thundered. With regional development agencies being | :58:52. | :58:56. | |
wound up, budgets for local authorities being cut, and bank | :58:56. | :58:59. | |
lending remaining tight, for those at the sharp end, it is difficult | :58:59. | :59:04. | |
to match any grant. There aren't that many around, as far as I know, | :59:04. | :59:09. | |
and there is not much money around, as far as I know, since the idea | :59:09. | :59:14. | |
got shut down - the funding is not there. I am not looking very hard, | :59:14. | :59:17. | |
I have other things to do with my time, but it does mean that I am | :59:17. | :59:23. | |
not taking risks and employing people. Some in the South West that | :59:23. | :59:25. | |
his committee believe the Department has listened to their | :59:25. | :59:29. | |
concerns, thus avoiding the remote possibility of EU money destined | :59:29. | :59:34. | |
for the South West being returned to Brussels. | :59:34. | :59:38. | |
Absolutely. But has got to be a concern. It is not even just that. | :59:38. | :59:42. | |
We could be making a difference now, and we are not. The longer they sit | :59:42. | :59:46. | |
on it, the longer it is not making a difference for business. | :59:46. | :59:49. | |
Businesses have got ideas now. They could create jobs now so there is | :59:49. | :59:53. | |
even more of an incentive to get things moving. Europe is one thing. | :59:53. | :59:57. |