Ann McKechin MP

Labour Member of Parliament for Glasgow North

Social Inclusion - 10 July 2002

I very much welcome today's debate on a subject that has been central to the Government's policies since the 1997 election. As has already been stated today, the Labour Government have a proud record of achievement, especially on unemployment, the most important area of social exclusion. The Government have the ambition and commitment to achieve full employment and raise the standard of living for the very poorest in our communities. For the first time in many years, the gap between the richest and poorest in our country has stopped widening, which is no small achievement.

Many of the measures introduced by the Government are specifically targeted at the lowest income groups. Steps, such as the introduction of the minimum wage, the new deal schemes, the tax credit scheme for working families and increases in child benefit, together with the success in providing a stable economy and increasing investment in public services, have borne fruit. With the national minimum wage and the integrated tax and benefit scheme—here I take a slightly different view from that of my hon. Friend the Member for Glasgow, Pollok (Mr. Davidson)—we are moving away from a welfare system to a system of entitlement, whereby those who have a child receive the same amount of assistance, whether they are in work or not. That gives us the structural building blocks to maintain social progress and achieve lasting change.

The changes in my constituency in the past five years have been dramatic. I am proud to say that we have had the biggest drop in unemployment of any West of Scotland constituency. In the past year alone, the number of unemployed claimants fell by 17 per cent. In the past five years, the number of unemployed people in Glasgow has fallen by more than 15,000.

As I am sure the Minister would agree, this is not a time for complacency. In Glasgow and other socially deprived areas of Scotland, the legacy of the wasted years of the 1980s and 1990s is still all too apparent. The challenge now is to build on the advances that we have made, to use the new opportunities that arise from economic growth, particularly in areas such as Glasgow, and the significantly higher public investment for the benefit of the poorest in our society, and to tackle the problems that afflict so many of them.

In sizeable areas of Glasgow—I make no apology for mentioning Glasgow again—the majority of the adult population are not in work. They are either on the unemployment register or, more commonly, on some other form of benefit. In some areas, that group comprises as much as 70% of the local population. Glasgow has more Incapacity Benefit claimants than any other city outside London, including Birmingham and Manchester. That is the nub of the problem in Glasgow, where the employment rate is 55%, compared with a Scottish average of 71%. The Scottish Council Foundation published an interesting report last month, which said that for Glasgow to achieve the average figure for employment in Scotland, an additional 40,000 jobs would have to be created in the city. That is why I welcome the Government's proposals to merge the Employment Service and the Benefits Agency into Jobcentre Plus, to offer the increasingly personalised service that claimants require and, in particular, to target the hidden unemployed in such areas and offer them opportunities to get back into work.

We realise that, as we tackle those problems, more public funding will be required if we are to assist people back into work. Many suffer from chaotic lifestyles, drugs and alcohol abuse, as my hon. Friend rightly stated. Many have no direct family experience or work routine. Most suffer from low competence, poor communication skills and low educational standards. If we are to beat the spectre of depressed soulless housing schemes, people need to see work going on around them. Even in my constituency, which suffers from the eighth highest unemployment rate in Scotland, there is a shortage of small industrial units for private firms or traders and a shortage of space for community-run industries. We need to focus on spreading job opportunities throughout our communities, not only in city centres. It does not suit every worker to travel to work, especially if they have dependants, young or old. Many women require the convenience of living near their workplace. We also need to ensure that our public transport system supports our workers, and not just in rural areas. In Glasgow, which has a high dependency on public transport, more services across Greater Glasgow are needed rather than routes revolving around the city centre. There is no easy fix and that is why we have to ensure that all appropriate agencies, whether in the public or the voluntary sector, work together effectively.

To give an example, Glasgow City Council recently announced a new and imaginative project to address some of those very problems. In three low employment areas it will actively promote a full employment initiative, giving a three-year job guarantee to applicants, with the aim of permanently raising the overall employment level. Already, through the good efforts of my colleagues in the Glasgow group of MPs, the Department for Work and Pensions has visited the city to determine whether the proposal can be developed on a national basis.

That is an excellent example of how different strands of both local and national Government can work together to bring new solutions to those who need the help most. We have achieved much in the past five years and I am sure that this Government will continue their commitment in the years to come to achieve high levels of employment for all our communities.


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