I was on the BBC Politics Show yesterday afternoon, talking about how the North Eastern economy can grow out of the recession. It was my TV debut and, all in all, an enjoyable experience. The i-player link is below. The interview starts on 39 minutes.
What has struck me over the past few months is the level of complacency of the Labour Party in the North East. We have high and rising unemployment, which is 50% higher than the national average. On almost every metric, our region has fallen further behind other regions over the past twelve years. And we can all see the results of the recession in the High Streets across the North East.
This week, the Government could have used their pre budget report as a budget for job creation. Instead, they decided to play politics with people’ jobs. They increased National insurance – something that the CBI called a “tax on jobs” and the Federation of Small Businesses described as “devastating for employment in the UK.” Small businessmen I speak to in North Durham are extremely worried about the impact this is likely to have on jobs.
Instead of political gestures, we need real action to help create jobs. That means reversing the tax on jobs and getting credit flowing to business using a National Loan Guarantee Scheme. It means creating 200,000 new apprenticeships; 100,000 new Further Education places and more training places.
I have set out a vision elsewhere that the North East must be a trailblazing economy for new green industries. We can have a glorious future to match our glorious past. But the vision free and complacent Labour politicians in the North East need to leave the stage before that can happen.
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