Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation

Bridget Phillipson Excerpts

Friday 22nd March 2013 Commons Chamber

[Bridget Phillipson (Houghton and Sunderland South) (Lab)]

I am grateful for the opportunity to speak in today’s debate, and I make no apology for focusing the first half of my remarks on the north-east and on the Budget’s impact on my constituents. I had hoped for a Budget for the whole country, but I fear that the north-east is being left behind.

We have a lot to be proud of in the north-east. We are the country’s No. 1 car producing region, with one in three cars made on Wearside by Nissan. We have a strong record on exports and our world-class universities attract students from throughout Britain, and indeed from throughout the world. However, unemployment rates remain a considerable source of concern. In the last year in my constituency there has been a 96% increase in long-term unemployment, with an increase of 108% for young people. The situation for those aged 25 and over who have been claiming jobseeker’s allowance for more than two years is even more stark: there has been a 600% increase.

The unemployment rate in my constituency and throughout the north-east is higher than in May 2010, and the north-east continues to have the highest unemployment rate of any region. We witnessed in the past the devastating consequences of long-term unemployment, particularly among young people, and Ministers cannot afford to be complacent and just hope for the best. My region needs a Government willing to take action, not repeat the mistakes of the past.

Figures from the House of Commons Library also show a significant increase in the proportion of working men in part-time work in the north-east—up 27% since 2007-08. I know from local trade union representatives that they are doing all that they can to work with employers to protect jobs, but that often comes at the cost of reduced hours and pay cuts. This proportionate increase in part-time male workers places greater strain on families who are already struggling to make ends meet, and it goes some of the way to explaining the rising tax credits and housing benefit bill. Families are being forced to turn to the state as hours and pay are cut at the same time as living costs rise, and that is before we consider the impact of under-employment in the economy. The Office for National Statistics estimates that the number of people who are under-employed has risen by 1 million since 2008. That is 1 million more people who want to work more hours, but they are simply not available.

In the remaining time that I have left, I intend to focus my remarks on one of the biggest barriers that parents, particularly mothers, face, and that is child care when returning to work. Affordable and accessible child care is vital to our economic and social success as a nation, allowing parents to work and helping to give children the best possible start in life. But parents face the triple whammy of fewer child care places, rising costs and reduced Government support. The measures set out by the Government in the Budget do not even kick in until the next Parliament and do nothing to help parents now. Even in 2015, the £750 million that the Government have identified pales in comparison with the £7 billion-worth of cuts made to families in this Parliament.

The Government’s plans to water down carer to child ratios will undermine the quality of child care, and are a real cause for concern. The Government’s own adviser, Professor Nutbrown, has today strongly criticised the proposals, saying that they make no sense at all, and that they are likely to lead to worse child care, with too few adults and too many little children. There is no guarantee that the plans will have the desired impact of reducing the cost to parents.

[Jane Ellison]

Child care is of enormous concern to my constituents as well. How would the hon. Lady expand available child care within the same spending envelope?

[Bridget Phillipson]

It is a cause of concern that parents face that squeeze and rising costs, but I am not convinced that changing the ratios is the answer. The Government need to ensure that the proposals do not have the impact of driving down quality and making parents so concerned about leaving their children in child care settings that they opt not to return to work because they are worried about the time that a carer will be able to spend with a child. I agree that this area concerns us all. I am sure that it concerns the hon. Lady’s constituents. We have to get it right, and my worry is that experts say that the Government are not getting it right and will need to look at it again.

In concluding, I want to return to what my constituents needed from the Budget. The OBR has confirmed that by 2015, people will be worse off than in 2010. My constituents will take little comfort from the Budget. They are paying the price of this Government’s economic failure. We needed a Budget to promote jobs and growth and to support families and businesses that are feeling the squeeze. In the north-east we showed considerable resilience in rebuilding and diversifying our economy following the loss of our traditional industries, but we need a Government for the whole nation, and if we are to complete this transition, we need action from the Government, not more of the same failed policies of the past.

--- Later in debate ---

[Dr Offord]

Yes, of course it would, but I think we need to focus on ensuring that families do not break down, rather than putting someone into care. I know that the circumstances the hon. Gentleman is talking about—[Interruption.] Members are chuntering from a sedentary position, but unless they wish to intervene—

[Bridget Phillipson]

We talk about family breakdown, which of course none of us wants to happen, and I do not know the young man’s particular circumstances, but we are dealing with his case now, not what we might like to be the case. Surely it is wrong that vulnerable young men like him will be punished by the bedroom tax—call it what you like.

[Dr Offord]

The young man is 17 years old, and obviously for the past 17 years we have not had a Government who have addressed social issues in our country.

There is no dispute, at least among the serious political parties, that the country has to make difficult financial decisions in order to reduce the deficit. My disappointment is that there are no such proposals coming from Labour Front Benchers. The Labour party’s 2010 election manifesto stated:

“Housing Benefit will be reformed to ensure that we do not subsidise people to live in the private sector on rents that other ordinary working families could not afford.”

However, the shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, who is no longer in his place, was recently forced to concede that the cost of housing benefit, at £20 billion a year, is too high. He has also admitted that the Labour party does not have a solution for that. How can they be a credible Opposition if they cannot tell people where they would make cuts?

The most appealing part of the Budget for my constituents is the proposed help to assist people to get on the housing ladder. My constituency is the victim of its own success. Good schools, green spaces and a comparatively low crime rate for London ensure that many people want to move there. Although I certainly welcome them, they put pressure on the availability of the housing stock. My constituents’ children find it hard to buy a property, or indeed to rent one, when they return from university or go to work. We should not forget that not everyone is given a deed of variation by mummy and daddy that allows them to stay in part of the family’s house in places such as Primrose Hill, ensuring that they never have to go to a job interview or get a proper job in order to put a roof over their heads.

Many of my constituents are forced to move away from their family and friends and the places they grew up in. The Help to Buy scheme will help them, because in my constituency there are huge regeneration schemes in progress. The Beaufort Park and Grahame Park regeneration schemes are transforming the landscape of the social rented sector in Colindale, and the Mill Hill barracks site is also providing homes for people in the area. Only this morning—this explains my absence at the beginning of the debate—I met John Morris and the resident representatives of the West Hendon regeneration scheme. It has been a hugely difficult social sector regeneration scheme that was not progressed by the previous Government. Indeed, I suspect the motives of local Labour politicians who want to keep people in substandard accommodation instead of getting homes built. [Interruption.] From a sedentary position, Mr Morris says that that is disgraceful—