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Treasury

Answer

Dr. Kumar: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will set out, including statistical information relating as directly as possible to the constituency, the effect on Middlesbrough, South and Cleveland, East constituency of his Department's policies since 8 June 2001. [206838] Mr. Timms: The Government has put in place a radical programme of both macroeconomic and microeconomic reform since our election in 1997 to improve the economic performance of all parts of the UK. There is significant evidence that these policies have already yielded considerable benefits for the Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland constituency. For example, since May 1997, claimant unemployment has fallen by over 50 per cent., and both long-term unemployment and long-term youth unemployment have fallen by 80 per cent. Looking more specifically at improvements since the 8 of June 2001, the beginning of our second term in government, claimant unemployment has fallen by a third, long-term unemployment overall has fallen by 50 per cent. and long-term youth unemployment has fallen by almost 40 per cent. In November 2002 2845 families were benefiting from the Working Families' Tax Credit; by January 2004 4000 working families were benefiting from more than the family element of Child Tax Credit, an increase of 41 per cent. The Neighbourhood Statistics Service provides a wide range of statistical information at Parliamentary constituency level, taken from the 2001 Census and other sources. This service is available on the National Statistics website at http://neighbourhood.statistics. gov.uk./.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

206838; 428 c1405W;428 c1403-5W

Session

2004-05

Subjects

Government departments Policy Treasury Middlesbrough

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk