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Responding to the Downturn and Planning the Future Economy

I will be brief. I want to make a point about the situation in Sheffield. Sheffield had its heart ripped out during the 1980s and early 1990s under a Tory Government. The economy has been through an economic revival over the past 10 years. Industries have developed and diversified. The creative and digital industries, which have been mentioned, are coming forward, as are retail, hotel and distribution, and Sheffield is a growing provider of many financial and business services. We also have a large public sector, two universities, NHS trusts and so on. That diversification has helped us in the downturn to ensure that people can see that when growth occurs, things will improve. However, I will focus particularly on the skills of people in the poorest sectors, from our deprived communities, who have had the benefit of objective 1 funding from the European Union over the past few years. That has meant that a lot of community organisations have been able to offer training, often first-step training, and interest courses that have helped people who never had the opportunity of educational assistance and training in skills to get on the first rung of the ladder, walk through the doors of the community sector and begin the process leading them into work. I am concerned about a number of those community forums: Batemoor and Jordanthorpe forum has closed, Lowedges forum has only a few employees and Gleadless valley forum is in the same position. If we do not fund such community organisations to provide that first step, people will continue to be out of the job market for a long time to come, and they will not have the skills necessary for the economy, as the hon. Member for Harrogate and Knaresborough mentioned, when the upturn comes, as I am confident that it will. I would like to see a better focus on that level. I would like us to deal with the issues of who is eligible for funding. I ask the Minister to consider in particular the regrettable situation whereby people going through training funded by the Learning and Skills Council through local contracts find that they cannot get funding because the eligibility criteria for progression to the next stage are set by the Department for Work and Pensions and are different. That is nonsensical. The Government have got to get their act together and sort out the issue so that people who want skills to get into work as jobs become available, as they surely will, can do so. I ask my right hon. Friend to look into the matter.