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Work Programme (Wales)

I could not have put it better than the right hon. Gentleman has and I completely agree with him. For all sorts of reasons, in terms of both jobs and GDP, the public sector makes up a much larger proportion of our economy than it does elsewhere in the UK, so we will be hit disproportionately, with no prospect—despite the warm words and the soothing phrases of the Secretary of State and her ministerial colleague—of the private sector making up the difference. When the right hon. Lady returns to future Welsh Grand Committee sittings, she will find that the public sector has been cut right back and that the private sector is sadly not filling the gap, not least because the private sector often depends on public sector contracts to thrive. Many small and even large businesses in Wales depend on public investment to grow and employ people, as the Government say they want. Although the UK average number of claimants per vacancy—unemployed people on jobseeker’s allowance per vacancy—stands at 5.2, in Wales the average is almost one person higher at 6.1. In the Secretary of State’s Chesham and Amersham constituency approximately three people are chasing each vacancy, and in the constituencies of the Prime Minister and the Chancellor of the Exchequer there are fewer than two claimants per vacancy. Compare that with most constituencies in Wales: in my constituency, Neath, the number of unemployed claimants per vacancy stands at 7.5—above the national and Welsh averages and way above the figure in the Secretary of State’s constituency. Across Wales, the latest figures show that every job is being chased by six jobseekers: a total of only 12,638 jobcentre vacancies are being chased by 76,859 jobless claimants. In Cardiff West, Caerphilly, Cynon Valley, Clwyd South, Ogmore and Ynys Môn, every job is being chased by more than 10 jobseekers. That is no Work programme at all. In Blaenau Gwent every job is being chased by 18 jobseekers, and in Merthyr by 19. In the Rhondda, the jobless plight is even worse; every job is being chased by 33 jobseekers. I ask the Secretary of State not to continually insult people in those areas of Wales by cutting their benefits and telling them to get a job when there are no jobs to get. Do not instruct them to get on their bikes either, because almost everywhere in Wales there are nothing like enough jobs to go around. The Government’s work plan is hurting, but it is not working. Unemployment is falling in the eurozone, America and Japan, yet in Wales and Britain it is rising because of the Government’s decision to cut too far and too fast. Front-loading the fiscal squeeze has led to a flatlining economy. Everybody is rapidly revising their growth forecasts downwards as the economy runs out of steam. The only area of growth is in the rate of public sector job losses, which far exceeds private sector job growth, as my hon. Friends have pointed out. We urgently need a change in direction and an alternative, such as Labour’s five-point plan for jobs and growth in north Wales that I announced this morning. Even the Government’s single-minded target of reducing the deficit at all costs is not working. The Secretary of State has made great play of that, as did the Minister of State. The Secretary of State should look at the latest Office for Budget Responsibility figures, which show the benefits bill rising by £12 billion and borrowing rising by £46 billion. The Government are obsessed with cutting the deficit at all costs, but the deficit is rising as a result of their policies. That is clear evidence of what we have been saying all along: without a plan for jobs and growth, it becomes even harder to get the deficit down. In fact, the Government’s misguided right-wing dogma is pushing the deficit up. With families feeling the squeeze, more people on the dole and borrowing set to be £46 billion higher than planned, Britain cannot afford to carry on with a reckless Tory plan that, as I said, is hurting but not working. With families across Wales feeling the squeeze, no growth in our economy and unemployment rising again, it is clear that Wales now faces a real jobs and growth crisis, just as we did under the previous Tory Government. It took a Labour Government to rescue Wales from the misery of mass unemployment and it will take Labour’s policies to rescue Wales again. Unfair tax rises and spending cuts that go too far too fast crushed confidence and choked off the recovery well before the eurozone crisis of recent months. Instead of sitting on their hands, it is time for the Chancellor and the Secretary of State for Wales to make a plan for jobs and growth. We have suggested one. As I said, I announced today Labour’s five-point plan for jobs and growth in north Wales, which includes building on the success of the Labour Welsh Government’s jobs fund; bringing forward long-term investment projects, such as schools and roads; tax breaks for small businesses taking on extra workers; a temporary VAT cut, which will give every north Wales family a boost of around £450; and a tax on bank bonuses to fund thousands of jobs for young people across Wales.