Minister For Employment Alison McGovern talks about North East unemployment and the importance of shipyards

Shields Gazette

Speaking at a visit to Hebburn's A&P Shipbuilding site Minister For Employment Alison McGovern had her say on unemployment figures and the role shipbuilding still has in the UK economy.

Transcript

00:00The figures came out last week, North East still has the highest unemployment rate in the country, it's 5.6%.

00:06At a time when, I've got a budget next week, the Treasury's talking about a £22 billion black hole in finances.

00:13What can this government practically do to give our region and sectors, like shipbuilding or clean energy or advanced manufacturing,

00:22the kind of investment that they need to reverse that figure, which has been a problem in the North East for donkey's years?

00:28It has, and the situation that the North East is in is not acceptable to me.

00:33Because this is an amazing place, the shipyard here is fantastic and it's full of brilliant, talented people.

00:40So it's not acceptable to me that the North East, which has so much to offer, the United Kingdom, is behind in terms of its employment figures.

00:49And what I really want as Minister for Employment is to close that gap.

00:53Because that way we can make sure our economy grows and it also grows sustainably.

00:58So what the new government can do and is doing is set out, firstly we've got our new industrial strategy,

01:06which is really important because it sets out where we're going to really have influence.

01:11Advanced manufacturing is a part of that.

01:14And I would just say on shipbuilding in particular, I think too often it gets forgotten about.

01:21Part of the reason why I was absolutely passionate about coming here today is because that can all happen.

01:27It's a vital national industry. It's incredibly important to places like where we are today,

01:34to the North East as a whole, but to the city region economy.

01:40But it's crucial to the whole nation. And I think we need to put shipbuilding on the map.

01:45And that's part of the reason why I've come today.

01:48So I'll move on.

01:50The employment rights bill is something I wanted to ask you about as well.

01:53Because obviously that was introduced last week.

01:56The government's own analysis has said that that could cost businesses £5 billion, I think it is.

02:02Is that what businesses can sort of chop away at the performances, but what that's not doing in the lives of workers?

02:08Is the result of that not just being bad for businesses and therefore bad for jobs?

02:15I would say not, no.

02:17So part of the problem in our economy, and it's definitely a big challenge in the North East,

02:25where people work very hard, sometimes for poverty.

02:29That is the reality of the situation.

02:32We've got to make sure we've got better quality jobs, so that when somebody's working hard day in, day out,

02:38they're able to look after their family, put a roof over their head and food on the table.

02:43And our reforms do things that good businesses do already,

02:47like having predictable hours next week and not being on a zero-hours contract

02:52when you don't know what money's coming in next week.

02:54I don't think that's okay.

02:56So we are putting in place legislation to protect people.

03:00And it should have been done years ago, in my opinion.

03:03That will make the quality of jobs better in this country.

03:06That means people have got more money to spend.

03:09That helps our economy grow more sustainably, which helps us employ more people.

03:13That's the virtuous circle we want to get into.

03:16Where we've been over the past 14 years is we had the Tories sticking their fingers in their ears

03:22as people were saying, this is not okay, I'm not okay.

03:26So we've got to stop that, put that legislation in place, protect people properly,

03:32give the likes of social care workers the due respect that they deserve in law

03:37and use that better quality work to invest in our economies and start to turn this situation around.

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