Government has no idea how many will suffer

Nov 11 2010 by William Green, The Journal

THE Government has no idea how many public sector workers will lose their jobs in the North of England, a minister has admitted.

Junior Business Minister Baroness Wilcox made the admission after being warned in the House of Lords that the Coalition government’s response to public sector cuts in the North was “inadequate.”

Lord Liddle, a former adviser to Tony Blair, said the Government’s £1.4bn regional growth fund and local enterprise partnerships – bringing together council and business chiefs to boost the economy – would be insufficient to deal with hundreds of thousands of job losses.

He said regional development agencies (RDAs), which are being axed, had far larger resources than local enterprise partnerships would.

Lord Liddle said: “Isn’t this a totally inadequate response to what independent experts expect to be a rise in unemployment, of jobs lost, of 233,000?”

Baroness Wilcox said: “Lord Liddle is something of an expert on this subject because, of course, he was working with the previous administration to see how they could make the RDAs work.

“The RDAs spent £19bn over 10 years and failed to make any impact on the imbalances on growth. Although I am delighted to hear what he has to say, I am not sure I would take lessons from it. “

She added: “We don’t yet know how significant the cuts in public sector employment in the North will be – and it is important that with less money we ensure that our investments are very well targeted.

“It is less money because we were left with no money.”

The minister insisted the coalition’s policies would boost private sector jobs in areas dependent on the public sector.

She said the coalition intended to create the right environment, cutting red tape and making the UK an attractive place for business.