Britain's Economy
Posted by Sarah McCarthy-Fry, MP for Portsmouth North, at 15:18, Wed 21 January 2009:
I've been alerted by the website hearfromyourmp.com, that you may be interested in hearing from me. As the economy is such an important issue at the moment, I thought I'd take this opportunity to update you about our plans to get our city and our country through this difficult period.
Recently I attended the Employment Summit hosted by Gordon Brown which brought together employers from some of our major businesses, trade unions, the Learning and Skills Council and Job Centre Plus. It was very clear from this summit that we are facing the first crisis of the global age.
Countries across the world are taking action to stimulate their economies and provide help to those who need it. It is not enough simply to monitor the economic statistics and sit on the sidelines as people lose their jobs.
Each statistic represents real people’s lives – families, communities and businesses who are struggling for help. The government is committed to giving that help. Surely it makes sense to invest millions in people's future now not pay billions in a future where people are stuck on benefits - real action now is vital to ensure that those who are out of work now do not become the long term unemployed of the future. That is what happened in the last recession. We are not going to repeat those mistakes which allowed rises in unemployment to become permanent and whole generations written off. I saw too much of that in Portsmouth and I am determined it will not happen again.
By providing real help now, we can emerge from this downturn quicker and stronger. This is why we are investing £500m to get people back into work, boosting the economy by providing an average of £275 for each family per year through cuts in VAT and £145 in tax cuts for basic rate taxpayers. We are also helping to create 100,000 additional jobs through our capital investment programme in schools, hospitals, environmental work, infrastructure, and transport. And it's for the same reason that we're taking extraordinary steps to safeguard the future of our banking system and to ensure the banks start lending again. We can’t prevent every job from being lost, but we can make sure that through the investment we are making we create new jobs and ensure people have the skills our country needs.
If you have any specific enquires please don't hesitate to contact me, or if you would like to subscribe to my e-newsletter, please e-mail me at mccarthyfrys@parliament.uk
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