Last month, Medway was identified as being in the top ten unemployment blackspots across the whole of the U.K. Can the Portfolio Holder explain therefore how excluding the south east, and Medway in particular, from the National Insurance exemption on new small firms will help to address unemployment locally?
Minutes:
“Last month, Medway was identified as being in the top ten unemployment blackspots across the whole of the UK. Can the Portfolio Holder explain therefore how excluding the south east, and Medway in particular, from the National Insurance exemption on new small firms will help to address unemployment locally?”
The Portfolio Holder responded that she would provide figures which had been produced according to the methodology that the previous Labour Government used in looking at unemployment blackspots and were still being used by the current Coalition Government. The methodology was the number of Job Seeker Allowance (JSA) payments per job seeker vacancy which identified a blackspot.
She stated that in Medway the number of job seeker allowance claimants fell by 317, which was 4.4% of the working age population of the area. The national average was 3.9%. Medway was closing that gap quite considerably but as a comparison Hastings was 6.2% and Thanet was 5.7% and there were some higher in the southeast. Elsewhere in the country, Birmingham was at 7.5% and Liverpool at 7%. Overall, there were 27 local authority areas in the Midlands and the north of England where unemployment levels ranged from 4.8% up to 8.3%.
There was clear evidence that in Medway the local economy was bucking the trend. For example, the latest data on vacancy rates in town centres was far below the national average, with the exception of Chatham. A great deal of investment had come into Chatham which would further improve during the course of the regeneration programme.
The latest figures showed that unemployment in Medway had reduced by 6.2% over the first quarter of 2010-2011 and this was significant because it was at a time when unemployment figures were rising substantially. However, the number of long-term unemployed rose by 145 people over the last quarter, although the June figures showed a slight reduction. She advised that Medway was concentrating on those long-term unemployed through its social regeneration programmes, making access to employment opportunities substantial and in helping with level 1 and level 2 qualifications.
She stated that Medway had seen the highest number of business investments across Kent and Medway over the period 2009-2010 - 395 in total or 15% of the total business investment in Kent and Medway. Medway had also seen the greatest number of jobs created across Kent and Medway over the period 2009-2010, a total of 1,455.
Councillor Maple expressed concern around the long-term unemployed situation and the fact that schemes like the Future Jobs Fund which had been cut and would have tackled those issues which could lead Medway into a situation where some of those blackspots could actually increase. He stated that the Administration, on many occasions, had mentioned money going up north. He urged the Portfolio Holder to make representations on behalf of Medway to show that in particular with the long-term unemployed that there was still a concern there that the (National Insurance) exemption, for example, would be an aid to tackle that problem.
The Portfolio Holder responded she was delighted to address these issues because it was important to Medway. She referred to a number of initiatives that Medway had taken including Employ Medway which had been instrumental in finding employment for people who had been in either long-term unemployment or benefited in terms of upskilling. She also referred to unemployment of 18-24 year olds and that unemployment had fallen by 20% and over the last quarter (April-June 2010).