UK Parliament / Open data

London’s Economy

Proceeding contribution from Andrew Dismore (Labour) in the House of Commons on Tuesday, 20 March 2007. It occurred during Adjournment debate on London’s Economy.
The hon. Gentleman makes a fair point, and I should not typify all his constituents by comparing them to people who live in Mayfair. Throughout London, the pattern is repeated whereby wealthy people live side by side people in extreme poverty. The hon. Gentleman’s main point was his concern about the benefit system, but the system is not so much complicated as unable to recognise the London effect. Although the system has been effective at alleviating poverty in the rest of the country, owing to features that are particular to London, such as the high cost of living and, for those in work, the high wage structure, tax credits have not alleviated poverty as they should have. However, he is right to highlight the problem that tax credits have not delivered for London as they have for the rest of the country. Furthermore, housing benefit can prove a barrier to people finding work because they fear losing their home as a consequence of being unable to pay the rent. However, I am concerned that some proposed reforms to housing benefit may work to the detriment of Londoners rather than to their advantage. The benefit system must be tweaked to reflect problems that are particular to London, and one could make a case for adding London weighting to the old-age pension. I shall not go down that route today, because it is not the main thrust of my argument, but London pensioners incur a higher cost of living compared with the rest of the country. The policies that increase London’s employment rate support social justice and economic efficiency. Moving into work is the best escape route from poverty, and unemployed people represent an unused resource for London’s economy. Properly designed training programmes can help to tackle worklessness in London and, by improving the skills of people already in work, they can help people to progress in the labour market. By addressing London’s high levels of worklessness, we could help to reduce poverty in the capital. To that end, the resources, targets and structure of Jobcentre Plus in London should be reviewed to meet London’s special economic requirements—so different from the rest of the country—as part of both the comprehensive spending review settlement and the Mayor’s skills and employment strategy. We will not see real progress on the Government’s wide range of national policies and targets without effective action in London. Investment in London will help to ensure that the capital continues to provide its net contribution of billions of pounds to central Government, benefiting the UK as a whole, attracting resources and increasing the whole country’s competitiveness and productivity. London is the country’s golden goose. If it is to continue to lay the golden eggs from which the nation benefits, the investment that I have described must continue.
Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
458 c214-5WH 
Session
2006-07
Chamber / Committee
Westminster Hall
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