Finance (No. 3) Bill

It is a great pleasure to be in the Chamber this evening, Mr Hoyle, for what I hope will be a fruitful discussion on clause 4, on corporation tax. As hon. Members will know, the clause reduces the rate of corporation tax with the aim of reducing it still further over the next few years. That has been done by Ministers because they recognise that there is a need for growth in the private sector, and that is an aim that we would support. We need to consider growth in the private sector, which is a key issue that we must examine in some detail. If time permits, which I am sure it will, I intend to outline the case for discussing the issues related to the need for growth in the private sector. We must examine how we use corporation tax to deal with unemployment, which affects the regions quite considerably, and how we compensate with private sector jobs for the Government's massive cuts in public spending. Let us look in some detail at the question of the economy and unemployment in general. There is real concern about the level of unemployment in the country at large. The economic indicators show that there are currently ranges of unemployment across the United Kingdom that cause concern in relation to unemployment levels generally. One reason why the corporation tax cut has been brought forward is that the Government recognise that they need to look closely at how they can generate private sector employment by ensuring that we expand the private sector as a whole. If we look closely at the level of unemployment, we see great disparities across the country. In the north-east region—my hon. Friend the Member for Tynemouth (Mr Campbell), who is present, is a representative of that region—the unemployment rate is 10.2% and in the west midlands it is about 9.9%. Those high figures show that we need to develop the private sector. In London, the unemployment rate is currently about 9.4%. Looking around the Chamber, I see many hon. Members—