Yorkshire’s challenge over ‘culture of workless’

Hull is the region’s black spot, with 26.8 per cent of homes having no one who works in them last year, according to the Office of National Statistics (ONS).

Scarborough – where 24.6 per cent of households have no one working – and Barnsley, with 22.8 per cent, fare little better. In Doncaster, Rotherham, Sheffield, Bradford, Calderdale, Kirklees and North East Lincolnshire at least one in five households is a workless one.

Nearly half of those not working in Yorkshire are either unemployed or registered sick or disabled, with the remainder largely retired, students or looking after family.

Households across North Yorkshire have the highest proportion of people working according to the ONS, with as few as one in 10 workless homes in Ryedale.

The Government has launched a major drive to get people into work, particularly those who have been on benefits for long periods but are considered able to work, but thousands of public sector workers also face losing their jobs as a result of spending cuts.

Scarborough and Whitby Tory MP Robert Goodwill said: “There seem to be an increasing number of people retiring early for various reasons.

“The other big problem is we have some communities where there are large numbers of people who haven’t ever worked and maybe their parents haven’t ever worked. That’s the culture of worklessness and benefit dependency we need to try to break.”

Experts warn that transforming the fortunes of places like Barnsley and Hull, where unemployment has been above average and skills levels are low, will not be easy.

Dr Neil Lee, senior economist at the Work Foundation, said: “Places like Leeds will probably do reasonably well over the next 10 years, York and to a lesser extent Sheffield probably will as well. But if you look at places like Hull and Barnsley, these places didn’t do very well in the long boom, got hit really badly by the recession and a combination of factors means they will probably do badly in the recovery.”

Hull North Labour MP Diana Johnson criticised the scale of Government spending cuts hitting the city and added: “Recent figures showed around 45 people chasing each job vacancy in Hull North and the number of young people not in education, employment or training is a serious problem in Hull.”