Region needs a new jobs plan

The Minister’s words – he described the latest increase as “a major concern” – will not wash with those people and families in this region whose futures are being blighted by those politicians who fail to grasp the scale of the North-South divide.

Here are some facts for Mr Grayling: this region’s unemployment rate of 10.1 per cent is now the second highest in the UK behind the North East; only three regions have more people out of work than the 270,000 current jobless in these parts and levels of youth unemployment have reached another record high. And while there may be more people jobless in London, the actual number of claimants in the capital fell last month – in comparison to Yorkshire and Humber where an further 11,000 people joined the dole queue.

Of course, the Government’s planned infrastructure projects will help and are welcome, but they will take time – many years in some instances – before they actually started creating jobs.

In the meantime, Mr Grayling and his colleagues should be heeding the call, by the respected IPPR North think-tank, for a targeted strategy to alleviate unemployment in known blackspots across the region.

Its blueprint for reforms includes new targets, and incentives, to minimise long-term unemployment as well as greater tax incentives and measures to encourage the onset of innovation hubs – the businesses of tomorrow. Regions like Yorkshire also require precedence when it comes to the rolling out of the Government’s much-vaunted Youth Contract, an ambitious plan to provide 410,000 new work places for 18 to 24-year-olds.

In particular, it needs to be used to inspire and incentivise those young people who come to regard unemployment as the norm.

They need to find work before another tranche of school-leavers this summer adds to the Government’s difficulties, and the sense of despair that is enveloping those towns that are bereft of opportunities. Perhaps Mr Grayling should spend a week living in one such community so he can gain a better sense of perspective.