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LISA NANDY - GOVERNMENT NEEDS TO INVEST IN TOWNS LIKE OURS
LIKE many MPs most of my time has been dominated by the Spending Review and trying to work out exactly what it will mean for the people of Wigan.
With huge cuts to the public sector, the 31 per cent of Wiganers employed in public services will clearly be affected.
A new study by the accountants Price Waterhouse Coopers has also predicted the private sector in places like Wigan will be strongly affected because so many small and medium businesses rely on public sector contracts.
My top priority is to protect Wigan as far as possible from the sort of job losses and home repossessions we saw in the 1980s and 1990s, though with Wigan Council’s budget being slashed by a third over the next four years it will be a tall order.
That is why I have called a debate in the House of Commons about the regeneration of former coalfield communities.
I will be joined this week by colleagues from across the country who represent areas like Wigan where the health and unemployment inequalities have remained large since the decision to close the pits.
I will be making the case to government ministers that ex-coalfield communities are unique and deserve support, and that instead of cutting the programmes that were created to generate employment, they should increase them.
For example, many small businesses in Wigan have told me that the decision to axe their main lender, the North West Development Agency, has left them struggling to borrow money as the banks still aren’t lending after the financial crash.
It is exactly now, in this difficult economic time that we should be investing.
This week I met with construction workers from Wigan who have lost their jobs after Wigan’s new school building was cancelled, and five Wigan businesses have lost contracts after the defence contracts were stopped.
The evidence of history tells us this is the wrong approach – support for business and big projects to keep people in work is the only way to get out of a global financial crisis because it generates wealth for the economy.
I am hoping to persuade Government, through the debate I am holding this week in Parliament, that it should be investing in towns like Wigan.
At the same time I have accepted a job in Ed Miliband’s new team, helping the shadow Cabinet Minister for the Olympics to bring the investment and benefits of the games to the north of England.
The Olympics is one of the few bright spots on the horizon at the moment and towns like Wigan, with our excellent rugby league, football and world-class wrestling teams, should be top of the list.
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Weather for Wigan
Friday 25 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 11 C to 25 C
Wind Speed: 23 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 11 C to 23 C
Wind Speed: 23 mph
Wind direction: East
