TUC warns government: don't forget the SW
The TUC has warned the government not to forget the South West when it implements Lord Heseltine's report on boosting regional growth.
Commenting ahead of the report, which will be published tomorrow (Wednesday), Nigel Costley, the South West TUC's regional secretary, said it must recognise the role of government in reducing equality between and within regions so recovery takes place all over the country, not just parts of London and the South East.
He said: "We don't want the South West to be left behind in the back waters. Instead we need thoughtful intervention to support key sectors and new green jobs.
"The private jobs in aerospace, tourism, care homes, food production, construction, energy and many other sectors rely on public support or regulation. The South West needs a government that will get stuck in to boost growth not assume it will happen by magic."
The TUC says the report will only be successful if it leads to a long-term shift in government industrial policy, and says it must pass a number of key tests, including opposing regional pay, beefing up the British Business Bank, establishing a proper Green Investment Bank, investing in skills to create jobs, training opportunities and apprenticeships, and recognising that successful companies involve their staff through unions and that unions can play an important role to deliver growth.
Nigel Costley said: “This review could start to deliver the change we need by recognising a new role for government in shaping and boosting growth, particularly in the regions. We need the same public and private sector drive that gave us the Olympics, now harnessed to renew the economy.
“But half-baked free-market small-state approaches like regional pay actively hinder regional renaissance.
“While there is a very wide consensus around our approach – including many businesses and even members of this government – it goes against the grain of Treasury orthodoxy.
“So the biggest test of all for what could well be a progressive set of policies will be whether the whole government adopts and implements the new approach we need. The hands-off approach of the last thirty years has not delivered an economy that works for ordinary people – this is a chance to start the long-term investment in growth, jobs and living standards that we desperately need.”
