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Wrekin and Telford Liberal Democrats Campaigning across The Wrekin and Telford Constituencies |
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750,000 Manufacturing jobs lost under Labour
July 7, 2004 12:00 AM
The Government is presiding over the worst-ever decline in manufacturing, according to a Trades Union Congress report, which says that 750,000 manufacturing jobs have been lost since Labour came to power in 1997. According to official figures out today manufacturing jobs have hit the lowest point since records begin in 1978. Figures from the Office for National Statistics show that manufacturing jobs have halved from 6,892,000 manufacturing jobs in 1978 to 3,371,000 in 2004.
In the West Midlands, which used to be the workplace of the world, manufacturing is declining at the rate of 2% a year, twice the national average. Councillor David Murray, who has worked as a business adviser in the region for over 10 years, claims that at the present rate of decline, we would have no manufacturing industry left by 2020, no people trained to make things any more, and would be reliant on China to provide all our future needs in this area.
For all the Government's crowing on employment opportunities, the manufacturing industry in Britain is collapsing. A recent Sheffield University survey has also confirmed Liberal Democrat warnings that the North/South divide is not only real, but getting worse. More must be done to help the real economy of our towns and rural areas. Small-scale factory closures can have the same detrimental effect on the local community as the high-profile collapses that make news headlines. Meanwhile the Government does nothing.
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