I was pleased by the news last week that this Government’s tough but fair policies are having the desired effect with Crawley unemployment down to 2.6 percent and wages now outstripping inflation for the first time since the 2008 financial crisis.
Inflation figures have shown a fall for the sixth month in succession to 1.6 per cent and the independent Office for National Statistics has announced that regular pay is rising at a rate of 1.8 per cent.
By investing in jobs and ensuring that it pays to work, the Government has been able to create 1.5 million new private sector jobs and reduce worklessness to record low levels.
As a result, in Crawley, the unemployment rate has fallen by 65 percent, the youth unemployment rate has more than halved from 8.6 percent in 2010 to 3.6 percent now and apprenticeship opportunities in our town are at an all time high having increased by 89 percent.
Labour’s Great Recession slashed £112 billion off the value of our economy (equivalent to £3,000 per household) and cost 750,000 people their jobs, leading to spiralling unemployment.
This Government, therefore, prioritised job creation over rising wages – after all, most businesses cannot both take on new staff and increase wages.
The merits from the Chancellor’s competent, far-sighted management of the UK economy, however, are now showing as more people are in work than ever before, more young people are in work, more women are in work than since records began in 1971, wages are beginning to rise and more businesses are hiring.
Labour’s claims that there would be mass unemployment and a double-dip recession never came to fruition, and now Labour’s MPs are demanding that Ed Balls commits to a credible economic plan.
There can be no doubt that the return to ‘real pay’ increases is welcome news for hard pressed Crawley households. Crawley continues to benefit from the third highest weekly wages and second lowest levels of inequality amongst the UK’s 64 cities.
Great Britain’s economy is recovering faster than any of our competitors in the G7 and our employment rate is set to overtake Germany as the highest in the G7. The single biggest risk to our economic recovery now would be to abandon the plan and give in to Labour’s calls to borrow more, spend more and put up taxes.