Tackling unemployment is Brown’s priority for 09 (From Stourbridge News)

Tackling unemployment is Brown’s priority for 09

11:14am Wednesday 24th December 2008

• Print
• Email
• Share
• Comments(0)

Government spending programmes brought forward in a bid to beat the recession will provide employment for at least 100,000 people in the current difficult economic times, Gordon Brown says.

The Prime Minister promised to “invest through this downturn” to support jobs and create a greener and more technologically advanced Britain.

In a pre-Christmas interview with the Daily Mirror, Mr Brown promised help for people losing their jobs in the downturn to find new work.

He has made the fight against unemployment his top priority for 2009, the paper reported.

Mr Brown said that his response to the economic crisis had been guided by his conversations with voters and businesses at weekly meetings organised around the country, where he has heard concerns about employment, access to credit and meeting bills.

He said that the Government’s decision to bring forward £10 billion worth of infrastructure projects would help support jobs in the coming two years.

“School building repairs and school building alone will employ about 100,000,” Mr Brown told the paper.

“It is possible when you do these programmes for it to take months. But the ones we’ve got earmarked are ones which can take place now”

Other projects to be announced in the New Year include plans to make high-speed broadband internet available nationwide through huge investment in a fibre-optic cable network.

• Print
• Email
• Share
• Comments(0)