Graham reports back from Friends of Scholes Park meeting
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by Lib Dem team on 19 September, 2017
Liberal Democrat Leader Vince Cable has called for a “renaissance of manufacturing” in the North West and a “massive injection” of infrastructure investment, in a speech today at his party’s Autumn conference.
The former Business Secretary will warn that the UK economy remains overly reliant on property markets and banks in London and the South East.
He will then set out policies to tackle regional inequality and rebalance the economy, including boosting investment in railways, broadband and housing.
Vince Cable will then call for more funding for lifelong learning and an expansion in apprenticeships.
Vince Cable commented:
“We need to lift Britain from what at present is a dangerous over-dependence on property markets and banks in the South East corner of England.
“This country needs a massive injection of public investment, more innovation and a renaissance of manufacturing.
“We need to invest in the railway network across the North of England as well in broadband and housing.
“Every pound spent building modern Britain will be returned many times over
“Never in British economic history has it been cheaper for the government to borrow for productive investment, alongside the private sector. So why is this government so feeble and so passive?”
On apprenticeships and lifelong learning, Vince Cable added:
“More than anything else, investing in people is the key to a successful modern economy.
“In government, the Liberal Democrats launched an apprenticeship revolution.
“But there is so much more to do to ensure that high quality apprenticeships and training are an option available to every young person.
“Millions of workers in middle age now face their office and factory jobs disappearing with the advance of automation and artificial intelligence. We’ve got to be the party with the answers for those people
“Under my leadership, our party will be the champions of lifelong learning, giving everyone a chance of self-improvement and employment at every stage in life.”
6 Comments
If ‘TM’ is a dead woman walking…
Is ‘VC’ a coffin dodger waiting ?
😉
Yet the Government is plowing through with HS2 which in the last article I read stated it would be good for the North as it would raise house prices. Can’t see how this helps us here already or that an extra 20 minutes less on a journey will make this happen. I would like to see how many people regularly use the Manchester to London for business and what percentage of northern population is this. Plus how many could do the same job from here, in the North, if we had a more reliable internet infrastructure instead. Once again I think we will find this dreadful project is for few not the many.
HS2 is more about capacity than speed, but I agree that linking the northern cities should come first.
I think HS2 could be a huge white elephant – whatever estimate is mentioned now you can be pretty sure that it will fall significantly short of the final amount.
One has always been able to retrain for another job as through my own career I have started from an apprentice Joiner, to a retail worker. Then trained for Bar and restaurant work to a level were I owned my own restaurant. I then decided I wanted to do office work in the NHS. So over the last 50 years there has been training available through the Job Centres. I do feel though that training is need by the people who are on Benefits for a long time to train them into getting a job. I understand that a lot of these youngsters do not have education which is why they can’t get a job. Am sure there must be a way to train them to do a job. I remember years ago I went on a trading course through the job centre and the guy next to me couldn’t fill in a form because he couldn’t read or write. I filled the form in for him but stayed after the days training ti point this out to the trainer. The rest of the training was verbal with a few hand outs. We all had a one to one as he needed help and this was the best way to deal with it. They put him on a reading and writing course after it. A few years later we happened to meet in town and he thanked me for 1 helping him with his form but 2 for telling the trainer about him which gave him the chance to learn and then open up his own repair shop for bikes.
SMBC own a huge amount of land that is developed for both light and heavy industrial sites. the amount of Ground that they charge and the vast sums to renew ground leases is appalling. I know of a number of business that have either re-located out of area or not invested locally due to this.