Government steps up bid to encourage people back to work

Chancellor
Gordon Brown says he will try to break the culture that "no-one around
here works" by encouraging the unemployed back to work in the UK’s most
deprived areas.

Plans
to tackle the problem include:

·       
taking job advisers onto estates

·       
helping more people access the support available
through the New Deal

·       
providing training in literacy, numeracy and other
basic skills.

The
Government has introduced intensive area-based initiatives in difficult areas,
which have helped nearly 70,000 people into jobs so far. It will now pilot the
‘step up’ scheme in 14 areas, with another six starting in December. It will
oblige the long-term unemployed to accept a guaranteed job that will offer
secure employment rather than the dole.

The
chancellor went on to announce plans to designate 2,000 new enterprise areas to
encourage home-grown economic activity in the most deprived parts of the
country.

These
zones will benefit from measures including:

·       
full stamp duty exemption for all business property
purchases

·       
giving planning authorities powers to create business
planning zones

·       
support through the community investment tax credit

·       
an extra £50m to support businesses, with special
encouragement for women entrepreneurs and those from ethnic minorities

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By
Paul Nelson