Osborne’s NW pledge on skills and transport

SHADOW Chancellor George Osborne last night set out plans for a “new economic model” and pledged to create more than 50,000 apprenticeships and training places in the North West alone.

He told business leaders at the CBI’s Cumbria dinner that the private sector has to lead the recovery, and pledged to boost enterprise and skills in the region.

With a general election on the horizon, Mr Osborne, who as MP for Tatton, in Cheshire, knows the region well, promised, if elected the Conservatives would begin work on the high speed rail line – connecting the North West to London.

He also pledged to create: 28,000 new apprenticeships; 14,000 training places; 12, 000 work pairings and a further 1,500 university places in the North West.

The bill for this he said would be met by scrapping “failing Government schemes”, like Train to Gain, and reducing payments to those who should not be receiving Incapacity Benefit..

He said: “We need a new economic model, where we invest, we export, we save and we encourage enterprise.”

Mr Osborne, who earlier visited Kendal-based paper manufacturer James Cropper, said the North West had to grow its private sector if it wants to thrive, and said his party’s policies on skills, the creation of technical academies and investment in broadband, would lead the way.

“The North West was once the heartland of manufacturing and industry. But after a decade of neglect by this Government the private sector in the North West now makes up less than half the economy.

“It has the second smallest private sector of any English region after the North East. That is not a strong foundation for sustainable growth.”

He said his eight benchmarks to revive the economy – announced earlier this week – were designed to raise the private sector’s share of the economy in every region.

“We want to see businesses flourishing in every region. We will put in place a stable and transparent framework for private sector investment in infrastructure.”

The Conservatives would, he said: “begin work on Britain’s first ever North-South high speed rail line – connecting London to Manchester and other Northern cities.

“We will make Britain the first country in Europe to extend super-fast 100MB broadband across the majority of the population.

“We will deal with the skills deficit by transforming our schools and establishing new technical Academies in each of the 12 biggest cities in England, with the long term ambition to have one in every area of the country.”

Mr Osborne said  the North West has the highest number of unemployed people outside London – nearly 200,000 seeking Job Seeker’s allowance – and claimed    the Conservatives’ policy called “Get Britain Working” would tackle the problem by investing in skills and getting people back into work.