Cameron in £2.6bn jobs boost plan

Published on Tuesday 11 November 2008 22:34

DAVID Cameron, the Conservative leader, yesterday unveiled plans to put 350,000 people back in work by cutting the tax employers pay.

He said that with Britain about to plunge into recession, now was not the time to "walk on by" and do nothing to prevent UK unemployment rising towards two million. But he was criticised for being too timid, and failing to hand back money directly to taxpayers.

Mr Cameron said his 2.6 billion plans would not cost the Treasury a penny, as they would be funded by savings in unemployment benefit. He called on Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, to implement them without delay.

The Tory idea involves cutting the National Insurance contributions paid by employers by 2,500 for every unemployed worker they hired full-time. To prevent abuse, it would only be available to companies that had made no redundancies in the preceding or subsequent three months.

Tony McNulty, the employment minister, said: "There is no way they can get 350,000 jobs out of these proposals."

• The number of jobs available to non-EU migrants will be scaled back by 200,000 as the government prepares for higher levels of unemployment.

Crisis prompts rules changes

THE number of jobs available in the British economy to non-EU migrants will be scaled back by 200,000 as the government prepares for higher levels of unemployment.

A list of professions where there was a skills shortage was published yesterday.

In Scotland, manual filleters of frozen fish, senior nurses in care of the elderly units, and speech and language therapists are in short supply.

The list is a central plank of the government's points-based migration system, which comes into force on 27 November.