Newcastle North MP, Catherine McKinnell, has demanded an urgent Parliamentary debate on the impact of the Government’s policies on private sector jobs in the region – following the announcement by Carillion Energy Services that up to 4,500 members of staff across the country have been told their jobs may be at risk. The company employs around 1,000 people in the North East.

Speaking during ‘Business Questions’ to the Leader of the House of Commons this morning (1st December), Catherine said:

“The Government have stated their desire to rebalance the economy and make up for the thousands of public sector jobs that are being lost in regions such as mine, yet today we received the dreadful news that 4,500 jobs at Carillion – a big employer based in Newcastle and Gateshead – have potentially been put at risk as a direct result of the Government’s changes to the feed-in tariffs for photovoltaic panels.

“Can we have an urgent debate on how their policies are impacting on private sector jobs in regions such as the North East?”

Following her question, Catherine said:

“Only this week, the Office for Budget Responsibility significantly revised upwards the predicted number of public sector job losses – from its earlier estimate of 400,000 to a staggering 710,000 by 2017. This will of course have a disproportionately severe impact on regions like the North East.

“The continual response we receive from Coalition Ministers is that their policies are ‘re-balancing’ the economy and the private sector will fill the gap. But this is clearly just not happening – indeed it’s quite the reverse, with the shambolic decision to rapidly bring forward reduction in solar Feed-In Tariffs yet another example of the Government’s policies costing people their livelihoods.

“When are Ministers going to wake up to the real impact of their policies on both the public and private sector in the North East?”