Helen has criticised the new Government’s plans to scrap the Future Jobs Fund and the Child Trust Fund, to freeze Civil Service Recruitment, and to cut funding for Regional Development Agencies.

Helen said:

“I am very disappointed that George Osborne and David Laws have chosen to cut the Future Jobs Fund.

Here in Durham, the County Council and the previous Government working together have created 462 jobs through this scheme because we were determined to help young people in a time of recession.

The new Government are making exactly the same mistakes that the Tories made in the 1980s when they let unemployment go sky high with all dire the consequences that followed.

The Civil Service recruitment freeze will also hit young people entering the jobs market very hard, and the abolition of the Child Trust Fund next year – which helps low income families in our area – demonstrates this Government’s real values.

It is also clear, as David Cameron showed during the election campaign, that the Tories do not understand the needs of the North East – which is why they are cutting the budget for Regional Development agencies.

In Co. Durham, for example, One North East helped over 3,000 business start ups last year, and the £42 million they have secured for the Rural Development Programme will create 980 local jobs. All these are under threat because of the Tories cuts.

So far from being an attack on Whitehall waste as the Government claim, these cuts will create real problems for real people in our area”.