The final item of business today is a members’ business debate on motion S4M-11082, in the name of Paul Martin, on creating jobs in Glasgow’s east end. The debate will be concluded without any question being put.
Motion debated,
That the Parliament welcomes the news that the £45 million expansion of the Fort Shopping Centre in the east end of Glasgow is expected to establish around 500 new jobs; recognises what it sees as the need to ensure that large-scale developments such as this are not missed opportunities for local jobseekers, and notes the view that there is a need to bring together businesses, employers, social enterprises and charities to create more jobs and apprenticeships in the east end.
17:06
I take this opportunity to thank colleagues from across the parties for supporting the motion in my name. Many members who are here this evening will be familiar with the Glasgow Fort. I advise members that there are just seven days left until Christmas. I know that there are many bargains to be had at the Glasgow Fort, at junction 10 of the M8, so you should take advantage of that on your way home this evening.
The Fort shopping centre provides more than 2,500 jobs and is located in the Easterhouse area of my constituency, Glasgow Provan. Members may be aware of some of the background and the challenges that face the east end of Glasgow, particularly Easterhouse, with its high concentration of unemployment.
It was recently announced that Marks and Spencer will build an extension to its existing facility at the Glasgow Fort, which will add another 500 jobs to the existing 2,500. I am sure that, like the whole community, every member in the chamber will agree with me that the extension is welcome in an area of high unemployment. At the same time, we must ensure that the investment benefits those who live in the locality of the Fort.
I was compelled to lodge the motion after having a conversation with a young man who lives directly across from the Glasgow Fort. He welcomed the expansion of the facility, but he advised me that he had been facing a number of difficulties in securing permanent employment since leaving college. He said that, most importantly, he wanted to work. When I discussed with him the new jobs that are coming to the Fort, he advised me that, due to the gaps in his employment history and the challenges that he faced in creating a CV, he did not feel that he would be given the opportunity to pursue the jobs that are coming with the expansion of the Fort.
I find that unacceptable. That young man, other young people in Easterhouse, and indeed other people elsewhere who wish to take up such employment opportunities in their local area should be given the opportunity to take them up.
Simply put in my terms, there is no lack of aspiration to work; there is a lack of opportunity. We in the Parliament have the responsibility and the powers available to us to take action in that respect.
Unfortunately, there are many other people in my constituency and in other parts of Glasgow and beyond who find themselves in a similar position. We have a responsibility to reverse that trend. As I have said, it is important that, as a local member, I recognise and welcome the investment, but we need to take action and consider how we can reverse the trend that I have described.
I have already written to the chief executive of Marks and Spencer, and I have called on him to employ local jobseekers and to work with the council’s Jobs & Business Glasgow organisation to consider how we can support those who wish to gain employment in the Glasgow Fort. I welcome the positive reply that I have received from the chief executive of Marks and Spencer, and I look forward to meeting the company in the new year to discuss various initiatives to give local people the opportunities that they deserve.
I would also like Marks and Spencer to follow the lead of one of its rivals, Tesco. When I represented Springburn, I worked with Tesco on the St Rollox initiative, which ensured that 450 local people from Springburn were employed at its store in St Rollox. Many of them still work there. As part of that initiative, one gentleman, who had not worked for 25 years, got the support that he deserved and was able to secure employment at the store.
My main ask of the Scottish Government is that it encourages employers to employ locally and puts in place the resources necessary to take that forward. As I have said, there are a number of very complex reasons why individuals are not able to gain employment, but it is the responsibility of members in this chamber to take the matter forward.
Unemployment, with its costs to and challenges for our economy, is unacceptable, and I think that all of us in the chamber are united in taking action on the issue. In citing the St Rollox initiative, which prepared people to apply for the posts that became available, I have highlighted a specific example of best practice. I also welcome the £45 million investment that has been made in the local area with the expansion of the Glasgow Fort as well as other investments in the area, and I very much look forward to working with, I hope, the Scottish Government and local employers to ensure that we make a difference and give people a genuine opportunity to be employed in the locality.
17:12
I thank Paul Martin for bringing this motion to the chamber. As he will realise, the Fort is not currently in my constituency, but once upon a time it was, when I represented Glasgow East at Westminster. In fact, it holds a very special place in my memory. In summer 2008, both of the main parties did a lot of campaigning there for the by-election, and I especially remember the morning of Friday 25 July 2008, when we met the media there to celebrate the Scottish National Party winning the by-election.
Over the years, I have seen the Fort develop from its early days when, as I remember, some local people did not even like the name because they felt that it was overly warlike and not good for the Easterhouse area. However, we seem to have got over that problem. Being on the motorway into and out of Glasgow has also been an advantage for Easterhouse, certainly with regard to this particular development. In fact, Easterhouse has benefited from its location in comparison with some of Glasgow’s other post-war peripheral housing schemes such as Drumchapel and Castlemilk, and it is now very much at the centre of things.
At the beginning, there were delays in attracting to the Fort some kind of leisure facility, even though that had been a commitment from the beginning by the developers and Glasgow City Council. I am glad that, as well as the shopping experience, we now have a Vue cinema and a whole range of eating places.
From the early days, there was a realisation that many shoppers would come from a distance by using their cars and the motorway, but there was also a commitment to providing as many jobs as possible for local people. Presumably the situation varies slightly from employer to employer but, to be fair to the Fort as a whole, I think that a serious effort has been made to fulfil that commitment. Indeed, as Paul Martin has eloquently pointed out, the same will be the case with the present expansion.
One of the reasons why I enjoyed using the Fort at first was that it had a really good bookshop in the shape of Borders. Of course, Borders is no longer there, and I think that its story paints a picture of the retail sector and, frankly, the jobs that can go with it. When I was younger, the place to buy books in Glasgow was John Smith & Son in St Vincent Street—I suspect that other members remember it, as well. However, Borders and the other big chains went into Glasgow city centre and to the out-of-town shopping centres such as the Fort, and John Smith & Son and many smaller shops got squeezed out. Over time, of course, Borders has been squeezed out by the likes of Amazon.
My memory of Borders is that, as well as being a good bookshop, it had a name for being a somewhat poor employer and very much anti-trade union. That raises the question of some jobs being better than others and some employers being better than others. I very much welcome the expansion of the Fort and the new jobs that come alongside that, but are they really new jobs, or are they in effect a transfer of jobs from smaller shops that have been squeezed out by the big chains that inhabit retail parks?
I guess that it is a mixture of both. These days, people do not have a lot of extra money to spend, and they can spend each pound only once in one shop. On the other hand, I hope that people are being attracted to Glasgow from other parts of Scotland and beyond and that the number of retail sales is increasing.
The motion mentions the wider east end. There has been a lot to welcome in the east end this year, not least with the Commonwealth games, which brought both temporary and permanent jobs. Clyde Gateway has done great work with regeneration, and the new police building at Dalmarnock will increase footfall, even though many of the jobs are transferring. That will have a knock-on effect.
I hope to be at the Fort tomorrow evening rather than this evening, as I hope to take part in carol singing at Morrisons. I am sure that Mr Martin, the Presiding Officer and any other members would be very welcome to take part in that, as well, if they would like to do so.
17:16
I congratulate my colleague Paul Martin on securing this very worthwhile and important debate.
The motion is about creating jobs in Glasgow’s east end, of course, but I am sure that the Presiding Officer will appreciate that my constituency stretches from the north-west of the city to the east and that, in fact, at several points Mr Martin’s constituency and mine run along opposite sides of the same road. In any case, a job that is located in the east end of the city may, on occasion at least—with all due respect to Mr Martin—be an opportunity for someone in a neighbouring constituency, too.
Paul Martin rightly identified the good practice that Tesco demonstrated when it opened its superstore at St Rollox, which is now in my constituency following the boundary changes in 2011. Working with local partners, including the much-missed Glasgow North Regeneration Agency under the guidance of its excellent chief executive, Cathy Lang, Tesco went out of its way to prepare and recruit local people for its new store. Even those who were not fortunate enough to be employed by it had the opportunity to learn the basic skills that are needed in the world of work. Over the years, I have spoken to a number of people who used that experience and successfully found employment elsewhere.
Having learned from Paul Martin’s knowledge of what happened at St Rollox, I was particularly keen to ensure that Tesco operated a similar programme when it enlarged its store in Maryhill. I am pleased that it decided to operate a similar scheme there and provided pre-interview training and assistance, for example with CV preparation.
We are really talking about local jobs for local people. I would argue that the constituencies that Paul Martin and I have the privilege to represent contain the best people and the most vibrant communities, but they also have some of the highest levels of deprivation in the country. That disturbs me greatly, and it motivated me to become involved in politics in the first place. Paul Martin is absolutely right when he says that large developments in the east end of the city must also be opportunities for local people and that all agencies and organisations must come together to create more jobs and apprenticeships.
In my constituency, we hope soon to see a major retail facility built on the site of the former North British Locomotive Company works at Carlisle Street in Springburn. The site was cleared in the 1960s and has stood deserted ever since. The proposals that Forge Properties has put forward could spur further regeneration in the area and, crucially, provide a food shopping hub in an area that is sadly lacking in that kind of possibility. New roads and other infrastructure would follow, of course, and some 611 jobs are likely to be created.
I and the local councillors for the area, Chris Kelly and Helen Stephen, want to work with the developer to ensure that jobs go to people in our community and neighbouring areas both during the construction phase and when the centre opens. We will do everything in our power to make that happen. However, we need to ensure that all other agencies are also partners in that work, particularly Jobs & Business Glasgow.
Again, I congratulate Paul Martin, and I sincerely hope that his hard work on Glasgow Fort pays off for his constituents, as his previous efforts at St Rollox did for Springburn.
17:20
I congratulate Paul Martin on securing this members’ business debate tonight. His entreaty for some last-minute Christmas shopping will be noted in the Official Report of the debate, which I hope will be pored over avidly tomorrow by our colleagues, who might be tempted to proceed directly to the Fort to get their last-minute Christmas presents.
I welcome the expansion of the Fort shopping centre in the east end of Glasgow and in particular the opportunities for jobseekers that the expansion will create. I thank the member for Glasgow Provan for highlighting the hugely important issue of job creation and, therefore, apprenticeship opportunities—points that John Mason and Patricia Ferguson took up. I will focus on a number of issues of relevance to those issues.
As far as skills training and access to the jobs market is concerned, it is worth noting that the most recent United Kingdom Commission for Employment and Skills survey outlines a number of key strengths in skills and training in Scotland, including positive feedback on the work readiness of our young people. The survey found that young people in Scotland are the best prepared for work in the UK and that the situation in relation to skills gaps is improving. However, we want more firms to play a part in supporting our people towards fair and sustainable employment, and our efforts to achieve that will be stepped up further in the coming year in the context of our refreshed youth employment strategy.
I appreciate all efforts to encourage and support young people into employment, but the kind of people who have particularly benefited from Tesco’s initiatives are those who have been out of the job market for a long time and struggle with issues of confidence and skills. Those people are probably the hardest to reach—to use a clichéd phrase—but are most genuinely in need of that kind of support.
I thank Patricia Ferguson for her comment, which is a fair one. Indeed, there is a recognition that there are a number of people who are further away from the jobs market who do need support. Our refreshed youth employment strategy is intended to provide the support needed to ensure that all young people have an opportunity to get into the workplace.
Skills Development Scotland has been working with the Scottish funding council, local authorities and others to develop regional skills assessments. That work will help to improve understanding of the skills and labour market demands across Scotland. Last month, SDS published a series of 11 regional skills assessments covering the length and breadth of Scotland, including the Glasgow region and Glasgow and Clyde Valley. The collaborative approach employed in developing the assessments reiterates the Scottish Government’s commitment to work with our employers to ensure that our skills and education systems are closely aligned with economic opportunities.
Mention was made of the Commonwealth games legacy, which is also of relevance in this context. Members will be aware that the Scottish Government and its key partners began planning a legacy fit for the Commonwealth games back in 2008. Central to those plans were our and our partners’ ambitions to increase movement for Scottish people into employment, training and volunteering, increase the growth of Scottish businesses and help Scotland to attract new business investments. As part of that, the Scottish Government has provided £125 million to Clyde Gateway since 2007, helping to remediate land, create office and industrial space, attract inward investment and generate job opportunities in the east end of Glasgow.
In addition, the £500 million spent on the construction and refurbishment of games venues and the athletes’ village in the east end of Glasgow over the six years leading to 2014 has, on average, supported 1,000 jobs and contributed £52 million to Scotland’s gross value added in each year. Furthermore, 500 jobs, including 168 apprenticeships, were provided for the long-term unemployed and education leavers on Commonwealth games infrastructure-related contracts, as well as opportunities for investment from local businesses and social enterprises.
Clyde Gateway also seeks to support local people to access the opportunities that regeneration of the area is bringing. Community benefit clauses form a mandatory part of contracts that are delivered by Clyde Gateway, providing jobs and training for local people. Where jobs cannot be provided due to the specialist nature of the work, alternative community benefits are agreed with the contractor.
It is also worth noting that Clyde Gateway is delivering a range of employment and training projects to support people into work, many for the first time, and it has agreed a joint action plan with Skills Development Scotland to support the specific employability and training needs in the area. That perhaps covers the concern that Ms Ferguson expressed.
I mentioned the youth employment strategy that we published on Monday, which responds to the report by Sir Ian Wood and his commission for developing Scotland’s young workforce. In the debate that we had this afternoon, we set out a radical plan to offer young people the skills and knowledge that they need to move from education into the world of work. I agree with Paul Martin that all of us, as parliamentarians, have a responsibility to do what we can with the powers that we have in the Parliament to ensure that every young person has a chance to make their way in life. That is certainly a duty that I take very seriously indeed.
The milestones over the next six years are clear and ambitious. We have committed to taking the action that is needed to meet our ambitious target of reducing youth unemployment by 40 per cent by 2021. The Government has already committed £12 million this year—and £16.6 million is planned for 2015-16—to support and develop the plans that are outlined in the implementation plan. That funding demonstrates our commitment to ensuring that the resources are in place to make real our vision of a world-class vocational education system. We will improve the options for young people to help them to get into sustainable jobs that will drive economic growth and so reduce youth unemployment to the levels of the best-performing countries in Europe. The programme aims to achieve systemic change across schools, colleges, training provision and employers, underpinned by consistent and sustained support from this Government.
Those actions will sit alongside our existing successful actions to tackle youth unemployment. They include the opportunities for all programme, which is a commitment to offer a place in education or training to 16 to 19-year-olds who need it, and our modern apprenticeships programme. We are continuing to deliver 25,000 modern apprenticeship starts a year and we plan to go further by increasing the target to 30,000 by 2020.
I am pleased to have had the opportunity tonight to respond to Mr Martin’s debate. I stress that, although much has been achieved and developments such as the highlighted one at Glasgow Fort are important to drive recovery, there is still a great deal to do. The member can be assured that we will use every possible opportunity for Government, local government, businesses, employers, social enterprises, the third sector and the people of Scotland to work together to ensure that we maximise job creation and apprenticeship opportunities in Glasgow’s east end and, indeed, across Scotland.
Meeting closed at 17:28.Previous
Decision Time