St Helens' jobless total grows for the third month in a row

11:56am Wednesday 20th March 2013 in News

Today's stark figures show the number of local people claiming jobseekers' allowance in February was 5,746. Today's stark figures show the number of local people claiming jobseekers' allowance in February was 5,746.

UNEMPLOYMENT in St Helens has increased again.

Today's stark figures show the number of local people claiming jobseekers' allowance in February was 5,746.

That is an increase of 90 since January and the third month in a row that the total has grown. It is also the highest unemployment has been in St  since March last year.

The statistics come against a massive squeeze on public sector finances, with St Helens Council having to find a further £14m in savings in its budget over the next two years.

That budget is already operating on £36m less than in 2010 because of cuts in grants from central government.

The council fears its job losses, which stand at more than 1,000 could rise to about 1,200.

 

Comments(19)

democracyisdead says...
12:27pm Wed 20 Mar 13

Thanks to Labour , come January ,those genuinely seeking amongst work this number will be competing with the rest of Romania for a job. Job's a good'un eh Tony/Gordon !!

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Sankey says...
4:29pm Wed 20 Mar 13

Another highly political story which is nothing about jobless in St. Helens but Marie Rimmer once again moaning about the cuts. And the 1200 figures over the loss of council employees are highly suspect. The real reason for the jobless is there are almost no employers in St. Helens other than takeaways in complete contrast to nearby warrington which has business parks and major employers. You could triple the funding to Marie's cronies in the council and it would not make a heap of dfference to the jobless in St. Helens. Until we get a council leader with competence instead of a throwback to the militant days of the 1970's this town will remain a ghost land. This story in the star is total electioneering for next year that's all. Marie Rimmer has not delivered a thing on her promises at the 2010 election just moaned about funding. She is an utter disgrace both to the town and the Labour Party which deserves better

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Kevfob says...
10:03pm Thu 21 Mar 13

I hear this all the time about the council leader and I am no fan, but there is no chance of this town changing its colours. If is is not her next time, it will be a clone that has been 'trained' to operate and think in the same way. What really grinds me is the continual rant of negativity that comes out of her mouth and the L Party. The one thing that gives me some solace is that Ed M is unelectable. Neil Kinnock version 2.

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Sankey says...
11:43pm Thu 21 Mar 13

I hope you are right Kev but I fear a milliband and clegg coalition wih UKIP splitting the Tory vote. All those people voting UKIP to get immigration under control will get a coalition that will let immigration rip and once again borrow and spend Britain to the brink of ruin. Funny old world insnt it?

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Erics_protege says...
8:40am Fri 22 Mar 13

cuts, cuts, cuts.... Change the record, we've all got the message! How about working for your local electorate rather than your bosses in London??

Can we have some suggestions and policies for what you CAN DO please council?

I run a small business that will hopefully be needing a new office soon. Despite there being new offices on the linkway standing empty my current thinking is that employees and visitors would rather be elsewhere.

I see a council that is quite happy to run this place into the ground and blame the government instead of making it somewhere to be proud of and a cost effective, pleasant place to run a business from.

There are great new developments over at Daresbury, Warrington continues to expand with a new business park starting up off the M62 and Widnes town centre is now much more pleasant as they have invested to attract shoppers. The alternative is a scruffy town centre, poor parking facilities, no decent food outlets for lunch or taking clients and a never ending stream of council screw ups, facilities closing and a worrying focus on crime in the news. Unfortunately a small but growing percentage of local people seem to be following the same trend and have lost all sense of pride and respect for their town and fellow inhabitants.

I don't care which party is in power in St Helens, I just wish they had some new ideas and stopped the rot which I fear is deep and hard to un-do.

If it was a country that had an unshiftable regime the UN would have applied sanctions by now and we would be thinking of sending in the troops!

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Erics_protege says...
8:50am Fri 22 Mar 13

For Example, a low cost initiative that will help regenerate the centre and attract people in:-

Create a partnership with The Princes Trust and offer free rent to all new startup retail businesses for 6 months to take on the empty units. After 6 months agree a percentage of profits as rent until it hits the normal levels.

The trust could help focus on local young NEET's as they did in Burnley and Blackburn and offer business advice, grants and ongoing mentors to try to maximise success and survival.

The trust sees lots of new and exciting business ideas from young people and they would offer more innovative, creative shops than the bakeries and charity shops currently taking over.

I am sure there are issues with the idea but start with a suggestion and find ways around them rather than starting with the problems and blaming someone else for not trying.

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democracyisdead says...
1:49pm Fri 22 Mar 13

Rammer will let nothing thrive under a Tory government. She will see us and the town all in flames first. The modus operandi is let it burn and blame the Tories. Whilst being paid a tidy sum. By us. Great.

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Sankey says...
2:54pm Fri 22 Mar 13

democracyisdead wrote:
Rammer will let nothing thrive under a Tory government. She will see us and the town all in flames first. The modus operandi is let it burn and blame the Tories. Whilst being paid a tidy sum. By us. Great.
She did nothing under a labour government hence all the unemployment in st helens. Directly as a result of her stewardship.

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keepitreel says...
6:33pm Fri 22 Mar 13

we can shout till we are BLUE in the face this town will never change,its ok to have a few shiny new offices and workshops and a nice photo opp for the leader to grimass about (cant call it a smile) the rates and incentives to come to this town prohibit anyone moving in,look at the neighbouring towns with their infrastructure,leisu
re facilities and shopping areas and look at ours,the are a mirror image of the leader,tired rundown and stuck in the 70's,they say people look like their dogs well this town looks like the leader PAST IT'S BEST.

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Sankey says...
10:10am Sat 23 Mar 13

What can be done to rid us of Rimmer nothing !

You could say the town votes her in. But I don't think it does they vote labour who the candidate is, is almost of no consequence to the average labour voter.

And here's where we have a democratic deficit Rimmer has held onto that slot for decades now doing untold damage to this town.

In ultra safe seats like St. Helens there should be a choice on the ballot form party and candidate so say we have choice of 3 labour candidates to be leader of St. Helens every 5 years.

Lets see whether Rimmer is still voted in under those circumstances.

St. Helens is crying out for new ideas and vision.

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anthonywilson says...
2:59pm Sat 23 Mar 13

I'm certainly no fan of the coalition government but certainly no fan of the so called Tory lite version of the Labour party either. Anyone who supports a party that went to war in Iraq over continued lies needs to give themselves a shake to wake themselves up. With regard to St Helens and its leadership well the discussion has been done to death on many previous occassions. Sadly the leadership of the town has been badly lacking and although there certainly are current increases in unemployment the underlying problem was there all the way through the previous Labour government. St Helens hasn;t kicked on as a town compared to others and there is a definite lack of ideas and vision and has been for some time. Unfortunately our political system permits people to get into safe council seats and people have a job for life. Until there is a change of law where councillors are only permitted to serve for say two terms max of eight years and then they have to step down will there be any change. Either that or until the voters wake up and think more critically about the choices on offer and get out to vote, we will sadly have more of the same.

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anthonywilson says...
3:07pm Sat 23 Mar 13

Erics_protege wrote:
cuts, cuts, cuts.... Change the record, we've all got the message! How about working for your local electorate rather than your bosses in London??

Can we have some suggestions and policies for what you CAN DO please council?

I run a small business that will hopefully be needing a new office soon. Despite there being new offices on the linkway standing empty my current thinking is that employees and visitors would rather be elsewhere.

I see a council that is quite happy to run this place into the ground and blame the government instead of making it somewhere to be proud of and a cost effective, pleasant place to run a business from.

There are great new developments over at Daresbury, Warrington continues to expand with a new business park starting up off the M62 and Widnes town centre is now much more pleasant as they have invested to attract shoppers. The alternative is a scruffy town centre, poor parking facilities, no decent food outlets for lunch or taking clients and a never ending stream of council screw ups, facilities closing and a worrying focus on crime in the news. Unfortunately a small but growing percentage of local people seem to be following the same trend and have lost all sense of pride and respect for their town and fellow inhabitants.

I don't care which party is in power in St Helens, I just wish they had some new ideas and stopped the rot which I fear is deep and hard to un-do.

If it was a country that had an unshiftable regime the UN would have applied sanctions by now and we would be thinking of sending in the troops!
I agree entirely and like your suggestion about the Princes Trust as well.
There's lots of ideas that could be tried to make St Helens better, I'm convinced that many our councillors and council leaders live in a bubble and don't travel anywhere to see what other towns are doing or at least trying to change things and make things better.

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butscratcher says...
12:05am Sun 24 Mar 13

Without doubt we need a clear out at the council HQ , they have been in the same seat for far to long but lets thank warrington , wigan , and even liverpool ( fords/jaguar, / JL airport ) because without the delvelopments in these places the unemployment figure in the town could be times by 10 ??? ,

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chasmcn says...
7:13am Sun 24 Mar 13

Sankey wrote:
What can be done to rid us of Rimmer nothing !

You could say the town votes her in. But I don't think it does they vote labour who the candidate is, is almost of no consequence to the average labour voter.

And here's where we have a democratic deficit Rimmer has held onto that slot for decades now doing untold damage to this town.

In ultra safe seats like St. Helens there should be a choice on the ballot form party and candidate so say we have choice of 3 labour candidates to be leader of St. Helens every 5 years.

Lets see whether Rimmer is still voted in under those circumstances.

St. Helens is crying out for new ideas and vision.
Hang on from 2006 to 2010 labour was not in power in local govt so what your saying is not true, other party's can win power if the local populous vote for them

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Sankey says...
9:19am Sun 24 Mar 13

She was in power even when the lib dems had a small majority she had a massive influence,

Good to find we have found a Rimmer fan from somewhere.

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saintsfan says...
2:25pm Sun 24 Mar 13

Erics, I do hope you invest in the town. The town needs people like you, even though Rimmer and her cronies are ideologically opposed to seeing this town thrive. She chooses not to take note of the shop closures that have taken place in St Helens this year, and that those shops are national chains which were zombie companies and therefore incapable of withstanding the challenges of the current climate. Our independents are still there, bar the camera shop, and most are doing very well.

She is determined to undermine any and all attempts to boost the morale within the town and any hope for its future with her out of date and unwelcome ideology.

I didn't vote her in but unfortunately most people in St Helens refuse to vote anything but Labour, even when Labour is a disaster for the town as it has been now for years. I do wish those people would give their heads a wobble and consider that the 1980s are long gone now; there really is no place for classist stupidity because we won't have a town left if she and her cronies remain in power much longer.

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Erics_protege says...
3:58pm Tue 26 Mar 13

Announced today!! http://www.warringto
n.gov.uk/news/articl
e/653/warrington_giv
es_go-ahead_for_mult
i-million_pound_rege
neration_scheme

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Sankey says...
4:41pm Tue 26 Mar 13

Looks good that Eric.

I would not be surpised with the future consolidation of local government and st helens continued decline that st helens comes under the warrington authority it would make a lot of sense in many ways.

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anthonywilson says...
5:22pm Tue 26 Mar 13

Erics_protege wrote:
Announced today!! http://www.warringto

n.gov.uk/news/articl

e/653/warrington_giv

es_go-ahead_for_mult

i-million_pound_rege

neration_scheme
Further information about the scheme is in the Warrington Guardian. http://www.warringto
nguardian.co.uk/news
/10313510.Council_ag
rees___190m_Stadium_
Quarter_plan/?ref=ms

Just been having a look at the comments section and there are three comments which raise issues and concerns about the scheme and the progress being made in Warrington. I suppose many people in other places feel the same as many local people do about St Helens Town Centre. Nonetheless £190 million of investment in any town centre is certainly not to be sniffed at in this era of economic stagnation and it looks like Warrington will be further stealing a match on St Helens. Some of our well paid £100k salary plus "regeneration leaders" need to wake up and get their finger out and start attracting investment into St Helens town centre of the same levels.

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