Financial Resolutions, 1978: Financial Statement, Budget, 1978. - Job-creation measures introduced since July 1977
Clearly these measures did not go far enough. An altogether more radical approach was required—wide-ranging job-creation by direct Government action combined with a systematic assault on the factors which frustrate growth in output and employment in the economy. On assuming office, the Government had a clear view of their priorities in this regard. Our mandate was unambiguous—get the country moving again and provide more employment.
We set ourselves specific short-term job-creation targets. These were:—
—10,000 extra jobs in the public sector for which we proposed to allocate £50 million
—5,000 extra jobs and £30 million investment in the building and construction sector
—5,000 extra jobs from spending £20 million on youth employment projects.
No time was lost in setting about the task. Department and State-sponsored agencies were directed to give priority to the identification of worthwhile job opportunities capable of early implementation. Suggestions were invited from the public : their views are always welcome. Notwithstanding the difficulty attached to drawing up and implementing expenditure plans in the second half of a budget year, we were sucessful to the extent that by the end of 1977 more than 5,000 jobs had actually materialised under the Government's job-creation strategy.
The Government's commitment to the attainment of the target of direct creation of 20,000 jobs is firm. Job-creation spending was given top priority in settling the 1978 departmental allocations. With the exception of provisions made for implementation of other manifesto commitments, to which I shall refer later, expenditure on many on-going services was sharply curtailed and in some cases actually reduced in order to contribute to the funds required for job-creation. The Government's programme can be viewed under three main headings—public sector, building and construction and youth.