STRABANE CONTINUES TO BE NEGLECTED BY GOVERNMENT

STRABANE CONTINUES TO BE NEGLECTED BY GOVERNMENT

This week the SDLP’s Daniel McCrossan, Constituency Representative highlighted that Strabane continues as the unemployment black spot of the Northwest. Mr McCrossan said; with the difficult economic struggle dragging on, many across this district continue to survive with difficulty and great struggle drained from hope and stressed about what the future holds.  Strabane has faced considerable neglect from Government for decades, even when times were good Strabane still lagged behind the rest of the region due to a major lack of attention by the Northern Ireland Executive.  

In 2009 Government figures placed Strabane at the top of the table as the highest percentage rate of unemployment in Northern Ireland with 6.9% of the working age population of Strabane claiming Job Seekers allowance. In 2011 a study by the Oxford Economics Nomic Claimant Count confirmed the continuation of this devastating decline. The report placed Strabane as the joint second highest rate of unemployment behind Derry and has more than doubled that experienced in North Down and Castlereagh.  A year following this report Strabane is set to lose further jobs from the Social Security Office as a result of further cuts by Government in a town which the Executive have neglected for too long.

The Oxford Economics report, last year released that Strabane needs an additional 800 jobs to match the NI average employment rate of 66.6% in 2010. Following thorough investigation of the report it outlined the needs for Strabane in areas where it fell behind the rest of the region.  In order for our town to reach the Northern Ireland average it requires:

4.5% more school leavers achieving 5+ GCSEs

1,900 more graduates in the population aged 16 to 64 (growth of 39%)

37% increase in average wages (an additional £119 per week)

14.8% increase in average house prices (equivalent of just over £20,400)

1,200 less people on income support (a fall of 61%)

Following studies carried out by our SDLP team we have found a strong link between the Strength of the Economy and Quality of Life. Infrastructure, Enterprise, Skills and Research and Development can lead to a better quality of life for the people of this district in Labour, Crime, safety and security, health, affordability, equality, education, skills and environment.  It is my belief that a strong economy drives the quality of life and vice versa.

Mr McCrossan Continued, “the big challenge now is for the Northern Ireland Executive to manage its financial resources more effectively in order to focus on some regeneration and targeted capital works programmes to create a local economic stimulus, for the construction retail and manufacturing industries. The test now for the Executive is to see if regional Government decision making can be perused more vigorously in order to get better economic performance. Tackling rising unemployment is the biggest challenge ahead for politicians and Government agencies. The time is now right for brave and decisive executive decisions in order to tackle economic challenges facing the people of the North. Banking restrictions in lending continues to cripple local businesses because working capital credit is being reduced by local banks preventing many small businesses from growing or increasing employment. The vicious circle of austerity cuts and restricted bank lending is almost guaranteeing a double dip recession outcome with all the adverse consequences”.