Unemployment rises to its highest level in Harborough for almost 30 years

A Harborough councillor is urging Prime Minister Boris Johnson to help rescue the district now as unemployment soared to its highest level locally for almost 30 years.

Cllr Phil Knowles said the Government has to beef up support for local people and businesses as the UK plunged into its most catastrophic recession in living memory.

He spoke out as new figures show that 2,150 people were jobless and claiming benefits across Harborough district last month.

That’s over three times the number out of work before the Covid-19 lockdown began on Monday March 23 – and the highest since 1992.

Cllr Knowles, who heads up Harborough council’s Liberal Democrat opposition, said: “These figures are frightening - we are living in unprecedented times.

“It’s terrible for every single man and woman who has lost their job throughout Harborough, for their family and for our wider economy.

“So I am calling on Prime Minister Boris Johnson and our Government to do more now to help and support us.”

He said the Government has to investigate and study ways of getting behind individuals as well as stopping the ailing local economy plunging into a coronavirus deep freeze.

“The furlough job retention scheme is due to end at the end of October.

“So the situation will obviously darken even more then when many more people will lose their jobs,” warned Cllr Knowles.

“The Government can’t just switch off these economic life support schemes.

“They have to keep them under constant review as we head on into the autumn.

“It’s a devastating blow for every single worker when they lose their job.

“But it’s also got a massive knock-on effect for local shops, pubs, businesses, services and so on.

“People just haven’t got the disposable income available any more to plough into our high streets.

“And because they haven’t got the same spending power that puts our local economy into serious peril as well.”

The leading Liberal Democrat insisted the Government should launch specially-targeted programmes to “carry us through the next 12 months at least”.

“Covid-19 is devastating our entire national economy.

“And it’s not going anywhere yet,” said Cllr Knowles.

“The threat to our health, our society and our economy is still very much real.

“I fully realise that the Government hasn’t got a mythical money tree it can shake.

“I know that it’s going to take a long time to turn this around.

“But we cannot simply sit back and allow our economy to fall apart.

“We have to go forward with the furlough scheme in some way, shape or form.

“We have to set up workers’ retraining and reskilling programmes, strive to keep employment as high as we can and focus on realistic jobs for the future.

“There’s a real need here for day to day co-operation at the highest level right across the political spectrum.

“We as a council will go on promoting ‘shop local’ campaigns, imploring people to continue to spend their money here to save and protect local traders and businesses.”

Cllr Phil King said it was “deeply concerning” as figures show 1,215 men and 935 women in Harborough are now jobless – that’s 3.9 per cent of the working population.

Young people and school leavers are being battered by the coronavirus crisis as 31 per cent of those looking for work are aged between 16 and 25.

Cllr King, who leads Harborough council, warned that thousands of people in the district are still furloughed.

“They are still not back at work and there’s a lot of uncertainty over jobs – it’s very worrying.

“Our council is doing everything it can to support people and businesses locally,” he said.

“We are working flat out to encourage companies and businesses to re-open and to continue to invest in Harborough.”

Cllr King spoke as new statistics show that the UK economy shrank by a stunning 20.4 per cent in the three months to June - the biggest fall in modern history.