New hope for UK's unemployment capital
Birmingham is being targeted by the Government for urgent action to reduce dole queues after the city was revealed as one of the UK's top unemployment blackspots. Business Editor JON GRIFFIN looks at the action planned for those areas, while poppy brady discovers how desperate circumstances are in Ladywood.
IT WAS grim but not unexpected news - Birmingham has three of the worst jobless zones in the UK.
Ladywood, Sparkbrook and Hodge Hill are in the top four for unemployment in an unemployment league table of constituencies.
Ladywood has 7,346 people out of work (20 per cent), Sparkbrook 5,687 (14.9 per cent) and Hodge Hill 3,409 (12 per cent).
A series of initiatives is now planned by the Department of Work and Pensions, with the Government today repeating it was determined to reduce the jobless figures.
A spokesman for the Department for Work and Pensions said:
"Birmingham has been highlighted by the DWP as an area that needs intensive targeted help following the Government's Green Paper on welfare reforms.
"In particular, Birmingham's black and Asian population is at a significant disadvantage in the local labour market and this contributes to pockets of intense deprivation.
"Jobcentre Plus is already working with key stakeholders, like the Learning and Skills Council, to focus on improving employment opportunities for disadvantaged groups of people in Birmingham."
The DWP said a key part of its strategy was the Fair Cities Birmingham initiative, led by PricewaterhouseCoopers regional chairman David Waller, which aimed to fill 18,500 jobs by 2010.
"Fair Cities is targeting its activity in three of the most disadvantaged wards in Birmingham - Aston, Lozells and East Handsworth and Sparkbrook," added the spokesman.
* Have your say on this story at www.birminghammail.net/news/yoursay
