Articles | Brown's 100,000 jobs deal

Labour's 100,000 jobs deal

Published: Sunday, 4 January 2009, 7:33AM

Gordon Brown has pledged to create 100,000 jobs in a public spending programme.

The Prime Minister said projects for school repairs, new rail links and a better broadband infrastructure would help stem rising unemployment.

In a newspaper interview, Mr Brown said he wanted to get banks lending again but denied he was planning a second bail-out package.

He said: "Clearly we have banks that were willing to take large numbers of risks a year or two ago and people are now averse to risk, so we have got to create the conditions in which it's possible for banks to resume lending."

Asked if that might mean more public money being handed to financial institutions, he added: "That is not the first thing on any agenda. The more important thing is getting the resumption of lending by other means."

The Prime Minister said his aim to make jobs his top priority for 2009 after the British Chambers of Commerce predicted unemployment would top 3 million this year.

He will host a summit on the issue on January 12 where initiatives could include helping firms provide extra training for workers forced to switch to part-time employment.

Mr Brown said: "There's some companies that may be working people three or four days a week and using the next day for training, perhaps. "We are looking at a whole range of things we can do."

He added investing in the green economy would also help offset the effects of the recession, saying: "Rather than pushing the environment into a lower order of priority, the environment is part of the solution."

Shadow chancellor George Osborne said: "If the Government has to revisit bank recapitalisation then it will be a stunning admission that their whole approach to the recession isn't working. Gordon Brown's recession policies are becoming an expensive failure."