Welcome to Greater Manchester. Oldham is a key player in the city-region and proud to be associated with its success. However, as leader of Oldham I am conscious that we have a number of serious issues to address. Even in the years of Labour plenty the Oldham economy did not prosper. In 20 years we have lost over 50 per cent of our manufacturing jobs. As a borough we have the highest proportion of under-25s in Greater Manchester. As a political leadership we have to be confident and ambitious for our town because, frankly, if we aren’t, who will?
Let’s be clear our first priority is jobs. We want to see more people in work because that is the core of stable and cohesive communities. Bluntly, that’s what the Labour party is for. So what can we do in the face of a national recession? Well the first thing we can do is help rebuild confidence in the local economy. Let me give you three examples:
For years people have talked about a cinema in Oldham and nothing has happened. Now the council has taken charge and work will begin next year in converting the historic old town hall into a state-of-the-art cinema. Not only that but now we have massive interest from the private sector in the available space for restaurants and other facilities. Last year we persuaded a major engineering firm to relocate to Oldham rather than Brazil. Now they want to consolidate their operations onto the new Oldham site. And finally after years of discussion elsewhere we negotiated a deal with the Manchester Hotels Association to locate its groundbreaking hotel academy in Oldham. Work will begin next year and provide Oldham Town with the equivalent of a four star hotel and conference facilities with consequential impact on the rest of the town centre environment.
However, there is no point in creating jobs if they don’t go predominately to Oldham people.
So we have to work with our schools, colleges and major employers to make sure as many Oldham people looking for work are job-ready. We also have to set an example. So from next year all local people who meet the job specification for senior positions in the town hall will be guaranteed an interview. We also have to remove the barriers to work. One of the worst aspects of the government’s welfare-to-work scheme is that it will penalise those in work on low incomes. So we have to try and level that playing field. We are in discussions with our local bus company to provide discounted bus fares to those who want to go to college or in their first year of work. As we currently have the highest bus fares in Europe this could be quite a benefit. Our Labour values mean that we want work to pay. We were one of the first councils outside London to introduce a living wage in 2011. Now we want to extend that principle to our suppliers too.
However, we want our council to be about more than job creation. In fact we want to fundamentally change the relationship with our citizens by becoming a cooperative council and borough. One example will suffice. This week, in association with Ichoosr, we launched a national energy switching campaign open to all councils. In fact the more who join in the greater benefit and we are confident that we can offer savings of up to 150 per year to our residents. A real and practical example of c operative principles in action! Our ultimate ambition is to transform the whole council into a cooperative where everyone does their bit and gets rewarded for their efforts. While we all hope for a Labour government we know that there are hard times for public services for a long time ahead. We cannot carry on with a something for nothing mentality.
So that’s Oldham. A Labour town with Labour values and cooperative principles. In two years’ time when conference is back in Manchester the new tram will run direct from St Peter’s Square to the centre of Oldham. Make sure you pay us a visit!
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Jim McMahon is leader of Oldham council. He will be speaking at a fringe meeting on the Foundations of Growth on Monday 1 October at 5.30pm in the Midland Hotel, Alexandra Suite A
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