On Wednesday I visited a fantastic company at the edge of our Gateshead Constituency employing eighteen people, some of whom live in Gateshead. This company was bought to my attention by ‘Defence Matters’ working on behalf of the ministry of defence because over thirty percent of Springwell’s business is a contract to manufacture parts for anti-tank weaponry for the armed forces. Without this contract Springwell would have struggled to survive the recession. Their turn over has dropped from over two million to seven hundred and fifty thousand over the last few years.
Springwell has spoken with a number of Labour ministers during this last government asking for funding for apprenticeships to train young people for the highly skilled work they carry out. It is astounding the company has had no support. Springwell’s managing director Phil says within two years of that apprentice working full time after training the Government would have that money back in taxes. He went on to say
‘When I see people in their early twenties are stacking shelves in the Supermarket I think what a waste when they could be trained in our industry and double their Salary’.
If the government is spending so much on training young people during this recession why are they ignoring the requests of our local manufacturing businesses? Phil perhaps nailed it on the head when he pinpointed the lack of political debate up here due to the strength of the Labour party meant no one was holding their actions to account. Get in touch with me if you have similar concerns as I raise the profile of local business requests in our area.
