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‘50,000 new jobs for the North East’ but do Bdaily readers believe in George Osborne?

Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne is to outline plans to create 50,000 new jobs in the North East over the next five years.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer will visit businesses across the region today (Friday 27) to a long-term government plan to boost the regional economy by £6 billion.

I’m wondering what do Bdaily think of George Osborne. Will the Chancellor be true to his promise?

Will George Osborne will deliver on his promise to create 50,000 jobs in the North East by 2020?

Views from the region

Rob Charlton CEO of Space Architecture said: “Any visit by the Chancellor to the North East has to be a positive. It’s always great to see members of the cabinet get out of London. However, you could be cynical and link this to the impending election. Also, with these kinds of statements it is easy to say but not so easy to ‘do’.

“I think investment in infrastructure such as rail and road is the right thing to do, we will benefit for the new rolling stock on the East coast and we are desperate to get the A1 M situation resolved.

“Supporting young people in manufacturing and pharmaceuticals is critical and there has been some investment in this area. On top of these regional measures there has to be the right environment for business and entrepreneurship via central Government policy.

“The North East has a great quality of life and we need to build on how we capitalise on this to ensure we attract and grow the talent of the future.”

Jonathon Stokes, Head of Dispute Resolution at Gordon Brown Law Firm, said: “50,000 jobs over five years sounds great, but in reality is it is an empty promise.

“Firstly, the London-centric Tories would never allow that kind of largesse toward the North East. Secondly, it is nigh on impossible to measure. Yes, we can look at figures and say employment has increased but are they new jobs, or frozen posts released?

“Are we measuring like-for-like? We know how Governments like to change or alter – sorry, improve – how these figures are calculated so proving, or from his perspective, disproving, any claim to success will be difficult.

“Finally, who says whether any job creation actually stems from anything the Chancellor does? It is a sound bite; but for him it is a no-brainer. He can argue an outcome in his favour no matter what and how will we show otherwise?”

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