452 extra on dole in spite ofcorp. tax cuts

In his first budget Conservative Chancellor George Osborne lowered the rate of tax on the profits of large corporations from 28 per cent to 26 per cent.

Further reductions kicked in in April 2012 with the rate falling to 24 per cent and the Conservative/Liberal Democrat Government is committed to another reduction to 22 per cent in 2014.

Speaking at Westminster Owen Paterson claimed the business tax cuts have helped create 57k new jobs in Northern Ireland.

He stated: “The low corporation tax rate in Ireland has been a key factor in attracting investment. The ministerial working group chaired by my hon. Friend the Exchequer Secretary is considering the potential impact of devolving the power to vary the corporation tax rate to the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Asked by Conservative MP Philip Davies what discussions he has held with the Northern Ireland Executive and Treasury to try to lower the corporation tax rate in Northern Ireland, he replied: “Thanks to the reductions in corporation tax introduced by my right hon. Friend the Chancellor, 57,000 more people are in jobs in Northern Ireland than were in jobs before the election.

“The ministerial group is working closely with Ministers in the devolved Administration, the Northern Ireland Office and the Treasury to establish whether further steps could be taken to reduce corporation tax and devolve it to Northern Ireland, and we will report later in the summer.”

But despite the apparent improvement in Northern Ireland as a whole the changes introduced by the Conservative/Liberal Democrat Government have not helped the city of Londonderry.

In April 2010 when the Government took power 4,980 people (7.2 per cent of people of working age) in Londonderry were claiming the dole.

Now 5,862 people (8.2 per cent of people of working age) are claiming the dole - an extra 452 over the two years the new Government has been in power.