Last month, Labour announced more than £100million of new investment to help re-train people who have been made redundant so they can get back to work quickly. This was followed by an additional £27million in early November.

I was also pleased to hear that the Rapid Response Service has been stepped up. The scheme is open to every workplace notifying Jobcentre Plus of 20 or more redundancies – this minimum number is flexible in rural communities like ours. It provides urgent intervention to help workers find new jobs, brush up on job search skills and open up training and retraining opportunities.

The government is also reforming unemployment benefit to help people stay in their homes.

Under previous rules people losing jobs only got help with mortgage costs up to £100,000 and only after 39 weeks of being unemployed. I welcome the move to bring this forward to 13 weeks and increase the amount to the average house value, £175,000, which extends the safety net for local mortgage holders who lose their job.

It's also worth remembering though that despite these difficult times, in October 227,000 people stopped claiming Job Seekers Allowance, after finding a job and incapacity benefit claims have fallen by 47,000 this year. Both testament to the increased support now available and to the continued availability of jobs in the economy.

We have all seen the terrible news of several local employers recently going into administration.

We need to remember that for every family, each redundancy is a personal tragedy and government needs to help in whatever way it can.

I expect to see local agencies working together to support those losing their jobs and working closely with the Rapid Response Service and other initiatives to provide support.

I recently discussed this support package with Business Department minister Pat McFadden and will continue to raise issues faced by Berwick at the highest levels.

I am also following closely the leading role the Prime Minister is taking in building consensus for a global solution, which I believe is the only way to tackle the underlying cause of the difficulties we are experiencing.
Alan Strickland,
Parliamentary Spokesperson for Berwick-upon-Tweed,
The Labour Party