Gentleman talks of the importance of debt reduction, although he does so very much at national rather than local level. Gentleman should not throw that red herring into the debate. It was a Conservative Government who told local authorities that they could keep all their capital receipts only to start to plunder them. Gentleman should do his homework.
Lower unemployment means lower social security costs.
In fact, the cost of social security, under my right hon. In effect, it means that in order to achieve our other targets we do not have to make it more and more difficult for people who need social security to claim it. During the period from 1979 to 1997, 42p in every pound was being used to pay off debt. That is down to about 16p at present. All in all, we must congratulate my right hon.