The UK’s Employment Minister has defended the closure of Jobcentres in Glasgow amid accusations the plans were drawn up using Google Maps.
Damian Hinds insisted the proposals would not leave Glasgow with a thinner network of services than other comparable cities, but he was urged to go back to the drawing board when he appeared before Westminster’s Scottish Affairs Committee.
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) intends to shut half of the 16 Jobcentres in the city, with a consultation launched on the planned closure of Bridgeton, Castlemilk and Maryhill services.
SNP MP Margaret Ferrier questioned whether Mr Hinds had visited any of the Glasgow sites, pointing out that Castlemilk was “nowhere near” the proposed alternative service at Newlands.
“It looks as if it was Google Maps that was used to work out these distances,” she said.
Conservative MP Anna Soubry added: “It looks like it is one of those desktop exercises by somebody 100 miles away.
“Why don’t you actually scrub everything and start again because the evidence this committee has heard is that these eight that you’ve selected will actually pretty much not serve anybody than the existing claimants that are using them.
“We just need to know on what criteria were these eight closed, because we have heard overwhelming evidence that for a lot of people it will take them an hour to get to their new one. That’s a long time and it’s £4.50, in a city, it’s not a rural area.”
Mr Hinds said he had not visited any of the Glasgow sites himself, adding: “The proposal for Jobcentres across Glasgow, as is the case for all the other cities, all the other places and areas we’re looking at, is to try and have a network which works across the city.
“Yes it is the case that when you are removing some of those, when you’re closing some of them, then there will be longer distances for some people and where those distances go beyond the criteria that I mentioned we have a public consultation. One of the purposes of the public consultation is precisely to ask the questions about what impact it will have on people.”
Mr Hinds denied the process was one of estate rationalisation taking priority over customer convenience.
He said: “This is about making sure that we are effectively using space, you can call that rationalisation but it is effective use of space.
“It’s about making sure that you have a network which is accessible to people, which does the things that have to be done but doesn’t spend money unnecessarily, which then leaves more money to be able to invest in things like people and work coaches who we know have a real positive effect on helping people into work.”
Karen Gosden, director of the DWP’s people and locations programme, added: “We were looking to strike the balance between making effective use of taxpayers’ money, delivering a high-quality service to our customers and minimising the impact on our people.”
Article originally published by Evening Times
