Invitation to Olympic Park by Hugh Robertson MP with Cllr Tim Archer

Visit to the Olympic park I went on a tour of the Olympic Park this month thanks to Hugh Robertson MP(Shadow Sports & Olympics Minister). Two things strike you as you go round; firstly how it’s really taking shape and secondly how it’s nearer (geographically) than you think to Tower Hamlets and this constituency. When you drive past the entrance on the A12 towards Walthamstow, it feels like it’s near but a few miles away. When you visit the site and leave by the exit nearest to Canary Wharf, you realise that it’s nearest point to us is just meters away from the Town Hall. So it’s all the more disappointing that just 3% of the workforce on the site is actually from Tower Hamlets.Even though we have the highest rate of unemployment of anywhere in England we are losing out to other host boroughs when it comes to local residents getting jobs there. Unemployment locally is more than just a passing thing due to the recession – it’s more structural than that. Locally, more needs to be done to give local unemployed people the skills, the attributes and the incentives to get local jobs when they become available.