Call for £90bn jobs fund

A LEADING economist called today for immediate action to get people back to work as more firms warned of job losses.

Bank of England monetary policy committee member David Blanchflower said there should be a £90 billion "fiscal stimulus" over the next two years spent on public projects to create jobs. He said the level of spending would "translate to creating 750,000 new jobs".

But Professor Blanchflower's intervention, which would create an even bigger deficit for the Government, came amid hundreds of job losses across the insurance industry.

Legal and General said it would lose 450 workers while RSA, which includes Sun Alliance, announced plans to axe 1,200 jobs. The firm said it would make the cuts by the middle of next year and aimed to improve operational efficiency and reduce costs.

The wider economy was also hit. Carphone Warehouse said 450 jobs were under threat and rail and bus operator National Express said it would be making further redundancies in an attempt to cut costs.