Description: The money made in the City is of little interest to the 26,000 people who live across from Tower Bridge. They are 25% of Southwark’s working population who are looking for a job. Many are older workers with skills; others are school-leavers like Pat and Kevin. Kevin is 19, he moved to Bermondsey when he was 11 and has 2 CSEs. Pat is 20, born in Peckham and has 9 O-levels. Despite her academic record she has been offered cleaning jobs and working in Wimpy. She and Kevin have been going to the dole office in Camberwell for more than a year. The government’s current attempt at making jobs such as the North Peckham Task Force seems to be having little impact. In Peckham there is the highest density of unemployment in Britain. In some areas of Southwark, where there are areas with over 40% unemployment, finding a job is not an easy task. Pat says it’s a horrifying experience, especially going to the DHSS. The government very often criticises young people saying they are really lazy and don’t want to work but she says she and her friends do want to work. Kevin says his uncle was made redundant at 45 and has no chance of getting a job now. Pat says if you go to places where there is high unemployment you will always see deprivation. If people think you live like a pig in a slum you will act like one. Kevin says people can’t afford the goods in the shops even though the goods are there. Pat says she believes that Southwark could be a really nice place to live, but instead they spend money on private property and flats and offices that don’t employ the local people. The Council argues that the private sector has failed to provide jobs for local people and people with valuable skills find themselves out of work. The Council wants to help manufacturing industries back on their feet but this will take time and there is only one way of getting people back into work and that is invest in the public sector: building maintenance, education, cleansing, public transport, parks, healthcare and road maintenance. Young people need training and appropriate skills, whilst others need retraining or existing skills put to work. The Council’s plans should bring about 6,000 jobs in the next 2 years. In the first year 2,300 jobs in the public sector, building to over 4,300 a year later. Jobs that would generate a further 1400 in the public sector. The film then projects what will happened to Pat in the next three years: She’ll be 23, still living with her parents; series of temporary jobs; currently cleaning offices; little money no prospects. But could be another outcome: Pat was taken on by Southwark Council to work in a library where she was given training in new technology. In 1990 she was taken on by a firm in Camberwell producing computer software for the health service. Kevin’s life projection is also bleak: he’ll be 22; long-term unemployed; suffers from depression; friends in trouble with the police; no money; no prospects. But in an alternative scenario, Kevin got a job with the council as part of a scheme to modernize housing estates. He started work as a carpenter in one of the council’s newly-established industries. Southwark believes that investing in Pat and Kevin’s futures is an investment in all our futures. Local and central government need to act now to invest in a positive future. Pat says her mum expected her to get a job straightaway but she realizes now that it’s not her but that there’s a lot of people out there with more skills who are unemployed. Pat and her mother both hope she can get a job soon.