The Commons: What is Labour’s ‘Get Britain Working’ Campaign?
“To get Britain Growing again, we’ve got to get Britain working again”. The key message that surrounds the UK Government’s new plan to revitalize the British economy is to get British people back to work. During the election campaign in July, the Labour party promised to grow the economy after years of what economists call ‘stagflation’. Following an era of high inflation caused by the debt incurred over the Covid pandemic and boosted by Liz Truss’s mini budget in 2022, the new Government have a mountain to climb if they are to reverse the UK’s fortunes and bring growth back to Britain. Their new plan suggests an employment drive is key to tackling this challenge. By targeting those aged 18 – 24 who are not in education, training, or employment; as well as focusing on people stuck on NHS waiting lists who are currently unable to work due to health conditions, Labour hope that they can rapidly increase employment and raise living standards for these groups of people. Consequently, the Government expects these measures to grow the economy, as more people will have money to spend in local shops and businesses. Another crucial advantage to higher employment is a decrease of the financial burden on the treasury through benefit savings and easing public service pressures. Their full plan can be found here.
Like many countries globally, the UK was hit hard by the Covid pandemic. Despite the furlough scheme, introduced by the previous Conservative Government at the start of the pandemic, successfully protecting 11.6 million jobs from being lost, the years following have seen significant challenges arising in the labor market. Despite official figures suggesting unemployment is sitting at 4.3%, this does not take into account the additional 21.8% who are regarded as ‘economically inactive’. As a result, a huge chunk of the UK’s labor force is not actively being helped into employment. So why are so many Britons not able to work?
NHS waiting lists are a major cause for concern for any Government looking to increase employment, as people waiting for treatment often are not fit to work. The British Medical Association estimate that in September 2024, the total waiting list stood at 7.57 million people, with a quarter of a million people waiting over a year for treatment. These people may be struggling to find permanent and stable employment due to their health issues, which is not only bad for the economy, but also can cause significant anxiety and other mental health issues for patients, putting further pressure on the health system. This is a spiraling doom loop that the Government must urgently seek to fix. (Waiting list graph here. NHS backlog data analysis)
Total Number of people on NHS waiting lists from 2022 - 2024
Youth unemployment is a critical issue as well, with the Government estimating 12.2% of all 16 – 24 year old’s are NEET (Not in Education, Employment or Training) and this figure has been slowly rising for the last 2 years. There are many factors that are contributing to this: young people may be acting as full-time carers for sick family members; many young people do not have the necessary skills and experience to apply for certain jobs with apprenticeships being extremely competitive; and as young people watch food, house, and energy prices rise, they are becoming increasingly pessimistic and apathetic towards their future.
On top of this, there is a significant skills shortage in the UK’s adult population, with the OECD estimating that 17.6% of English adults have not completed upper secondary education. In July, the Government launched ‘Skills England’ to identify and rectify the biggest mismatches between the skills that people have and the skills employers are desiring. In one of their first reports, Skills England reported that in 2022, over a third of job vacancies were due to a lack of skilled applicants. In the same report, they identified that on the whole, businesses have refused to upskill their workers, preferring instead to bring in foreign labor through the international labor market to fill the gaps. The Government have already announced an industrial strategy in order to provide more stability for investors, giving businesses confidence that they can engage in long-term skills decisions for their employees, but we are yet to see if this will bear fruit.
The Get Britain Working plan has a number of proposals to help solve these labor challenges. Providing the NHS with 40,000 extra appointments per week to clear the backlog of patients, as well as expanding access to mental health and musculoskeletal services. Delivering funding for a ‘youth guarantee’ so that all young adults have access to education and training, as well as increasing support for sports, arts, and culture. Digitizing the jobs and careers service to make it easier for jobseekers to get into work. This all sounds positive, and the Government is relying on this program to help them meet their goal of economic growth. Next week, in the second part of this series, we will look at the public’s reaction to this plan, talk to some experts on the viability of it, and explore some of the more controversial elements of the Get Britain Working campaign.
