Rachel Reeves issued major warning by business bosses over jobs | Politics | News
The Jobs Foundation said the bosses had โunited behind a stark warning to the Chancellor that without urgent action, we risk confining Britainโs young people to the scrapheap.โ
Before the Covid-19 pandemic, the percentage of young people who were NEET stood at 10.7%.
This skyrocketed to a peak of 13.2% in the last three months of 2024, representing 987,000 young people not earning or learning.
The letter, also signed by Labour peer Lord Jon Mendelsohn and Bristol Port Company boss Sir David Ord, urges the Government to introduce a form of skills tax relief that would enable businesses to invest in training the countryโs youth.
Estimates have suggested that a skills tax relief could lead to a net gain for the Treasury of more than ยฃ20billion over five years, primarily in welfare savings.
This comes as the Government has struggled to control the welfare bill, with Labour MPs pressuring the Government into U-turning on ยฃ5 billion of planned cuts to PIP payments.
The letter said: โA direct and accessible skills tax relief would act as a fiscal incentive enabling businesses to invest in training young people. Whilst there are a number of options for implementing a Skills Tax Relief, this would help employers cover the costs of their spending on accredited training like apprenticeships, vocational courses, and boot camps, helping make training young people more affordable.
โEconomic modelling suggests this would be fiscally positive over time and a
significant step towards reducing the number of young people out of work or training.โ
The Chancellor recently told the House of Lords that supporting NEETs is where the โbiggest crisis existsโ and highlighted that โwe know that if you are out of work early in your working life, you are going to earn less and be in work lessโ.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has also told MPs that the fact that โthere are nearly a million young people out of work, not earning or learning, is a huge challenge for our countryโ and that โnone of us should accept a systemโ like this.
