𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Andy Burnham has made jobs, opportunity and raising living standards central to his vision for government. He is right to do so. But if ministers are serious about reducing youth unemployment, employment policy must not make it harder for businesses to create the flexible, entry-level jobs that give thousands of young people their first opportunity. More than one million young people in Britain are now not in education, employment or training, while youth unemployment has risen to 16 per cent, its highest level since 2015. At precisely the moment Britain needs more employers willing to give someone their first job, businesses across the economy are becoming increasingly cautious about hiring.

Environmental horticulture is one of the sectors best placed to help tackle that challenge. It rarely attracts the headlines, yet it contributes £38 billion to the UK economy and supports more than 722,000 jobs. More importantly, it has always provided the kind of flexible, accessible opportunities that help people take their first step into employment. A Saturday job at a garden centre, seasonal work in a nursery or an apprenticeship with a landscaping business often asks for little more than enthusiasm and a willingness to learn, yet those first opportunities have launched countless successful careers.

Ours is an industry where someone who arrives with no experience can go on to manage a team, oversee a growing operation or build a successful business of their own. We have always been willing to take a chance on people. But saying yes is becoming increasingly difficult.

Businesses across the economy have spent the past 14 months absorbing a wave of additional employment costs. Retailers alone have faced an extra £6.5 billion in labour costs following increases to employer National Insurance contributions and the National Living Wage, contributing to the loss of almost 400,000 retail jobs over the past decade. Environmental horticulture has experienced many of the same pressures.

The Horticultural Trades Association has consistently warned about the cumulative impact of higher employment costs and mounting regulatory burdens. Our members have told us they are delaying investment, scaling back recruitment and raising prices simply to remain viable.

Employment costs alone have already taken hundreds of thousands of pounds, and in some cases millions, directly out of individual businesses with little left to absorb further increases. Against that backdrop, the implementation of the Employment Rights Act matters enormously.

The ambition behind the reforms is one our sector supports. Everyone deserves fair treatment at work, and stronger protections for genuinely vulnerable workers are important. But good intentions do not automatically produce good outcomes.

The way these reforms are implemented will determine whether they strengthen the labour market or unintentionally reduce opportunities for the very people they are designed to help. That is particularly true for seasonal industries such as ours.

Garden centres, plant nurseries and landscaping businesses do not employ the same number of people every week of the year. Demand changes with the seasons, the weather and consumer behaviour.

Flexibility is not a loophole; it is fundamental to how our businesses operate. It is also what enables employers to offer part-time, seasonal and entry-level roles that fit around education, caring responsibilities and the unpredictable realities of people’s lives.

Measures such as guaranteed hours requirements and day-one unfair dismissal rights risk upsetting that balance. For many family-run businesses operating on tight margins, they make the decision to recruit someone new significantly harder. When employers become more reluctant to hire, it is those looking for their first opportunity who lose out first.

This is not an argument against stronger employment protections. Environmental horticulture supports fair treatment, secure work and better rights for employees. But strengthening workers’ rights and preserving the flexibility that creates first jobs are not competing objectives. With the right implementation, government can and should deliver both.

If Andy Burnham wants to reduce youth unemployment and expand opportunity, government needs more businesses creating first jobs, not fewer. Environmental horticulture stands ready to play its part, but it can only continue creating opportunities if businesses have the confidence to invest and recruit.

That is why the next phase of the Employment Rights Act must be implemented with SMEs and seasonal employers firmly in mind. Government should work closely with business, understand how seasonal industries operate in practice and ensure these reforms strengthen security without undermining the flexibility that makes so many first jobs possible.

Get that balance right and businesses across labour-intensive sectors, from environmental horticulture to retail, will do what they have always done: invest, create jobs and give thousands of people the first opportunity that can shape the rest of their working lives.