Asked by: Lord Allen of Kensington (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what action they are taking to encourage young people to start a career in the construction industry.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Youth Guarantee in England was launched as part of the Get Britain Working White Paper, for all 18–21-year-olds, to ensure that they can access quality training opportunities, an apprenticeship or help to find work. This will start with eight trailblazers which are launching this spring.
The Department understands the negative effects of unemployment can be particularly pronounced for young people and can have longstanding implications on their future earnings potential and life chances. This is why DWP have a particular focus on ensuring young people are supported into employment whilst also recognising their needs will vary depending on where they live and their own individual circumstances.
To support the government’s target to build 1.5 million homes this parliament, DWP are supporting an industry-led, cross government communications campaign to raise the profile of the construction sector. The three-week campaign launched 3 March with a particular focus on encouraging young people to consider construction as a career of choice. We are promoting the industry, connecting our customers to jobs, apprenticeships, and opportunities within it, including an emphasis on improving workforce diversity and increasing the number of construction teachers.
In the coming months, the Secretary of State for DWP, will be co-hosting a construction industry summit with Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and Department for Business and Trade, inviting key employers and representative bodies. This will build on our commitment in the Get Britain Working White Paper to explore how we can best work with employers to address their recruitment needs. DWP officials are members of the Cross Government Built Environment Working Group which is responsible for ensuring a coordinated approach to increasing the size and skills of the construction and built environment workforce, including on-site trades and wider skilled professions.
From April 2024 to 31 December 31 we have delivered 10,220 SWAP starts in the construction helping jobseekers to develop skills to match the needs of the construction labour market.
Through our Strategic Relationship Team, we have agreed a working relationship with many construction organisations and continue to deliver bespoke packages to support their recruitment needs. The Department has a long-standing partnership agreement with CiTB with a shared agenda to recruit people into the construction sector. We are currently developing a new partnership agreement to forge closer working links and key activity to support both policy and operational connections between the organisations.
Asked by: Lord Allen of Kensington (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether their Financial Services Growth and Competitiveness Strategy will include policies to encourage more firms to list on the London Stock Exchange.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
At Mansion House 2024, the Chancellor published a call for evidence on the first-ever Financial Services Growth and Competitiveness Strategy. The call for evidence focussed on how to deliver long-term, sustainable and inclusive growth, with UK capital markets (including retail investment) identified as a priority growth opportunity. The final Strategy will be published later this year.
Alongside this, the government is already undertaking an ambitious programme of reforms to improve the competitiveness of UK markets.
Asked by: Lord Allen of Kensington (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government when they expect to publish their industrial strategy.
Answered by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The government will publish our Industrial Strategy alongside the multi-year Spending Review in Spring 2025.
Asked by: Lord Allen of Kensington (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the study by Oxford Economics, The Economic Impact of Management Apprenticeships, published in February 2025; and what action they intend to take to support the take-up of management apprentices.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Minister for Women and Equalities)
Employers are able to benefit from a number of high-quality apprenticeships to support the development of management skills, including level 5 Operations Manager and level 6 Chartered Manager (degree), and starts on these standards have increased in recent years.
There were 10,710 starts on the level 5 Operations Manager apprenticeship standard in the 2023/24 academic year, which is a 9.6% increase compared to the 2022/23 academic year, and 2,860 starts on the level 6 Chartered Manager (degree) apprenticeship standard in 2023/24, which is a 9.1% increase compared to the 2022/23 academic year.
The government is committed to spreading opportunities and economic growth supported by a strong skills system.
This government has an extremely challenging fiscal inheritance. There are tough choices that need to be taken on how funding should be prioritised in order to generate opportunities for young people that enable them to make a start in good, fulfilling careers, and the department will therefore be asking more employers to step forward and fund a significant number of level 7 apprenticeships themselves outside of the levy-funded growth and skills offer.
The department is taking advice from Skills England, who engaged with employers and stakeholders, including the Chartered Management Institute, on funding for level 7 apprenticeships, including the level 7 Senior Leader standard, over the autumn, and the department expects to make a final decision on affected apprenticeships shortly.
Learners who have started these apprenticeships will be funded through to completion.
Asked by: Lord Allen of Kensington (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the potential impact of Great British Energy on job creation in industrial communities.
Answered by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Great British Energy has potential to support the creation of high quality, well-paid jobs, and help to rebuild UK’s industrial heartlands. It can promote employment opportunities through the projects it supports, domestic supply chain opportunities it creates, and within the company itself.
More widely, jobs will be at the heart of our modern Industrial Strategy, supporting growth sectors to create high-quality, well-paid jobs across the country. We have also set up the Office for Clean Energy Jobs which will support developing the skilled workforce to deliver the Clean Energy Superpower Mission.
Asked by: Lord Allen of Kensington (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what progress they have made on implementing the proposals outlined in the Get Britain Working White Paper.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We are progressing with the delivery of our proposals through:
We have secured £240 million of funding which we will use to develop tests and trials for the digital aspect of the new national jobs and careers service, to introduce trailblazers to tackle economic inactivity in England and Wales and offer support for the development of local Get Britain Working plans.
Asked by: Lord Allen of Kensington (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government what action they are taking to ensure housing stock built in areas susceptible to flooding is adequately protected from flooding risks.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The government recognises the devastating impact flooding can have on communities. National Planning Policy is clear that development should be directed to areas with the lowest risk of flooding. Where no alternative sites are available, permission should only be granted where it can be demonstrated that it will be safe for its lifetime taking account of the vulnerability of its users, without increasing flood risk elsewhere, and, where possible, will reduce flood risk overall.
Asked by: Lord Allen of Kensington (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is their estimate of the number of UK Armed Forces veterans who are living overseas and in receipt of a frozen UK state pension; and what plans they have to ensure those veterans benefit from uplifts to their state pension from now on.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
No such estimate has been made as the relevant information is not available.
Society is grateful to those who have served in the forces to defend our country. As well as a State Pension, many overseas veterans will receive an occupational pension which is up-rated in line with the consumer price index.
The UK's policy on the up-rating of the UK State Pension for recipients living overseas is a longstanding one. The UK state pension is payable worldwide without regard to nationality and is uprated abroad where we have a legal requirement to do so.
Asked by: Lord Allen of Kensington (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the 94 per cent increase of food parcels distributed to people in hardship by the Trussell Trust in the five years to March 2024; and what action they are taking to eliminate the need for people to use foodbanks.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We are committed to tackling poverty and reducing mass dependence on emergency food parcels. The latest Households Below Average Income statistics show that 3% of all individuals had used a food bank on at least one occasion in 2022/23. For children this figure is 6%. This is unacceptable.
On 30th July, the Secretary of State held a food poverty roundtable with experts and charities to better understand the priorities in this area. We are already taking steps to tackle poverty, including free breakfast clubs in every primary school so children don’t go hungry, protecting renters from arbitrary eviction, slashing fuel poverty and banning exploitative zero-hours contracts. Good work is the foundation of our approach, and our New Deal for Working People, including ensuring that the minimum wage is a genuine living wage along with reformed employment support, will mean that many more people will benefit from the dignity and purpose of employment.
In addition, we have extended the Household Support Fund for a further 6 months from 1 October 2024 until 31 March 2025. An estimated total package of approximately £500 million will be provided to enable the extension of the Household Support Fund, including funding for the Devolved Governments through the Barnett formula to be spent at their discretion. This means that Local Authorities in England will receive £421 million to support those in need locally.
Alongside this, the Child Poverty Taskforce has started urgent work to publish the Child Poverty Strategy in Spring and will explore all available levers to drive forward short and long-term actions across government to reduce child poverty.
Asked by: Lord Allen of Kensington (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the causes of the rise in homelessness as published on 3 October in the Ministry of Housing, Community and Local Government's report Statutory homelessness in England: financial year 2023–24.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The statistics published on 3 October shows that the most common reason for loss of accommodation for households threatened with homelessness was termination of a private rented assured shorthold tenancy (AST). For households that were already homeless, the most common reason was that their family or friends were no longer willing or able to accommodate them. The Renters’ Rights Bill will abolish Section 21 evictions for both new and existing tenancies at the same time, giving all private renters immediate security and assurance.
The Government will look at these issues carefully and will develop a new cross-government strategy, working with mayors and councils across the country to get us back on track to ending homelessness once and for all.