King’s Speech (4th Day)

Lord Elliott of Mickle Fell Excerpts

Monday 22nd July 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Elliott of Mickle Fell (Con)]

My Lords, I add my congratulations to the noble Lords, Lord Vallance of Balham and Lord Livermore, on their new positions in His Majesty’s Government. I wish them both well in their duties. I also congratulate my noble friend Lord Petitgas on a superb maiden speech, which was both amusing and intellectually powerful. In this debate on the gracious Speech, I shall talk about employment, an issue that I champion as president of the Jobs Foundation, as declared in the register of interests.

When the Government published their manifesto, a good deal of attention was rightly given to their commitment to economic growth and wealth creation, two priorities that I heartily support. But their manifesto also included a less publicised but equally welcome pledge to increase the employment rate in the UK from 75% to 80%, bringing 2 million more people into the workforce. This is an important priority for both our economy and our society. Post pandemic we have seen a sharp rise in economic inactivity, with the Institute for Employment Studies finding that there are nearly 1 million fewer people in the workforce than pre Covid. I must give enormous credit to the journalist Fraser Nelson for highlighting that issue before many others.

While that pledge was, understandably, not referred to specifically in the gracious Speech, I hope it is not lost as a policy objective in this Parliament. I would be grateful if the Minister could confirm whether the employment rate pledge is still a commitment for this Parliament. I certainly hope it is, as increasing employment is an essential ingredient in securing economic growth and making full use of our talents as a country.

At the same time, we should all recognise that achieving that worthy objective is not solely down to the Government. As a noble Lords will know, it is businesses and entrepreneurs that provide 80% of the jobs in our economy. To achieve this objective, we need not only a pool of skilled and motivated prospective employees; there also need to be employers creating high-quality, well-paid jobs for people to fill.

The Jobs Foundation has spent the past year interviewing hundreds of local business leaders, employees and other local stakeholders to get a better understanding of the vital role businesses play in helping people escape poverty, unemployment and other forms of disadvantage by providing jobs. In Sheffield, for example, the Jobs Foundation looked at the Ascend programme led by Ben Woollard, which aims to end young adult unemployment. By working closely with employers and fostering supportive peer groups, it is able to integrate unemployed young adults into the workforce and equip them with the essential experience they need to thrive and succeed. Similar work is done, famously, with ex-offenders by Timpson, and I am delighted that the noble Lord, Lord Timpson, has been appointed Prisons Minister. I congratulate him on his introduction to the House today.

Getting an extra 2 million people into work is not simply a statistic or a slogan. These jobs will come from individual business leaders making specific decisions to employ an extra person or take on an additional apprentice. So, at a macro level, the right business environment is needed to ensure that these 2 million jobs are provided. As Ministers flesh out the details of the employment rights Bill and the Skills England Bill, I hope they pay careful attention to the feedback from the business community. As they decide the measures to include in the Budget, I urge them to have in their mind’s eye the business leader weighing up whether to take on that extra employee and the entrepreneur calculating whether to invest.

I am reminded of the famous Aesop’s fable, “The Goose that Laid the Golden Eggs”, which I recently read to my daughters for their bedtime story. As noble Lords will recall, in this story, the impatient and greedy countryman had the idea of getting all the golden eggs at once by killing the goose and cutting it open. But, when the deed was done, not a single golden egg did he find, and his precious goose was dead. The business community is our country’s golden goose. So, as we get behind the mission to get 2 million more people into work, let us not forget the essential role played by business leaders and entrepreneurs to make this happen.