Lord Rose of Monewden

The Government has made clear that we consider the current rate of inactivity to be unacceptably high. With nearly 2.8 million people economically inactive due to long-term sickness and the last Parliament seeing the biggest increase in economic inactivity in almost forty years, our inactivity rate is above pre-pandemic levels at 21.9% for May-July 2024 and, unlike most major economies, our overall employment rate has failed to recover to its pre-pandemic level.

Government has set an ambition to get to an 80% employment rate, alongside raising living standards and tackling insecurity at work. The Government plans to tackle economic inactivity, support people into good work and help them to progress.

Proposed reforms include

• A new public employment and careers service to help get more people into work and to progress in work.
• Working with local areas to tackle economic inactivity including the development of joined-up work, health and skills plans for the economically inactive, with input from mayors, local councils, the NHS, businesses, colleges and the voluntary sector to address barriers and deliver employment opportunities for local people.
• A youth guarantee for all people aged 18 to 21 to ensure that they can access quality training opportunities, an apprenticeship or employment support.

Achieving sustained economic growth is the priority mission of this government. The government is focused on fixing the foundations of the UK’s economy.

Having launched the Growth Mission in July 2024, the government has already taken several steps including planning reforms to get Britain building, establishing the National Wealth Fund, announcing a Pensions Review, and launching Skills England. The government is under no illusion of the scale of the challenge, however, given the difficult economic inheritance.

HM Treasury does not prepare formal forecasts for the UK economy, which are the responsibility of the independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR). In its March forecast, the OBR expects that GDP per capita will surpass its pre-pandemic peak in 2025. Further details can be found in Table 1.5 of the OBR’s latest Economic and Fiscal Outlook published in March 2024: https://obr.uk/efo/economic-and-fiscal-outlook-march-2024/.

The Government is carefully considering the Migration Advisory Committee’s review of the Seasonal Worker route and will announce a detailed response in due course.

The Government is carefully considering the Migration Advisory Committee’s review of the Seasonal Worker route and will announce a detailed response in due course.