Welfare Reforms and Youth Unemployment

Lord Austin of Dudley Excerpts

Thursday 11th June 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Austin of Dudley (Non-Afl)]

My Lords, I too congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Evans, on securing this important debate. I agree with the noble Lord, Lord Shipley, and the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Leicester that young people want to work but, as we have seen from Alan Milburn’s report, they are being badly let down. Of course, if young people refuse to engage in work there should be sanctions, but that is very much the minority. There are 1 million young people out of work because they have no opportunities. You have to deal with that first and that should be the top priority. One in six is now unemployed—1 million. That is the highest rate in Europe apart from Romania’s. It is not because they are sitting at home refusing to engage. The rate is four times higher than in the Netherlands and twice as high as in Ireland. As Alan Milburn says, without urgent action it will soon be 1.25 million.

More than half of these young people have not had the opportunity to work at all. The number of entry-level jobs in shops, restaurants and pubs has halved in four years, not just over the last two years of this Government. Apprenticeships have collapsed in the last decade. A lot of the problem starts at school in that children who often miss school are four times more likely to end up out of work. A generation of young people have been let down at school and college, and now, when they cannot get an apprenticeship or a job.

When people say that young people are unemployed because of mental health problems, I think they have got it the wrong way round. It is no wonder they have mental health problems when they are left sitting at home on their phones all day, bored and with nothing to do. It is shocking that for every £1 helping a young person into work, £25 is spent on benefits. Why are we still bringing in so many plumbers, electricians, building workers and labourers from abroad when we could be training British young people to do these jobs? Why do we limit the number of nurse training places and import nurses from abroad when there are plenty of young women in places such as Dudley who would love to train to become nurses?

The whole country should be furious about youth unemployment, not just because young people’s lives are being ruined but because it is costing us all a fortune, and it will cost much more in the future. What is the Government’s political problem? In essence, it is that no one really knows what their objective is. What are they for? What is their driving mission and sense of purpose? They are not able to set out this narrative. Nobody really knows whose side the Government are on. Ministers, starting with the Prime Minister, should talk about this issue every single day. What, after all, is the point of a Labour Government if they are not tackling youth unemployment and making this the central issue?

This sounds trivial, but if I was the Prime Minister, I would put one of those massive electronic counters up in Downing Street showing the number of young unemployed people or the number of apprenticeships, and if it is not moving in the right direction, I would want to know why. That would focus the whole of the Government’s attention on this issue. How many apprentices are now working in the Civil Service? Every Cabinet Minister should double the number of young trainees in their department straightaway. Every quango, government agency and local authority should do that too, as should every local authority. The number of apprenticeships in local authorities has collapsed, but they could be taking on young people in building trades, parks, leisure centres, finance and admin. The NHS could be doing the same. I asked West Midlands Police why it did not have apprentices helping to look after the fleet of police cars. It said, “Oh, we couldn’t possibly do that”. I explained to them, “Well, if you’re not helping young people now, you’ll be arresting them in a few years’ time”. Companies and charities that get government contracts should be required to take on apprentices and trainees as part of the procurement process. Obviously, the Government should cut red tape and employment costs that prevent businesses taking on young people.

The noble Lord, Lord Baker, is right—and I have agreed with him for years on this—that we have to reform technical education so that young people specialise more at 14 and can learn practical skills for careers in construction, engineering and other industries. We should improve vocational courses in colleges so that students study full-time, like their counterparts doing A-levels, instead of just half the week, so that they would be ready for work or an apprenticeship when they leave.

In conclusion, obviously, all this would cost money, but it would cost a lot less than we are spending on the benefits system. When we are spending more on benefits than on education or defence, and when we have a generation of young people whose lives are being ruined, my view is not that we cannot afford to do this, it is that we cannot afford not to.