Our country’s greatest asset is its people. However, the talents of too many are being wasted because of spiralling economic inactivity.
Millions of people are being denied all of the benefits of good work. We’ve got 2.8 million people locked out of work due to long-term sickness. One in eight of our young people are not in education, employment or training. Nine million adults lack the basic skills needed to get on.
But behind these statistics are human stories. Working people being failed.
I am not prepared to see a generation of young people lost to worklessness.
Labour’s reforms will give people, young and old, the support they need – whether it is preventing people falling ill in and out of work in the first place, changing how we access benefit eligibility and engage with people, or making sure disabled people and people with health conditions get proper employment support and the same chances and choices as everyone else.
Of course, good work is the foundation of our approach to tackling poverty and inequality. But creating good, well paid jobs and arming people with the skills they need to get them is also about ensuring many more people benefit from the dignity and purpose of work.
That last Labour government lifted over half a million children and over a million pensioners out of poverty. This Labour government will build on that legacy of pursuing opportunity.
I am proud to have brought forward a bill to create Skills England, to power my mission to deliver a skills system that delivers for people and employers.I know that young people in Sunderland want the chance to get into work, to learn new skills, to earn a good wage, and to get on in life.
Already we’re making great progress. The first set of apprenticeships statistics under the new Labour government saw an increase in starts, participation and achievement compared to the same period under the Tories in 2023.
To build on this success we’ve announced a package of measures to train up 60,000 more brickies, sparkies, engineers and chippies to help build 1.5 million new homes over the next five years.
It’s time to end the snobbery around skills. There was a time when our country valued them, when boosting training was a national priority, when workers got the respect they deserve – Labour is creating the system we need to take skills seriously again.
By harnessing the tremendous talent of working people across our nation we will drive growth and unlock opportunity here in Sunderland and across our country.