Tackling worklessness in England and Wales

1
Tackling worklessness in England and Wales
Phillip Mind, Local Government Association, 11
November 2009
2
Context and problem

• EU strategy 70 employment target
• UK 80 employment target ambition but masks real
  problems
• regional, intra regional, sub regional,
  local, ward area unemployment disparitiesrecessio
  n exacerbated issue

3
Context and problem

• What is worklessness?
• Increasing rates of cyclical unemployment
• 3 million plus long-term workless
• Groups with low employment rate e.g. disabled
  lone parents 32.5
• Skills gaps
• Economic inactivity North-west 3 billion of
  13 billion productivity gap

4
Growth in worklessness pre-recession
5

• UK ranks 21st out of 27 in young people Not in
  Education, Employment or Training (NEET)
  (Eurostat 2007)

6
Impact of recessions
7
Map 4 Employment rate in Liverpool
Local concentrations I Incapacity benefit
claimants per 1,000 population in Kent - high
concentrations in Swale and Thanet
Source Local Knowledge Department for Work and
Pensions working age claimant statistics
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Neighbourhood concentrations II
Employment rate in Thanet Minster
47, neighbouring areas 76
Source Local Knowledge Census 2001
9
Below the national level the economy is
sub-regional clusters, travel to work.
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Functional economic areas
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Implications?

• National and regional policies are not
  well-targeted.
• More economic decisions need to be taken at the
  level of the functional economic area.
• In time of recession, the need for devolution to
  (groups of) councils becomes more obvious, and
  more urgent.
• Councils can integrate services

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Houghton Review on worklessness

• Set up to advise government on how to improve
  local response to tackling worklessness (highly
  centralised system)
• Work and skills plans
• Future Jobs Fund
• Apprentices
• Data sharing
• Ambition now to go much further

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Conclusion

• Labour markets local and sub-regional
• Recession strengthens case for tailoring
  interventions
• National policy moving in right direction but
  slowly
• Pressure on public resources could lead to
  radical re-shaping of UK public sector and
  services

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Lessons for Lisbon for post 2010?

• Future EU growth strategy must frame national
  action and encourage partnership
• Need dialogue / partnership between central and
  local government on employment generation à la
  Houghton local knowledge / local finance
  control gets results
• Local govt needs the means to act effectively
• Continue EU funding to regenerate communities
  post 2013 (ESF, ERDF etc) LGA lobbying EU
  (simplify, devolve, consolidate EU funding) UK
  (locally controlled funding)
• Involve Local Government in EU Peer learningwhat
  do others do better? Develop EU peer portal