Over the past few months, we’ve run a series of pieces from contributors for our Reducing Demand for Government series. Here is a list of proposals made by various authors under the jobs heading:
- “Responsible fiscal policy must ask whether it is justifiable to use taxpayer money to subsidise degrees of dubious value, whilst skills of vital importance to employers go underfunded.” (James Vitali)
- “We need to move to a [planning] system that is less discretionary and provides greater certainty – for local residents, local authorities, businesses and developers alike.” (James Vitali)
- “We need to incentivise business investment with a view to the long term. And to do that, we need to take the quick fix policy option of cheap foreign labour off of the table.” (James Vitali)
- “We should use the tax system to incentivise the expansion and take-up of worker share ownership schemes.” (James Vitali)
- “The national roll out of Universal Support combined with an Into Work Guarantee.” (Jess Prestidge)
- “A stronger social security system should [give] a much more generous replacement rate to those who have contributed more into the system previously.” (Ryan Shorthouse)
- “Government needs to be bold and radically reform the financing of the benefits and services older-aged people rely on, by shifting to a model which better factors in their assets and consumption.” (Ryan Shorthouse)
- “The NHS should have more co-payments; a greater amount of social care should be paid for by an individual user’s assets, even after death.” (Ryan Shorthouse)
- “Portfolio careers, centred around and supported by an anchor main employer, could and should be normalised and democratised.” (Ryan Shorthouse)
- “Outcomes Partnerships can be established wherever there is willingness in the system.” (Danny Kruger)
- “More health, less pills and less time in hospital; less residential and more domiciliary social care (i.e. at home, not a ‘care home’); less welfare, more lifelong skills training and more support for people with disabilities to join the workforce; fewer large all-day nurseries and more childcare close to home; and best of all, fewer prisons.” (Danny Kruger)
- “The state needs to shift away from what we call reactive public services, which currently dominate public service spending and activity, towards relational public services which embed a preventative approach.” (Andrew Phillips)
- “Offer support to people while in work, and where this is not possible, as soon as possible after leaving work.” (Andrew Phillips)
- “A Universal Work Service would significantly reduce demand on the state in the long term”. (Andrew Phillips)
- “We should focus on the longer-term, and on removing barriers to work for groups with lower employment.” (Nye Cominetti)
- “Employers – supported by government – should be encouraged to both take on new staff via more flexible approaches to work and, critically, to stop existing staff from exiting the labour market if they fall ill. A statutory ‘right to return’ after a period of ill-health could help achieve this.” (Nye Cominetti)
- “A higher minimum wage should continue to be a cornerstone of the UK’s economic policy.” (Nye Cominetti)
- “Setting minimum notice requirements for shift changes, or compensating workers if last-minute changes are needed.” (Nye Cominetti)
- “De-risking job moves. If workers know they can get the flexibility and security in new jobs that they enjoy in their current ones, they may be more inclined to take the plunge.” (Nye Cominetti)
- “Archaic working practices need to be scrapped and businesses opened to proper competition.” (Len Shackleton)
- “Adopting a Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM)”. (Karl Williams)
- “Devolution should offer a fast lane for place-based growth through the ready transfer of central government control over skills and infrastructure funding to local leaders.” (Jonathan Werran)
- “Let’s have one local economic plan to rule them all, and get every relevant player on the same pitch.” (Jonathan Werran)
- “Rejigging the devolution framework so that local authorities can come together incorporated as a single body on their own terms, with their own nominated leader to be focus of accountability to Whitehall”. (Jonathan Werran)