Cllr Simon Minas-Bound is the Leader of the Conservative Group on Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council.
You can’t cut the welfare bill from Whitehall. Across the country, Conservative-led councils and Conservative mayors will need to take a different approach.
They’ll need to:
At a regional level, Conservative mayors will need to go further, using devolved powers over skills, transport and economic development to shape whole labour markets, not just individual interventions.
This is not theory. It is delivery.
And it works because it reflects a simple truth: you cannot solve local problems from the centre—but you can solve them through strong local and regional leadership working together.
If we build on that experience, a serious strategy to reduce welfare would rest on three pillars: local councils, regional mayors, and national government pulling in the same direction.
We should move away from disconnected national schemes and towards place-based employment pipelines, designed locally but supported regionally:
We already know where the vacancies are in North Hampshire – construction, care, logistics, hospitality, and emerging green sectors.
The failure is not in identifying demand. It is in aligning the system to meet it. It is why Hampshire and the Isle of Wight need a Mayor.
That alignment happens best when local and regional tiers work together—not when Whitehall dictates from above.
Conservative councils and mayors are uniquely placed to bring employers into the system in a meaningful way.
That means:
Regional mayors can strengthen this further by:
This ensures that growth is not abstract—but translates into opportunity.
Economic inactivity is the biggest long-term driver of welfare costs.
Councils see the early warning signs—through housing, council tax support, and community services.
Mayors can then:
Together, this creates a model that is both locally responsive and regionally powerful.
If we want this system to deliver, we must be serious about devolution.
That means:
Conservative councils and mayors have shown they can deliver when trusted.
The next step is to make that trust the norm —not exceptional.
This is the real dividing line in British politics.
Labour believes problems are best solved by pulling levers in Whitehall.
Conservatives should recognise that lasting change is built through strong local and regional leadership, working together to reflect the realities of place.
Reducing the welfare bill is not just about saving money. It is about restoring independence, dignity, and opportunity.
Conservative councils and Conservative mayors are already showing how that can be done—by aligning skills, jobs and support around real people in real places.
National government should not try to replace that.
It should back it.
Because if we are serious about welfare reform, we must stop trying to impose solutions from the centre—and start building a system where local insight and regional leadership turn welfare into work.
That is how we move from a welfare state to an opportunity state.