Investing in our Youth
10-Feb-2012
Investing in our Youth
As the country continues on the difficult road to recovery, dealing with the long-term problem of youth unemployment must be a very high priority. We need to make sure that the mistakes of the 1980s, when many lives were blighted by long-term unemployment, are not repeated.
That's why, from April this year, the new Youth Contract will take effect. The Youth Contract is a £1 billion pound programme to tackle youth unemployment. The aim is to ensure that all jobless young people are earning or learning again before it's too late. Over three years, the Youth Contract will provide at least 410,000 new work places for 18 to 24 year olds into work. The contract means that the Government provides a wage subsidy to employers recruit young people, and then keep the young person on and develop that young person in the job after the subsidy ends. In return the young person is asked to commit to the job opportunity they've been given through the Youth Contract or risk losing their benefit.
I hope that many local employers here in the Highlands will take the opportunity to get involved with the Youth Contract, because so many are already passionate about tackling youth unemployment. A number of both national and international businesses, small and large, have already signed up to help.
For example, two major hotel chains plan to use the Youth Contract offer as an enhancement of what the sector is already doing to help young people get their foot in the jobs market. Intercontinental Hotels are working with Business in the Community to set up four academies to offer careers advice and recruit directly with schools.
Similarly, Asda have already said that behind each work experience placement that Asda offers, it makes sure there's a real vacancy which can also be linked to a training course like City & Guilds.
Though the Youth Contract has attracted involvement by some of the largest companies in the world, it very much encourages involvement by small, local companies and I would encourage any employers in the Highlands who are interested in this programme to visit the DWP website for more information about how you can become involved.
Alongside the massive extra investment in apprenticeships, and the new work programme, the youth contract is part of comprehensive UK government plan to tackle youth unemployment. Its a problem that has been getting worse for many years - including during the economic crisis - but I am looking forward to seeing the benefits of this programme help young people in the Highlands, and indeed all over the UK, into work.
Fighting for fairness
The road to the UKs economic recovery will unfortunately not happen overnight. Instead it is a long, uneven and at times frustrating process. But I believe we have the opportunity to ease the strain on hard-working families by cutting income tax.
The coalition government is delivering the Liberal Democrat pledge to lift the tax threshold, so that no one pays income tax until they earn more than 10,000 pounds. Last year, the first step reduced income tax by 200 pounds for 23 million workers. This April, there will a further cut of 120 pounds. Together, these two steps towards our goal already stop 1.1 million low income workers paying any income tax at all.
At the Budget this year we will need to make another step in this programme of tax cuts for working people. Given the economic conditions and the pressures on families, the further we can afford to go, the better.
We are also calling time on our unfair and out-of-whack tax system. So far we've clamped down on tax avoiders – targeting an extra £7bn every year, we're taxing the banks by an extra £2.5bn every year, we've stopped inheritance tax cuts for millionaires and reduced tax breaks on pension funds for the super-rich, raising £4.4bn a year by 2015.All of these approaches show that we are doing all we can to once and for all make our tax system fairer, putting money back into the pockets of households all over the country.
