Poverty Reduction

As my hon. Friend knows well, improved employment is at the heart of our approach to child poverty, and that is why reductions in economic inactivity and improvements in employment will be part of our child poverty strategy that is to be published very soon.

Does the Minister accept that the Government’s increase in national insurance contributions has had a negative impact on employment in communities such as ours? Cumbria Tourism assesses that 37% of its businesses have cut staff as a consequence and 33% are freezing recruitment. Is it possible that the Government will get less from this tax rise than they expect, and that in doing this they are doing grave harm to the Cumbrian tourism economy and many other parts of our economy?

I speak to many businesses, and since coming into office, the Secretary of State and I have totally changed our approach with employers. That new approach includes a partnership with UK Hospitality, providing specific employment support to get into hospitality, and a hospitality passport so that people can evidence their qualifications, which we and UK Hospitality believe can help those people who really need a chance in life to get a good start in the hospitality sector.

After visiting businesses in Newport East this summer, I know that there is a high demand for companies—including Thames Valley Construction, which I visited—to train more construction workers locally, and I was pleased to see the Government make the announcement in the summer on training 40,000 more people. Can Ministers tell me what conversations they are having with the Welsh Government on working together to do this?

We will not build the much-needed 1.5 million homes without bringing people into the construction sector. That is why, as part of our new approach for employers, we have partnered with the construction sector and set up specific schemes with them. We are also talking directly across Whitehall with other Government Departments and with the sector about moving people into great jobs in construction.

I call the shadow Secretary of State.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. It is good to see you back after the summer recess.

The hon. Lady can fling around the stats all she likes, but the facts are clear and bleak. Under her watch, youth unemployment has gone up; nearly a million young people, and rising, are not in work or education, including over 40,000 more young women. A generation of brilliant young people are going on to benefits, rather than into work. The Government’s jobs tax and their unemployment rights Bill were guaranteed to reduce opportunities for young people. We have had the winter fuel U-turn and the welfare U-turn; why not a U-turn to help young people?

The damage was done to the coming generation under the Tories. We failed the pandemic generation, who put a shift in—they stayed at home and gave up their social lives to save older loved ones. I could talk at length about our youth guarantee, our trailblazers and the work we are doing to expand youth hubs, but actually, it sticks in my craw to hear the Conservatives, who failed this generation, harp on about it from that Dispatch Box.