This blog first appeared as an Editorial for the Institute of Employability Professionals (IEP) Journal. This highlighted the evidence base on both the longer-term and shorter-term increases in economic inactivity amongst particular groups, especially amongst those with health conditions or disabilities. These have pointed out that whilst the Labour Force Survey (LFS) indicates that unemployment is at a historical low, employment has still not recovered to pre-pandemic levels with currently a quarter of a million fewer people in employment than before the pandemic.
Tag: Economy
THE BROWN COMMISSION REPORT – An assessment of its proposals for local and regional economic development
On 4 December the Labour Party published A New Britain: renewing our democracy and rebuilding our economy, the report of a commission chaired by former Prime Minister Gordon Brown. The report had been requested by Labour Leader Kier Starmer, who welcomed the recommendations and called for their implementation by a future Labour government.
INVESTMENT ZONES – What are they, and will they work?
In its Growth Plan, published on 23 September, the Westminster government announced its intention to create Investment Zones across the whole of the UK. The label may be new, but the concept is not. At the core, the new Investment Zones are a new generation of Enterprise Zones – something that has been a feature of the UK’s economic development landscape since the 1980s.
The demise of the high street: Britain’s new de-industrialisation
The changes in the retail character of our town and city centres may be as sweeping and significant in their way as the effects of de-industrialisation in the 1970s and 1980s, and similarly irreversible.