The Plan for Jobs

Yesterday, the Chancellor announced a Plan for Jobs, worth up to £30 billion. The plan for jobs is about supporting people to find the jobs that are out there, creating new jobs through investing in our infrastructure and housing, and finally protecting jobs by revitalising the hard-hit sectors upon which many jobs depend.  Throughout the coronavirus crisis, we have put in place a £160 billion plan to protect people’s jobs, incomes and businesses – one of the largest and most comprehensive in the world. And the analysis, published today, shows our interventions significantly protected people’s incomes, with the least well off in society benefitting the most.  The first phase of the plan was about protection. It is now time to focus on jobs, and there will come a third phase – which is the moment for rebuilding. We will produce a Budget and a Spending Review in the autumn.

Jobs Retention Bonus Scheme:

Rewarding and incentivising employers who successfully bring furloughed staff back through a new Jobs Retention Bonus Scheme. To encourage employers to keep their employees on, we are introducing the Jobs Retention Bonus Scheme, a one-off payment of £1,000 to the business for every employee who was furloughed previously and who is successfully kept on continuously until January. Our message to business is clear: if you stand by your employee, we will stand by you.

Protecting jobs:

Front and centre of our economic response has been the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme – but it cannot and should not go on forever. That is why we will introduce new unprecedented measures to protect millions of jobs.

Temporarily cutting VAT for the tourism and hospitality sectors, giving a much-needed boost to some of the industries hardest hit by coronavirus. From 15 July 2020, we will cut the rate of VAT applied across the UK to hospitality, accommodation and attractions from 20 per cent to 5 per cent until 12 January 2021. This could support almost 2 million businesses and protect 2.5 million jobs.    Launching a new Eat Out to Help Out scheme – something that has never been done in this country ever before – giving people up to 50 per cent off meals out, encouraging them back into restaurants, cafes and pubs. Anyone who eats at a participating business, Monday to Wednesday for the month of August, can receive up to 50 per cent off food and non-alcoholic drinks, up to a value of £10 per person. Businesses can claim the money back from the government weekly, receiving funds within 5 working days. Guidance for businesses will be published next week.

Labour have praised the government for our economic response. Sir Keir Starmer said ‘The government did the right thing in putting in furlough and other support schemes’ and Anneliese Dodds has said ‘The job retention or furlough scheme… has had no parallel in UK history… Without it, one in three businesses say they would have had to lay off staff’.

Creating new jobs:

We will not be deterred by this crisis from the urgent need for change in our country and to deliver on our manifesto commitments – that is why we are doubling down on our ambitions to level up, invest in infrastructure and create jobs in all four corners of our country.

Temporarily scrapping stamp duty on all homes under £500,000 to catalyse the housing market and boost confidence – helping to drive growth and create jobs. From 9 July 2020 until 31 March 2021, we are increasing the threshold at which stamp duty applies from £125,000 to £500,000. This will mean, from tomorrow, 90 per cent of people getting on or moving up the property ladder will pay no stamp duty at all – equating to an average saving of £4,500.      Upgrading the energy efficiency of homes across England through a new Green Homes Grant, saving people hundreds of pounds on their energy bills, while helping to meet our goal of Net Zero by 2050. We will provide £2 billion to allow people to apply for a voucher, to fund at least two-thirds of the cost of upgrading the energy performance of their homes – up to a maximum of £5,000. Low-income households will be eligible for up to 100 per cent of government funding, up to £10,000. This measure will also reduce energy bills by up to £300 a year and help to save carbon – equivalent to a flight from London to New York.    Launching a pilot to decarbonise social housing, reducing energy bills by an average of £200 for some of the poorest households in society. We are providing £50 million to pilot new approaches for retrofitting social housing at scale – meaning warmer and more energy efficient homes.    Providing £1 billion to improve the energy efficiency of public sector buildings, helping to deliver on our ambitious climate change targets. The scheme will offer grants to public sector bodies including schools and hospitals to fund both energy efficiency and low-carbon heat measures.

Labour would not help businesses who are recovering from coronavirus. Sir Keir Starmer wants to hike corporation tax putting more burdens on business. Meanwhile, Labour’s own union paymasters have called their plans to deal with climate change ‘utterly unachievable’ saying they would damage workplaces.

Supporting people to find jobs:

We know that young people will be hardest hit by this crisis, and we are determined to provide support to give them the best possible chance of getting on and getting a job.

Creating hundreds of thousands of new jobs for young people through a new £2 billion Kickstart Scheme, to give young people the best possible chance of getting a job. The scheme will directly pay businesses to create new, decent and high-quality jobs for any 16-24 year old at risk of long-term unemployment. Funding available for each job will cover 100 per cent of the National Minimum Wage for 25 hours a week, for six months in total, plus an admin fee – for a grant of around £6,500 per placement. There will be no cap on the number of places available, and our £2 billion will initially fund hundreds of thousands of new placements.    Paying businesses £1,000 to take on Trainees, with triple the number of places there are now, to get young people ready for work. We will provide £111 million to triple the scale of Traineeships, which consist of work experience placements, training and work preparation for 16-24 year olds. We will also increase the eligibility of Traineeships to include young people qualified up to Level 3 (advanced – equivalent to 2 good A Level passes), up from Level 2 (intermediate – equivalent to achieving 5 GCSEs at 9-4) currently.    Providing £2,000 to employers for each new apprentice they hire under the age of 25, helping more people into the workplace while developing key skills. In recognition of the value apprentices of any age can bring to our economic recovery, we will provide £2,000 to any employer in England who takes on an apprentice aged under 25, and £1,500 for any apprentice aged over 25.    Giving young people who have just left school the skills they need to find work in high-value sectors, such as engineering, construction and social care. We will provide £101 million to help 18 and 19 year olds to take high value courses at Levels 2 and 3 where work opportunities are not available.    Expanding the National Careers Service to help more young people find work or training. We will provide £32 million to recruit more careers advisers for the National Careers Service, so that it can provide advice to 269,000 more people.    Tripling the number of places available through Sector-Based Work Academies, supporting those who are out of work with the new skills they need to re-enter the jobs market. Sector-Based Work Academies are short-term courses lasting up to six weeks for unemployed benefit claimants. They consist of pre-employment training, work experience placements and guaranteed interviews. We will scale up these academies, providing an additional £17 million to triple the number of placements available in 2020-21, supporting 32,000 more vocational training placements.    Doubling the number of work coaches and boosting the DWP’s rapid response service to get people back on their feet and into work. We will double the number of Work Coaches through Job Centre Plus to 27,000; provide an additional £150 million into the Flexible Support Fund to remove barriers to work; and help DWP react quickly to large-scale redundancies by expanding the Rapid Response Service.  We will also expand the Work and Health Programme to provide intensive support to people unemployed for at least three months; and launch a new scheme, modelling on the successful Work Programme, to support the long-term unemployed.    Offering a guaranteed foundation of support to all young people on Universal Credit with a new Youth Offer. From September, we are providing a guaranteed foundation of support for all 18-24 year olds on Universal Credit. The Youth Offer will include: 13 weeks of intensive support – including a referral to work-related training or an apprenticeship; new Young People’s Hubs for those who need additional tailored work coach support; and Youth Employability Coaches for those with more complex needs.   Creating an Opportunity Guarantee so every young person has the chance of an apprenticeship or an in-work placement. As the Prime Minister announced last week we will provide an Opportunity Guarantee to give young people the skills and confidence they need to find they job that is right for them.