Chancellor John Healey Says Jobs, Not Benefits, Are the Future for Britain’s Young People

Chancellor John Healey used his keynote address at Labour’s annual conference in Liverpool to deliver a clear message: the government cannot allow the welfare bill to keep growing while young people are left without real opportunities. Reducing benefit spending, he argued, is not only an economic necessity but also a matter of moral responsibility.

His central point was simple. Rather than handing young people a benefit payment, the country should be offering them a first job that comes with proper training and a pay packet.

A Push for Apprenticeships

The headline announcement in Healey’s speech was the expansion of the Local Apprenticeships Service for mayors across England. He said the scheme would create thousands of additional apprenticeship opportunities for young people.

How the Scheme Will Work

The service was originally designed as a limited pilot in a handful of areas. It will now be open to any mayor in England who wants to take part. Key details include:

• A nationwide rollout across England starting in March 2027
• Local teams matching young people with employers
• A focus on small businesses that have never hired a trainee before
• An extra £100 million in funding, paid for through savings from the Department for Work and Pensions’ fraud crackdown

Healey explained that mayors are best placed to run the programme because they understand their local areas, including which businesses are recruiting, which colleges are delivering results and which communities have been left behind.

Tackling the NEET Challenge

Healey painted an optimistic picture of Britain’s younger generation, describing them as sharp, ambitious, curious and courageous digital natives. He said they had the potential to move from a generation facing uncertainty to one filled with hope.

However, he also highlighted a serious problem. Around a million young people in the UK are currently not in education, employment or training, a group often referred to as NEETs. That works out to roughly one in eight people aged between 16 and 24.

The chancellor said many of these young people had effectively been signed off and forgotten, something he promised the Labour government would change. He insisted that benefits should act as a pathway into employment, not a trap that keeps people out of work.

In his view, there is nothing progressive about a welfare system that provides an income but fails to offer people a future.

A major report led by former minister Alan Milburn is expected in the coming weeks, with recommendations on how to get more young people into work or training.

Walking a Fiscal Tightrope

The speech comes at a difficult time for the Treasury. With next month’s Budget approaching, Healey is under pressure to either cut spending or raise taxes in order to reduce the cost of government borrowing.

Reassuring the Markets

In an effort to calm financial markets, Healey promised that every government commitment would rest on firm fiscal discipline. He stressed that he and Prime Minister Andy Burnham are fully aligned on meeting the fiscal rules, the self-imposed limits that guide government decisions on tax and spending.

He said the upcoming Budget would aim to give households and businesses some much-needed breathing room. At the same time, he admitted that the level of public money available to New Labour in the 1990s simply does not exist today.

Blaming the Previous Government

Healey pointed the finger at the Conservatives, arguing that their years in power left Britain spending more on debt interest than on the Home Office, Ministry of Defence and Ministry of Justice put together.

No Timeline for Cutting Benefits

Despite his strong words, Healey stopped short of making firm promises. Speaking on the BBC’s Newscast, he refused to set a deadline for bringing down the benefits bill before the next general election.

Opposition and Expert Reaction

Conservatives Remain Sceptical

Shadow chancellor Andrew Griffith was quick to criticise the speech. He argued that Labour MPs would never back real cuts to what he called an out-of-control welfare bill. He also accused Labour of always raising taxes on workers while increasing support for those who do not work.

Economists Call for More

Helen Miller, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, told the BBC that simply sticking to fiscal rules would not be enough to bring down national debt, describing them as little more than a promise to reduce debt at some point in the future.

She suggested that trimming the benefits bill, potentially including withdrawing support from some claimants, could help cut debt more quickly.

Other Key Announcements

Healey’s speech covered several other areas as he set out Labour’s economic vision.

Rebuilding British Industry

The chancellor repeated his commitment to re-industrialising the country. He announced that Rolls-Royce would invest an additional £300 million in its factories in Derby, Bristol, Glasgow and Rotherham.

Skills for the AI Age

He also revealed plans to bring back the Union Learning Fund in England. The fund was first created in 1998 but was scrapped under the Conservatives. Its return is intended to help workers build new skills as artificial intelligence transforms the workplace. However, it was not immediately clear how the scheme would be paid for.

What Was Left Unsaid

Some notable issues were missing from the speech:

• No clear plan for increasing defence spending, despite growing pressure on ministers
• No commitment to keeping the pensions triple lock in Labour’s next manifesto

When pressed repeatedly by BBC Radio 5 Live’s Matt Chorley, Healey declined to guarantee the triple lock. Speculation has been growing that it could be dropped to help fund a new social care system.

What Comes Next

Healey’s speech set the tone for a Budget that will need to balance difficult choices. His focus on jobs and apprenticeships signals a shift in how Labour wants to approach welfare, placing work and training at the centre of its plans.

Whether the government can deliver on those promises while keeping the public finances under control will become clearer next month. For now, the chancellor’s message to young people is clear: the goal is a job and a future, not a lifetime on benefits.