Chancellor’s speech: Government must do more to support skills development and hiring to boost economic growth, says CIPD

Commenting on Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ speech on economic growth, Ben Willmott, head of public policy at the CIPD, says:

“Boosting investment in key physical infrastructure projects and high-tech and green energy sectors is crucial to underpin long-term growth. However, the Government also needs to do more to support businesses across the economy in 2025 to help them attract and develop the skills and capabilities they need to boost productivity. 
 
“This means ensuring that measures to strengthen employment rights are developed in consultation with employers and carefully implemented to ensure they don’t act as an obstacle to hiring or increasing labour market participation. 
 
“It’s also important that plans to develop a new Growth and Skills Levy and other changes to skills policy are brought forward as soon as possible to support employers in developing the skills and capabilities they need to innovate, adopt new technology and grow. 
 
“For example, there is an urgent need to increase the number of apprenticeships available to young people, as well as reverse the long-term decline in employer investment in training in order to address a lack of technical skills in key sectors.  Tackling these challenges will be critical if businesses are to access the skills they need to ensure new infrastructure projects can be delivered, and to enable green energy sectors develop the capabilities needed to support the shift to net zero.”