The next London mayor should take the lead on skills for the capital to get 300,000 more people back into work, a report from the Learning and Work Institute says.
Reaching this target by 2020, by devolving welfare-to-work programmes and creating “mayor’s employment zones” in unemployment hotspots, would help London catch up with employment levels in the rest of the UK, the report says.
It also calls for 200,000 more apprenticeships for London, to ensure that the capital doesn’t lose out from the apprenticeship levy by contributing more than it receives back. London currently has a below-average level of apprenticeship recruitment, with current mayor Boris Johnson having missed his target by 100,000.
“This is our pitch for what the new mayor should do,” said Stephen Evans, deputy chief executive of the Learning and Work Institute. “It’s one of the paradoxes of London that despite its strong growth, employment rates lag behind the rest of the country. London’s mayors have focused on issues like housing, transport and crime, but low employment and low pay effects all of those.”
The front runners in next month’s London mayoral election are Conservative MP Zac Goldsmith and his Labour opponent Sadiq Khan.
The next mayor should identify gaps in provision and co-ordinate the capital’s skill provision, using the area review process and the devolution of the adult education budget, the report said.
It also called for the Work and Health Programme to be devolved to London, as it has been in Scotland. Previous mayoral employment programmes have delivered better outcomes than national welfare-to-work schemes, the report said.
Speaking at the launch of the report today, Stephen Knight, deputy chair of the Greater London Assembly’s (GLA) economic committee and a Liberal Democrat, said Londoners had seen their earnings fall by 12 per cent relative to inflation since 2008, the biggest fall nationwide.
“That’s a labour market that isn’t delivering for Londoners, it’s not delivering progress or better standards of living,” said Mr Knight.
He called for more apprenticeships in industries such as hospitality and construction, where there were only 1,000 apprentices despite 150,000 construction workers. “The GLA has more leverage over these industries - the Mayor should be using that to provide jobs for Londoners,” he said.
The report called for the devolved adult education budget to provide literacy, numeracy and digital skills for 600,000 Londoners. Fiona Twycross, Labour assembly member, said: “One of the largest groups using food banks are men in their 50s who’ve been sanctioned for benefits because they haven’t got digital skills.”
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