Event Details

Roundtable at the Conservative Party Conference 2024 that will discuss how the Conservatives will update their previous Back to Work plans and create a strategy for getting Britain working.

The Covid-19 pandemic and its aftermath have exposed serious physical and mental health issues facing our workforce. The UK is the only G7 economy with lower workforce participation than before the pandemic.

Getting people back into work, and supporting more people to remain in work, will be one of the defining issues of this Parliament. Employers across the country are facing worker and skills shortages, and this is slowing economic growth and putting pressure on welfare budgets.

In response, the new Government have set an 80% employment target, and has promised significant legislative and service reform to increase participation. This includes measures to strengthen employment rights, deliver a new industrial strategy and devolve more powers relating to economic growth to local areas.

As HM Official Opposition, this reform agenda will pose significant questions for the Conservative Party nationally, regionally and locally. How will the Conservatives seek to shape these reforms as they make their way through Parliament, and more fundamentally, do the Conservatives need to update their previous Back to Work plans in response to this changing environment?

In partnership with Lancaster University, this roundtable will bring together key stakeholders to discuss:

• What should the core principles of any Conservative response to future labour market legislation be?
• Should the Conservatives welcome a shift from a national to a devolved approach to employment support?
• How should the Conservatives balance their approach between employment incentives and conditionality within the welfare system?
• Can local and regional Conservatives engage more deeply with employers to create pathways to sustainable and good quality jobs?