Miliband to unveil policies on youth training, contributory welfare and housing benefit

Speaking at the launch of IPPR’s long awaited “Condition of Britain” report, Ed Miliband will unveil new policies on training for young people, extending the contributory principle in welfare and on handing control over elements of housing policy to local authorities. Crucially – all of these policies are planned to be introduced at no cost to the taxpayer (the tagline for the speech is “big reforms not big spending”. Here are the initial IPPR proposals that Miliband will be backing tomorrow:

Training for young people

Miliband will support IPPR’s proposal to ensure that young people aged 18 to 21 who lack the skills needed to get a decent job are in training and not on benefits.In short – that means that for those young claimants who lack a level 3 qualification (e.g. A level), their entitlement to adult out-of-work benefits would be replaced with a parental means-tested youth allowance – conditional on them being in training (provided by FE colleges). Miliband will pitch this as support for the “forgotten 50%” who don’t go to university – under these plans those who don’t go to university would be supported to train and educate themselves as university students are.

Contributory welfare

Labour would introduce a higher rate of JSA to those who have contributed over years. This would be funded by extending the length of time people need to have worked to qualify. At present contributory JSA of £71 a week is available for people who have been in work for two years – so under the plans Miliband will announce, a higher rate of contributory JSA could be offered by extending the period of time people have to be in work to become eligible.

Housing benefit

Local authorities including argue that they could negotiate lower rents with landlords through measures such as bulk purchasing and offering incentives for them to supply good, affordable housing – yet at present any such savings are returned to central government. The proposal Miliband will outline would allow councils to keep a proportion of the money to build new homes – thus bringing down the cost of housing benefit in the long-term.

The Condition of Britain report looks to be a serious piece of work – going far beyond these initial proposals into a variety of policy areas. We’ll be covering it in depth over the next few days.