I believe that we should never take anything for granted and that it takes sustained effort to maintain good things. Until a couple of years ago, it wouldn’t have been unreasonable to think that inflation would ever return as a problem, given that it hadn’t been since the early 80s. The rest is history, but thankfully we are seeing good progress on this front with inflation having more than halved, although we still need to halve it again to get it down from 4% to 2%.
Another key economic measure that we must never take for granted is employment and unemployment. It is not widely reported, but we have four million more people in employment since the Conservatives came to office in 2010 and it is welcome that unemployment remains at historically low levels at 4.2%. The Crawley jobs market remains buoyant.
The latest jobs figures show that more people are taking up work as vacancies continue to fall. The estimated number of vacancies in the UK fell by 49,000 from the previous quarter to 934,000. This is still a high number of vacancies in our economy, but they have been falling consistently for the last two years as individual economic inactivity reduces. Getting more people into work strengthens our economy and give more people the skills they need to get on in life.
Having sound economic policies like the Conservatives do, is vital for our economy and for jobs. The good economic progress is allowing tax cuts to be affordable. The 2% cut in National Insurance that takes effect from this month will help everyone in employment, with an annual tax saving of £450 for someone on the average wage. With wages now rising at a higher rate (6.6%) than inflation (4%), and a substantial raise to the national living wage, it will increasingly pay to be in work, further helping to continue to reduce the numbers of economically inactive people of working age.
While the Conservatives have a fine jobs record, it is a statistical fact that every Labour government leaves unemployment higher than when it takes office.
Councillor Duncan Crow, Leader of Crawley Borough Council Conservative Group
24th January 2024
