What is Hampshire’s plan for jobs?

Our open letter, first published in The Telegraph, and Daily Echo.

Dear Sir/Madam,

Hampshire businesses have been badly affected by the pandemic, leading to a significant rise in unemployment. The UK is set for the highest level of unemployment in our country that we have experienced since 1981.

According to the latest OBR (Office for Budget Responsibility) estimates* the jobless rate in the UK will peak at 7.5% in the middle of 2021 – representing 2.6 million people out of work – up from about 4% before the pandemic struck.

*Source: The Guardian/OBR Statistics, Jan 2021 www.theguardian.com

We strongly believe that the unemployment issue in Hampshire needs strong leadership and coordinated effort. We need urgent action to deal with this unemployment crisis. We need a joined-up ‘Plan For Jobs’.

But who is responsible for fixing this issue? Is it the role of local government, central government, or the business community to take the lead or should it be left to individuals? Who will help those people out-of-work, whether young or old, to rethink, retrain, find or create their next job?

There is currently a lack of focus and co-ordination across our Hampshire institutions to address this issue. And no one is stepping up to take the lead at the moment.

Despite the gloom, there is some hope. Grassroots, volunteer-led organisations in Hampshire are coordinating their collective efforts to try and improve the outcomes for Hampshire’s unemployed.

Winchester Job’s Club and Winchester Creatives (a local not-for-profit social enterprise helping young Hampshire people find jobs) are holding their first ‘Alliance for Hampshire Jobs’ discussion to share best practices about how they have been successfully tackling this issue.

The Alliance is asking simple questions such as ‘who is ultimately responsible for tackling this? ‘Where is the accountability for coordinating activities’? And ‘should local councils, central government, businesses, higher-education institutions and charities be doing more to help?’.

The ‘Alliance for Hampshire Jobs’ will be holding its first ‘Plan for Jobs’ online round- table to discuss these questions on Wed 24 February at 6 pm.

We invite those in Hampshire’s senior leadership positions and other grass-roots initiatives to join us for this open discussion so we can discuss how best to create a joined-up plan to tackle this issue.

The urgent question we are asking is - what is Hampshire’s ‘Plan for Jobs’?

Yours sincerely,

Ian Coulter - Winchester Job Club
Richard Coope – Winchester Creatives
Dan Benham – Winchester Creatives

Here is how the inaugural Alliance For Hampshire Jobs event conversation went on Wed 24th Feb.