Campaign Roundup - 11 July 2024

It’s been a whirlwind of change in the political world. Across the UK, there was a resounding vote for ‘change’ behind Labour, giving them a total of 412 seats. The General Election night was not so good for the Conservatives, who lost 251 seats, giving them a total of 121 seats, but retaining the official position of opposition, and the Scottish National Party (SNP), who saw their number of MPs reduced from 39 to 9. However, the Lib Dems increased their positioning to 72 seats, returning to being the third largest party by number of seats. With a Labour government, it is more important than ever that we land our messaging around the value and importance of agency work, and REC will continue to drive this as the new government gets into action.

General Election Strategy  

Following the General Election, we are preparing for the King's Speech on the 17th of July, in which we expect to see the announcement of an Employment Bill in some form. This legislation has potential to impact our industry, and we are closely monitoring developments to ensure our members' interests are well-represented. We have drafted a paper that we will be sharing with key stakeholders in the party ahead of the bill being drafted.

As MPs are being sworn in this week, our team is actively engaging with key stakeholders to advocate for policies in our manifesto, Dynamic Labour Markets for Growth. As we navigate this busy political landscape, we are determined to continue advocating for policies that support a dynamic and inclusive labour market, and champion our members to allow them to thrive in the evolving economic environment.

Department for Business and Trade (DBT) Policy Blitz  

The new government certainly haven’t wasted anytime in getting to grips with their work. Secretary of State for DBT Jonathan Reynolds, has announced his four priorities which are:

1. Delivering of a new mission-driven Industrial Strategy with a focus on partnership. A strategy that the government intends to use “to boost productivity, drive clean, green power and build a resilient economy”.
2. Supporting SMEs. Reynolds expresses that as part of this pillar, it is important “to take action on late payments so small firms are paid on time”, reform the British Business Bank, and free up capital for small and medium-sized firms so they can fast-expand. Of relevance to REC members is also changing processes around public procurement so that “SMEs have a fair shot at government contracts”.
3. Resetting Trade relations. The government wants to “reset our trade relations and champion British exports” with our trade strategy aligned to the Industrial Strategy, creating “opportunities for UK business to compete on their strengths, break into new markets and attract investment”.
4. Making Work Pay (Workers Rights). The government is committed to working “in partnership with businesses, trade unions, and communities across the country to create jobs that provide security, treat workers fairly, and pay a decent wage”. These plans seek to end "exploitative contracts and the practice of fire and rehire policies” to boost economic growth and productivity.

Jonathan has asked for views from all businesses and if you're interested in feeding into this work, please email: TellJonathan@BusinessandTrade.gov.uk. The REC will also be engaging with Jonathan and his team and member are also welcome to share their views with us by emailing patrick.milnes@rec.uk.com. 

Research Corner 

This week the REC published the latest iteration of Report on Jobs. This survey of around 400 recruiters signalled that overall demand for staff continued to fall in June, extending the current downturn to eight months. The rate of contraction was a little steeper compared to May, though it remained modest overall. The contraction was also broadly centred on permanent workers as temp vacancy numbers increased – albeit fractionally – for the first time since January. The REC's Labour Market Tracker is due to be published on 15 July. 

Media Corner 

The REC has maintained its reputation for political neutrality and expert analysis on recruitment and employment during a sometimes highly charged General Election campaign. We achieved this by providing thoughtful assessment about the manifestos of the main political parties, both in press statements and in interviews with the media. This gave confidence to the media that our views were trustworthy and useful additions to public debate. Among the coverage of REC around the General Election was in the FT’s ‘The workplace under Labour: employers braced for biggest shake-up in a generation’ and in the Guardian’s ‘Labour must stay ‘laser-focused’ on delivering growth, say business groups’.