The Local Government Association has made plain that councils should be at the heart of plans to tackle economic inactivity and boost jobs across the country.
Responding to the Keep Britain Working review, the LGA set out how local authorities already lead on public health, social care and employment support, and argued that that local leadership will be crucial to turn national recommendations into real change for residents.
Keep Britain Working frames the problem as largely health related: poor health and barriers faced by disabled people are major drivers of economic inactivity, and the review proposes a Healthy Working Lifecycle to guide interventions.
The LGA’s response stresses that councils hold many of the levers needed to act on that framework, from adult social care and mental health support to skills programmes and employer engagement. That local delivery role is already visible in schemes such as Connect to Work and local Get Britain Working plans that join up services across a place.
Practical action at local level will matter more than top-down pronouncements.
The LGA highlights three practical priorities: strengthen local partnerships with health services and employers, scale up targeted training and return to work programmes, and use integrated local plans to direct funding where it will have the greatest impact.
Councils, combined authorities and local partners are well placed to design interventions that reflect local labour markets and the specific barriers people face.
The employer coalition endorsed by government shows there is appetite outside Whitehall to join up. More than 60 employers and several mayoral combined authorities have backed the review’s approach, offering opportunities for councils to broker employer offers such as adjusted sick pay, flexible roles and sector-based training that helps people stay in work. Local government can use these employer commitments to negotiate local deals that suit both residents and businesses.
For councils and partners there are immediate practical steps to take.
When councils get workforce plans right, people return to secure jobs, employers find reliable candidates, and local public services require less crisis intervention.
That has real economic benefits and social value, improving life chances in places that have struggled with long term inactivity.
The LGA’s message is simple: national ambition needs local delivery and that local delivery needs practical support, funding and partnership to succeed.
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