Jacob Solon is a recent History and Politics graduate standing in the 2026 local elections as a Conservative Councillor candidate in Camden.
One year ago, I wrote my first article for ConservativeHome titled Reeves doesn’t care about young people – so the Conservatives must fill the gap. In it, I argued that Reeves’s November 2024 budget, with increases to employer National Insurance contributions and the national living wage, would make it significantly harder for young people to secure both low-skilled and high-skilled jobs in the future.
Those warnings have sadly been borne out. Nearly a million 16 to 24-year-olds are now classed as NEET – not in work, education or training – according to the Office for National Statistics. Youth unemployment has continued its upward trend over the past year, reaching an estimated 948,000, up from 923,000 between January and March 2025. As of July 2025, 768,000 people aged 16 to 24 were claiming universal credit, according to Parliamentary figures.
Conservatives should, first, be championing apprenticeships for young people. Sending 50 per cent of young people to university has not delivered the promised results: degrees have become devalued, debt has risen sharply, and graduates now compete in their hundreds for each vacancy on major schemes. There are far too many graduates for graduate roles.
Apprenticeships offer a strong alternative. According to The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), only 6 per cent of 16 to 24-year-olds are currently in apprenticeships. Employers in construction, manufacturing and engineering consistently say they are desperate for young workers, yet for two decades teenagers have been told that choosing vocational training represents some kind of personal failure. The same CIPD report calls for the government to introduce an Apprenticeship Guarantee for all 16 to 24-year-olds, a policy backed by almost 90 per cent of employers in earlier research.
The Conservatives should also continue opposing Reeves’s rise in employer National Insurance. The labour market already penalises employers for taking on young workers, and the increase from 13.8 to 15 per cent has only amplified that pressure. Although presented as fiscally responsible, the change simply raised the cost of hiring new staff, and youth unemployment rose accordingly. Sectors that rely heavily on young workers, hospitality, retail, pubs and restaurants, were hit again when business-rates relief was reduced from 75 to 40 per cent. The consequences were shuttered high streets and the loss of thousands of entry-level jobs.
The Conservatives should press for a reversal: lower NI on employment and restore a meaningful level of business-rates relief. The reality is that many young Britons begin their working lives behind a bar or on a shop floor, not in graduate placements at multinational firms, and if the small businesses offering these opportunities continue to disappear, the youth labour market will only deteriorate further.
Reeves’s budget on 26 November failed to offer any real improvement, without the tax cuts needed to encourage growth and reduce unemployment. It is a bleak landscape for young people: unaffordable housing, soaring university debt, higher unemployment and rising taxes.
Reeves’s offer to young people fails because it does not address the structural issues driving the crisis. Labour has produced no plan to reverse the collapse in entry-level opportunities, even as youth unemployment rises and apprenticeship participation remains at historic lows.
Instead, Reeves has doubled down on policies that increase the cost of hiring, higher employer NI, higher wage floors, and reduced business-rates relief, which disproportionately eliminate the jobs young people rely on. She has also avoided reforming failing careers and skills systems, leaving nearly a million NEETs with no path back into work. Her “youth strategy” is simply a rebrand of the status quo.
The Conservatives are the party offering something different. As Deputy Chairman of the Barnet and Camden Young Conservatives, I see that the party’s message resonates strongly with many young people who recognise the need for a credible alternative.
The Conservatives have proposed giving young people a £5,000 tax rebate in their first job to help them save for a first home. Sir Mel Stride has also announced plans to abolish business rates for high-street shops, a measure that would strengthen the sectors most likely to hire young workers.
However, more is needed. If the Conservatives want to be the party of the aspirational young, tackling youth unemployment must be central to their offer. A serious reform of how young people move into work is overdue. The goal of sending half of all young people to university has not worked for the majority.
Apprenticeships and vocational training should be placed firmly at the heart of the Conservative vision for the next generation.
