Kickstarting Employment Support from Government

Agency: Communities that Work

Communities that Work (CtW) is a national membership body of social landlords, aiming to transform lives by enabling social landlords to support people into employment. When the UK went into Covid-19 lockdown, huge parts of the economy were effectively shut down. Government's employment data showed that nearly 10 million jobs were being protected by the furlough scheme. Data revealed that unemployment rates during the crisis were highest in regions with higher numbers of social residents. This meant that with an end of the furlough scheme, impending economic and unemployment crisis would loom hard, likely most affecting regions with high levels of social housing.

The key objectives set out by CtW were to prevent a growing unemployment crisis as a consequence of the pandemic through meaningful engagement with Government, and to position CtW as sector leaders. Through the creation of an 'Opportunity Guarantee' the campaign sought action from Government to help young people, support those in long-term unemployment and invest to promote job creation. Setting up the 'Covid-19 Housing and Employment Taskforce' to help drive the campaign, with CtW as the Chair, positioned the organisation as the leading voice across the housing and employment sectors when making the case to Government.

The campaign saw tremendous success including the Prime Minister's public commitment to an Opportunity Guarantee. The campaign also secured from Government nearly £900m to double the number of Jobcentre work coaches, the £2bn Kickstart Scheme to create thousands of work placements for young people and £3bn supporting green job creation.