Best thing we can offer young people is a job, not benefits, says chancellor

Key Points:

• John Healey, speaking at Labour's annual conference, emphasized cutting welfare spending as both an economic necessity and a moral duty, advocating for jobs and apprenticeships over benefit payments for young people.
• Healey announced the expansion of the Local Apprenticeships Service across England, backed by an additional £100 million funded by savings from a Department for Work and Pensions fraud crackdown, aiming to connect young people with employers through mayoral-led initiatives.
• Facing pressure to reduce government borrowing, Healey pledged fiscal discipline and alignment with Prime Minister Andy Burnham on meeting fiscal rules, while acknowledging that current government resources are more limited than in the 1990s.
• Tory shadow chancellor Andrew Griffith criticized Labour's approach to welfare, arguing for benefits to serve as a bridge into work for the one million young people not in education, employment, or training (Neets), rather than a long-term support system.
• Healey also highlighted plans to re-industrialize the UK with investments from companies like Rolls Royce and to reinstate the Union Learning Fund to improve workers' skills amid technological changes, though funding details for the latter remain unclear.