It’s not rocket science that more growth requires more workers, so why is our government burying its head in the sand, asks Emma Revell

Britain’s long term prosperity depends on work. Growth can only come through successive businesses and these businesses need workers.

This isn’t a controversial or groundbreaking thing to say and yet some of the political class, especially the current government, seem to be doing everything in their power to ignore this basic fact.

The number of working-age adults out of work, temporarily or seemingly for good, is rising steadily and there is a serious lack of willingness to address the root causes. Labour’s recent attempt to introduce a relatively minor change in benefits nearly triggered a meltdown among campaigners and backbench MPs, so for the moment it feels inconceivable we’ll get the sort of root and branch reform needed to support millions to make the shift from benefits to work.

Businesses are repeatedly banging the drum about how increased costs are making it harder for them to keep going day to day, never mind expand or scale up. Yet we’ve seen increases to National Insurance which are a direct hit to the cost of employing each........

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