Streeting suggests NI cut and North Sea drilling

Wes Streeting proposed a targeted cut to employers’ National Insurance to encourage hiring young people and reduce youth joblessness. He also suggested allowing some new North Sea oil and gas drilling to raise additional tax revenue. Streeting said Labour’s policies that increased National Insurance and the minimum wage discouraged employers from hiring young people, according to Alan Milburn’s NEET review. Labour’s first post-2024 election budget raised taxes to fund public services, aiming to raise £25 billion per year, with the NHS among the main beneficiaries. Streeting did not propose cuts to NHS spending while floating the NI idea.

"“We have to make it easier for business to employ young people and for businesses to take that risk on someone,” Streeting told the Sunday Times. “I think we should be thinking actively about how to incentivise, whether that's through targeted reduction in employers' National Insurance or other kinds of recruitment and retention incentives,” he said."

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