Why now is the perfect time for a midlife career reboot
The Prime Minister’s reskilling initiative is a chance for older workers to stay relevant, says Eleanor Mills
Eleanor Mills
Credit: Heathcliff O Malley for The Telegraph
Yesterday, Boris Johnson called for a “revolution”. It didn’t involve tanks or flag-waving but, to those who feel they’re on the midlife career scrapheap, it might prove just as radical.
“We know that having the right skills and training is the route to better, well-paid jobs,” said the Prime Minister. “I’m revolutionising the system so we can move past the outdated notion that there is only one route up the career ladder, and ensure that everyone has the opportunity to retrain or upskill at any point in their lives.”
There will be particular provision to protect shared ownership leaseholders, he added.
The plan follows an investigation into the 2017 Grenfell fire that killed 72 people as a result of flammable cladding.
Thangam Debbonaire, shadow housing secretary, said: The Government has betrayed their promise that leaseholders wouldn’t pay for the building safety crisis.
In Parliament, Mr Jenrick said: No doubt there will be leaseholders watching today that would like us to go even further. [But] English property laws are based on cavaet emptor – buyer beware.
According to the New Build Database, a record of homeowner issues, as many as 4.6 million homeowners are trapped by lender requirements for external wall safety forms. Without an EWS1, lenders are valuing flats at zero, but many homeowners face huge delays getting the forms completed. This is having a big effect on the property market, with potentially millions of flats unable to be sold.
Robert Jenrick’s narrow cladding plans are “a betrayal” of Tory MPs and leaseholders alike The Housing Secretary has failed to protect all leaseholders from the punitive costs of living in dangerous homes. Millions of leaseholders’ hopes for cladding funding have been dashed by the Housing Secretary, Robert Jenrick. In a much-anticipated announcement this afternoon, Jenrick announced a new £3.5bn fund to fix dangerous cladding on high-rise buildings in England. While this may sound substantial, it is far from the £15bn recommended by a committee of MPs last June to fix all fire safety defects on “high-rise and high-risk” buildings.