As a parliamentary candidate, and the youngest on Labour’s list of 106 target seats, one of my principal areas of policy interest lies in the ‘Generation Y challenge’. If one were to look at Britain as a business – UK plc, as it’s often referred to – and undertake a strategic analysis of the most significant factors affecting Britain, one may identify the following:

•    A looming pensions crisis (both in terms of affordability of public and private pensions and the sheer lack of pension uptake by younger people)
•    An increasing health and social care burden with an aging population
•    Access to and affordability of housing
•    Personal and sovereign debt burdens
•    Climate change and the environment; and,
•    Sustainable business and jobs (including availability, the skills gap, wages and the cost of living)

It is my view that these six issues are the most significant strategic challenges facing Britain. Yet no one is talking about them. Politicians ask why younger people (by which I mean people aged under 40) are disillusioned with politics. My answer is that it’s because we’re not talking about the issues that young people worry about and, by not talking about them, we’re not providing the radical solutions that are required to show that politics can make a difference. All of these issues are also inherently linked to the challenge of inequality which is why it must be Labour that leads the debate and provides a vision for Britain that isn’t just about the next five years but about the next 50 years.

Ed Miliband had started to build the foundations of this vision. His One Nation approach coupled with his earlier speeches on responsible capitalism and predistribution started to evidence the difference between Labour and the Conservatives in government. It began to paint a picture of what Britain could be. Unfortunately, we’ve been hit off course by the Conservatives. We mustn’t let them outplay us and corner us into talking about the issues they want us to talk about. We must lead on Generation Y issues and be bold in advocating radical, modern and progressive solutions to these major challenges and in doing so, show that David Cameron has no real vision for Britain. We need to lead the national debate, not be responsive to it, or we will not gain credibility as an opposition ready for government.

We must also ensure that our solutions aren’t academic. They need to be tangible and real. Solutions that people can understand and see. Linked to the wider national strategic vision but distilled into practical outcomes.

Sustainable business is a good example. In 2011 Ed announced his five steps for responsible business. But most of them, while all good ideas, use the stick of legislation, increasing regulatory burden in the process. If we are to instil a culture of sustainable business we must also incentivise business.

One practical example of this might be corporation tax cuts for businesses that pair up with schools from areas of deprivation in respect of education, training and skills. I myself have set up and led a similar programme with my law firm and my old secondary school. The results have been inspiring. For many young people at my old secondary school the very idea of being taken in to a tall glass building with lots of people in suits was something that would never happen. They weren’t aware of the types of jobs that were available or how to succeed in gaining them. This is a real issue in my constituency of Bristol North-West. I have areas of potentially high economic growth (in the industrial area and docks of Avonmouth) surrounded by communities dealing with some of the lowest outcomes in education, training and skills in Britain, thousands of jobs being created yet a shortage of suitably qualified local workers. Just think how different it could be if major employers in Avonmouth were twinned with the local primary and secondary schools: a sustainable business working with a sustainable community. I have no doubt that there are many businesses that would be willing to undertake such projects anyway – indeed my own already does – but imagine what more could be done if we incentivised business too. Tangible outcomes linked to a national strategic vision.

This is, of course, just a small example and I don’t profess to have easy answers to the Generation Y challenge, and there are no easy answers to any of the challenges in this article. However, we need to start discussing the Generation Y challenge now, and Labour needs to lead this debate. Considering and dealing with these issues now will be far less painful than dealing with them when they become a crisis in 20 or 30 years’ time.

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Darren Jones is the prospective parliamentary candidate for Bristol North-west. For more information visit www.darren-jones.co.uk. He tweets @DarrenPJones

Bristol North-West is also a Frontline 40 seat, meaning it is one of the 40 seats on Labour’s 106 target seat list that will be needed for a Labour majority in 2015. For more information on Progress’ Campaign for a Labour Majority please see here.

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Photo: Peter Ashton