Firms ‘must hire British staff for social cohesion’

Companies should hire young British people to stop social problems erupting, a business chief said today.

Richard Lambert, the former director of the CBI, issued the warning days after employment minister Chris Grayling urged bosses to hire a hoodie rather than take the “easy” option of employing more experienced Eastern Europeans.

Mr Lambert admitted that in many cases taking on unskilled locals could be more difficult than them swiftly turning into “star recruits”.

But he argued that business “as a whole” should recognise the risks from the soaring number of households where no one has worked, which has doubled to some 300,000 since 1998, and the high proportion of young British men not in education, employment and training.

“A growing under-class has damaging economic implications and represents a potential threat to social cohesion. It cannot simply be ignored,” he told the Financial Times. Mr Lambert highlighted figures this week which showed that the number of UK nationals in work fell by 166,000 to 26.6 million in the three months to February, while the number of non-UK nationals in jobs rose by 166,000 to 2.6 million.

Mr Lambert added: “If companies are unhappy with the attitude of young British employees, it is up to them to do something about it — by engaging with schools at all levels, offering decent workplace experience and providing the training needed to turn raw recruits into valuable employees.”

He suggested firms do more to help youngsters from workless households to get placements.