The newly published Employment Rights Bill is, in the words of Prime Minister Keir Starmer, set to be “the biggest upgrade of workers’ rights in a generation”, overhauling workers’ rights and improving job security.

If the government is to truly make work pay though, it must learn from the policies of the past and commit to working with the places of the present.

The Employment Rights Bill covers 28 different reforms, addressing a broad range of employment issues. On the government’s own terms, some of the most significant measures proposed include:

• Banning exploitative zero-hour contracts: Workers will receive contracts that reflect their actual working hours, ensuring that workers receive fair notice and compensation for shift changes.

• Ending 'fire and rehire' practices: This will prevent employers from dismissing and rehiring workers under worse conditions, protecting their terms of employment.

• Expanding worker protections and flexibility from day one: Parental leave, bereavement leave, sick pay, unfair dismissal protections and the right to request flexible working will be guaranteed from the first day of employment.

• Improving Statutory Sick Pay (SSP): This includes eliminating the lower earnings threshold and removing waiting periods to make SSP accessible to more workers.

• Repealing anti-union legislation, including around minimum service levels, and allowing for expanded collective bargaining and trade union activity.

CPP welcomes these reforms, having long-argued for the elimination of zero-hours contracts, stronger protections for workers and enforcement of employment regulations. But the question now is, will these reforms work?

To really make work pay, the government must firstly learn from the past, with the last Labour government offering a blueprint for ushering in transformative labour market policies. As the first Labour government in fifteen years, the government would do well to recall the successes of its New Labour predecessors in delivering transformative changes such as the Minimum Wage, the Low Pay Commission and the Union Learning Fund, among other initiatives. Two of the above measures are still present in our policy landscape around work and living standards, even after over a decade of austerity, various cost-of-living challenges and wage stagnation. The Minimum Wage is still an active policy (albeit now the National Living Wage), and the Low Pay Commission is still involved in setting it, which shows their lasting value as policy interventions.

Second, the government will have partners across the country who are already delivering good work on the ground - it should learn from them. When we say good work, we mean work that is well-paid, secure and productive, contributing not only to an individual's sense of self and community, but also the broader economy.

The Inclusive Growth Network, at the heart of the Centre for Progressive Policy, has been working with places leading the way in fostering inclusive growth through championing good work. Our members have risen to this challenge in different ways, including through campaigns and acting as testbeds for policy interventions.

Greater Manchester and Bristol for example, have sought to become Living Wage places, while other areas, including the North East Combined Authority, the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham and Cardiff Council, have focused on rethinking employment support geared towards the needs of different groups.

Through DWP funding, South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority (SYMCA) provides localised support for individuals with health conditions to find and maintain employment through their ‘Working Win’ program, highlighting the potential of a more local, integrated approach to employment support. Interestingly, a recent report by Sam Freedman for Labour Together also argued for Jobcentre Plus boundaries to be aligned with those of mayoral combined authorities.

These examples above show central government that working according to the needs of a place can ensure that everyone living there can benefit from good jobs. If central government engages with places on this, they will be able to learn about the potential of place-based interventions and working according to the needs of places and communities.

The Employment Rights Bill demonstrates a serious commitment to improving workers’ rights and making work pay, and it has the potential to reshape the UK labour market. If the government fail to engage with places however, they run the risk of the opportunity to ensure secure, well-paid work for everyone across our country slipping away.