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Andy Burnham's political philosophy embraces devolution with a capital D.The Prime Minister has already outlined his ambitions for pursuing good economic growth in every postcode of the UK.This he hopes to achieve through a rewiring of the state with more government departments bursting free from the Westminster bubble and a major expansion of powers for English regional mayors and strategic authorities.The Prime Minister's philosophy lies in the belief that economic growth and public renewal cannot be successfully ordered from the top down in Westminster but must be nurtured from the bottom up based on regional realities. That relies on regional and local leaders understanding their local economies, and harnessing the right approaches to tap into unrealised potential.There are many ways to measure local economic progress. GDP, employment rates, poverty rates, median income per capita are all important pieces of the puzzle to evaluate local economic quality.There are also specific measures for phases of life: for children we use child poverty, for young people we use NEETs and for pensioners we measure pensioner poverty. One only needs to look at the current high priority given by this government to tackling the NEET crisis to understand the merits of creating specific age-focussed employment measures. Monitoring this figure closely as a bellwether of the overall strength of the labour market has alerted the government to the need to act.At Ageing Better, we believe there currently exists a gap in understanding and measurement for midlife. Which is why we have developed NETER to describe people aged 50 to state pension age who are not in employment, education, training or retirement. For this age group, employment rates and unemployment rates do not tell the full story. Lower employment rates among older people are often assumed to reflect retirement and when people see lower unemployment rates, they may assume strong labour market outcomes. A closer inspection of NETER data, on a national and regional level, shows this is not the case. Using NETERs on a local level The Centre for Ageing Better estimates that the NETER category accounts for almost 3 million people across the UK. And looking at the regional breakdowns for NETERs, there are clear differences at the local level. The North East, North West, London and the West Midlands have the highest NETER rates with more than one in five of people aged between 50 and state pension age not in employment, training, education or retirement. This suggests that in these areas, older workers need particularly strong and tailored support in the labour market. Looking beyond headline rates helps reveal the different factors driving economic inactivity in different places. The North has the highest rates of long-term illness and disability, whereas London and the West Midlands have above average rates of caring and unemployment. Understanding the reasons behind the NETER numbers in each region will be key to finding the right solutions. Our analysis also shows that in some English regions, the chances of being NETER for people aged 50-SPA is almost twice as high as the chances of being NEET for people aged 16-24. While regional authorities should be rising to tackle the NEET crisis, there also needs to be a proportionate response in supporting other age groups similarly vulnerable to weak labour markets, ageism and the threat of AI. Purely pursuing a NEET focus driven by central government's priority will not deliver localised economic growth. How should regional and local authorities use NETER dataIn tackling these regional NETER disparities, there are lessons to be learned from the way local areas are responding to the NEET challenge. Some councils have developed their own ways of using local data to identify those most at risk of becoming NEET, intervene earlier and target support at the young people who need it most.NETER data should become embedded in the ways evidence is used to set local priorities, from the employment and skills plans drawn up by Mayoral Combined Authorities to the work councils and other local partners do to shape Local Skills Improvement Plans.The data can then inform real decisions: who local employment programmes need to reach, where skills and retraining provision is falling short, and where employment support needs to connect better with health, disability or caring support.NETER can also help places judge whether the choices they make are delivering results. Tracking the rate and its underlying causes over time would help show whether investment is reducing the barriers keeping people out of work, and where resources may need to be redirected.Only by publishing and monitoring the NETER figure regularly can each region understand the scale of the problem, its specific causes within each region, and whether the remedies to tackle them are working.Understanding NETER rates in local economies should provide strong evidence for how local policymakers should be organising their budgets. Especially, given that the Prime Minister is planning to devolve more powers to local government moving forward. Close analysis of NETER rates should also demonstrate where there might exist a need for investment in caring, policies to help those with long-term illness and disability get into and stay in work and better income support for those who are not able to work for any reason. Ryan Heasman is economics and research analysis at the Centre for Ageing Better

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EMPLOYMENT

Rewiring the state: The case for a 50 to state pension age labour market measure

By Ryan Heasman | 09 November 2026

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