Welcome to the Green Alliance podcast. We're the charity and think tank that is all about

achieving ambitious leadership for the environment. My name is Sal Malvis. I'm head of Green

Renewal, their Green Alliance. Transitioning to net zero is going to profoundly affect the way our

labour market and economy works. One of the ways government is looking to smooth that transition

is of the promise that the race to net zero is going to create a surge of new green jobs. And not

only that, green jobs are promised especially for the areas that governments want to level up.

Already we've seen some areas like the Tees Valley be real winners from government's green

or levelling up policy,

with investments in carbon capture and storage or hydrogen, and support to the Tees Valley Mayor,

Conservative Ben Houchin, on skills.

Investing in infrastructure that increases productivity should in theory increase wages

and spill over into job creation across the country, it doesn't necessarily have to be fixed in space.

But leveling up, job creation doesn't just have to come through big, shiny infrastructure.

There are other ways to drive jobs, particularly at the community level.

For example, our recent research found that modest investment in environmental restoration

can deliver 11,000 jobs in the constituencies with the biggest

local employment challenges, whilst also improving places through better services or access

to green space. And we see similar results from increasing ambition in the circular economy.

But the labour market does look different now to what our worries were at the start of the pandemic.

At the retirement of courting, there are still over a million people on furlough. But for now, unemployment figures are a lot lower than expected, and in fact, the labour

market is tightening, with many sectors seeing shortages linked to COVID shifts and fall in

immigration, especially after Brexit. In a tighter labour market, workers have more bargaining power.

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