LABOUR has been urged to make 2025 a “year of delivery” for workers after researchers warned household incomes will stagnate or fall next year.

TUC general secretary Paul Nowak makes the call today in his new year message as the government faces a growing threat from Reform UK.

Working people desperately needed “tangible change,” he said.

“Repairing and rebuilding Britain after 14 years of Tory chaos and decline is a massive challenge for the government, but 2025 has to be a year of delivery.

“Continuing with the same broken status quo is not an option.

“As recent elections in the US and across the globe have shown, securing economic growth is not enough on its own.

“Families want to feel better off and to see material improvements in their day-to-day lives.”

Improving job quality and putting more money into people’s pockets was an “urgent national mission,” said Mr Nowak, adding: “Working households up down this country are hurting and we cannot afford to ignore it.

“The government has a historic opportunity — and an electoral mandate — to make work pay.

“Delivering the Employment Rights Bill in full will boost living standards for millions and create a happier, healthier and more productive workforce.

“We must not get distracted or diverted from this task.

“Creating better-quality jobs also requires an industrial strategy worthy of its name — something we never got under the Tories.”

Yesterday the Resolution Foundation think tank warned that the worst-off 10 per cent of working-age people could see a 2 per cent decline in their disposable income in 2025.

Using a new measure of “real living standards” that takes into account both disposable income and the “in-kind” benefits of public services, researchers said they expected the fall to only be offset by improvements in public services.

Resolution Foundation interim chief executive Mike Brewer warned: “Despite the government’s new targets for rising disposable incomes in its plan for change, the living standards outlook for 2025 is hardly a cause for celebration: disposable income is likely to fall, and if households are to feel better off, then it will only be if they see the benefits from spending more on public services.”

The Institute for Fiscal Studies deputy director Carl Emmerson added that while Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s focus on investment could deliver long-term benefits, failure to deliver growth could be difficult.

He said: “The outlook is uncertain.

“She’s not given herself huge wiggle room against her fiscal targets and while she topped up day-to-day spending a lot this year and next, from April 2026 onwards, the spending plans look pretty tight.”

A Momentum spokeswoman said: “Paul Nowak is right. If Labour don’t deliver, they will [be] betraying millions of people and only the far right will benefit.

“The Employment Rights Bill contains positive elements but the government must go far further if they really want to boost living standards, including ending the two-child benefit cap, initiating a mass council house building programme, and genuinely ending austerity via mass public investment.”

Reform UK on Boxing Day claimed it is now the “real opposition” to Labour as its membership had “outgrown the Conservatives.”

The party said it had passed the 131,680 membership milestone the Tories had when Kemi Badenoch won the leadership election in the autumn.

Ms Badenoch and Reform leader Nigel Farage have engaged in a public spat after she said the figures were “fake” and accused him of “manipulating British voters.”

But a recent Ipsos survey found that Mr Farage had a higher net favourability rating than either Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer or Ms Reeves, with Reform planning to expand its elected base at next May’s council elections.

A government spokesperson said: “Our Plan to Make Work Pay is a core part of the mission to grow the economy, raise living standards across the country and create opportunities for all.

“It will tackle the low pay, poor working conditions and poor job security that has been holding our economy back.

“The plan will help more people to stay in work, improve job security and boost living standards.

“Once implemented, the plan will represent the biggest upgrade of workers’ rights in a generation.”

A Treasury spokesperson said the “huge” challenge to fix the economy and public service finances after 15 years of neglect “is only fuelling our fire to deliver for working people.”