Source: Combined Authorities (England)
Author: Andrew Pakes MP
Date published: 2026-03-17
[original article can be accessed via hyperlink at the end]

Peterborough helped to build modern Britain through our bricks, engineering and railways. This industrial heritage gave opportunity to young people as well as prosperity to the city. But now, we face a different challenge. A generation of industrial neglect has given rise to a legacy of youth unemployment that scars my city and too many other places in the country.

Tacking youth employment is a moral mission. Across Britain, nearly a million young people aren’t in education, employment or training. That is not just a waste of opportunity for them, it costs us all. My parents were part of a generation that worked hard, played by the rules, and knew that in return their children would have better chances in life. But that deal has been broken. For far too many parents and young people, the chance of a decent job and getting on in life is more difficult.

READ MORE: ‘Education, education, education – not debt, debt, debt’

The reality is that youth employment levels have never recovered to the levels seen before the economic crash in 2008. That’s why I am passionate about apprenticeships and getting Britain making things again. The story of youth unemployment in the country is played out in Peterborough. We have lost too many secure career routes and job opportunities for young people. Under the Conservative government, the number of apprenticeships started by young people fell 40 percent. Youth unemployment is higher in Peterborough than in many parts of the country. The Conservative legacy – the number of young people not earning or learning went up by 250,000 between 2021 and 2024.

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Full employment and good quality jobs have been a central part of Labour’s most successful periods in office. Beveridge’s landmark report in 1942 laid the foundations for Labour’s post-war welfare state, with an NHS, free education for all, and full employment. We need that same urgency today as we seek to rebuild Britain and tackle the lost opportunities of youth employment. Pat McFadden is one of Labour’s most skilled leaders and his announcement this week again shows he both understands his Labour history and knows the value of a ‘politics of work’. 

And young people don’t lack ambition. Every visit I have done to schools, colleges and youth groups has shown young people in Peterborough have talent. Yet too often the system is rigged against them. We are a fast-growing city, but too often the benefits of that growth don’t flow to the young people that need it most. That’s why I fought for Peterborough to be one of Labour’s Youth Guarantee pilots, £10 million in investment over two years to help tackle this challenge head on. Already we’ve seen the new Youth Employment hub at the Peterborough United stadium and greater collaboration between government, our Combined Authority, education providers and employers.

This week’s announcement of a youth employment drive backed by £1 billion will help create 200,000 jobs for young people sits firmly in Labour’s tradition of creating opportunities. It is ambitious in scope and begins to address the urgency required by this moral mission. 

A new Youth Jobs Grant, through which businesses will receive £3,000 for every young person they hire aged 18-24 who has been on Universal Credit and looking for work for six months; Expansions of the Jobs Guarantee so that everyone young person out of work for 18 months can get paid for work experience; And, something I have been campaigning on since being elected, an Apprenticeship Incentive of £2,000 for each new employee aged 16-24 taken on by an SME. 

Local businesses have regularly raised the idea of an incentive with me, and it was great to hear the Federation of Small Businesses and CBI backing the plans this week. The FSB described the changes as ‘a game-changer to tackle youth unemployment and inactivity’.

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We all know we are facing tough times. The cost-of-living crisis is real. Yet this announcement shows Labour values in action and offers real hope to a generation of young people.

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The post ‘The new deal for young people goes to the heart of Labour’s mission’ appeared first on LabourList.

View original article at:
https://labourlist.org/2026/03/new-deal-young-people-heart-of-labours-mission/