David Miliband

Responding to Nick Clegg’s speech today at the CBI on Youth Unemployment, David Miliband said:

“Nick Clegg has been consistent in highlighting the scale of the youth unemployment crisis, but the Government response has been consistently too little and too late.  It is good to hear his praise for the report of the Youth Unemployment Task Force which I chaired, but extremely disappointing that he has been unable to persuade the rest of the Government to take more than a small step to implement its recommendations.  The announcement of an early start to wage subsidies in hard-hit areas is a small step forward, but the dismissal of job guarantees, and deafening silence on transport costs and public sector procurement, make today’s announcement thin gruel for the young and long term unemployed. Youth unemployment remains a time bomb beneath the nation’s finances and the social fabric of our country. Updated calculations of the cost of youth unemployment done for the ACEVO Commission show that over the next decade alone the cost of youth unemployment at current levels to the Exchequer will reach over £30 billion in lost revenue and benefit payments.”