Labour has launched a Youth Manifesto, ‘The Future is Ours’, with a new £1 billion pledge for youth services.
Many young people are struggling, with surging house prices, stagnating wages, rising student debt, escalating knife crime and a mental health crisis. The climate emergency has also created great uncertainty for young people with many taking to the streets and leading the climate strikes.
Labour’s Youth Manifesto includes pledges to tackle intergenerational inequality and deliver real change for young people. An additional £1 billion in annual revenue will be spent on youth services which will build a properly funded, professionally staffed National Youth Service. This will include building up to 500 new youth centres so that every young person has access to local, high-quality youth work.
The party will also help young people with:
- Votes at 16 and automatic voter registration.
- An end to tuition fees and bringing back maintenance grants.
- Free bus travel for under 25s.
- A climate apprenticeship programme for school leavers.
- A ban on unpaid internships.
- A Real Living Wage of £10 per hour for everyone over the age of 16.
- Reform to Help to Buy to focus it on first-time buyers on ordinary incomes.
- Doubling the annual spending on children and adolescent mental health services.
- 3,500 qualified counsellors to guarantee every child access to school counsellors.
- Investment in the youth justice system.
Cat Smith, Labour’s Shadow Minister for Youth Affairs, said:
“We often say that young people are the leaders of tomorrow, but recent events have shown they are the leaders of today.
“The next Labour government will take radical steps, from building a National Youth Service to tackling the climate crisis, to ensure that every young person has the support they need to fulfil their potential and feel secure in their future.”
Policy Development
Read the Manifesto for Young People here: labour.org.uk/youth-manifesto
You can read Labour’s full manifesto commitments for young people and more here: labour.org.uk/manifesto/
