Getting Yorkshire

NEARLY 30 years after Norman Tebbit urged the unemployed to get on their bike and look for work, the landscape for young people without a job is very different. First, the globalisation of the economy took certain trades away from Britain, then a vicious recession caught the country in its teeth. All the while, businesses leaders warned that a generation of workers was leaving school without the right qualifications. The end result is a huge burden on the taxpayer - and the risk that potential will be thrown away.

The soaring cost of youth unemployment in Yorkshire is an indictment of the labour policies of the last government. Yes, the total number of people in work did reach an all-time high in 2008 but this was driven, in part, by a bloated public sector and a credit bubble in the private sector. As the number of people with jobs has since plunged, and as more of the nation's problems are exposed, the legacy of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown has unravelled.

The reasons are manifold. From a lack of aspiration among teenagers in certain deprived inner cities, to the education system's failure to prepare young people for the world of work and the reluctance of a minority of employers to take a chance on young people, too much talent is falling by the wayside.

This means a higher Britain's hard-pressed taxpayers having to fork out even more to pay for Jobseekers' Allowance claims. If the total cost is reaching 16m in Yorkshire alone, then it gives an insight into the total bill faced by the country. The size of the welfare state has now expanded to an unsustainable level.

The coalition has to get to grips with youth unemployment. The financial scale of the problem means it is worsening every day while the country's uncertain recovery from recession would be given an immense boost if more of the young could find work. Whether through principle, or simply economic pragmatism, it is time Ministers helped young people get back on their bike and into work.