David Willetts

The number of young people not in education, employment or training (NEET) rose by nearly 100,000 between 2003 and 2007, the latest year for which figures are available, according to new Government statistics which expose Labour’s shocking failure to take advantage of the economic boom years.

The latest local authority statistics, uncovered by the Conservatives, show that there are 94,000 more NEETs than in 2003, with almost half of the local authority areas seeing a rise. In twelve areas, the number of NEETS has doubled or increased by even more.

Shadow Innovation, Universities and Skills Secretary, David Willetts said:

“These new figures show the scale of the problems facing young people all over the country, even before we entered the recession. Even in the boom years, the number of NEETs under Labour was rising. Now that boom has turned to bust, we will pay the price for Gordon Brown’s failure to fix the roof whilst the sun was shining.

“This is, above all, a complete failure of Labour’s public policy. In particular, it is a failure of Gordon Brown’s bureaucratic education and training system, which is making the problem worse by forcing Further Education colleges to focus entirely on churning out paper qualifications.

“It is tragic that ministers have done so little to help NEETs during the good years. Now that we are entering the lean years, it will be harder than ever to tackle this urgent social problem. But, if we fail the task, we will be wasting the fantastic talents our young people have.”

Notes to Editors

The table below shows the number of young people not in education, employment or training in 2003 and 2007 - the latest year for which figures are available.

Rutland, Wokingham and the City of London are not included due to their small size.

Data calculated from the Annual Population Survey and placed in the House of Commons Library by the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills in response to a parliamentary question by David Willetts MP (26/11/08)

ENDS