Immigration not to blame for rising youth joblessness, says Alan Milburn

Christopher McKeon and Rhiannon James, Press Association Political Staff

High levels of immigration are not to blame for the rise in young people neither working nor learning, Alan Milburn said as he published his first report on youth joblessness.

The former Labour cabinet minister said his review had found “no evidence” of a link between migration levels and the number of young people not in employment, education or training (Neet).

He told a press conference in London: “It’s a blame game issue. We just sort of blame immigration as the problem – it’s not really, it isn’t.”

Speaking at the launch of his interim report on the Neet crisis, which warned that the number of jobless young people had risen to more than a million, he said recent falls in immigration could represent an “opportunity”.

Net migration has fallen sharply after a spike in the final years of the Conservative government, with some experts suggesting the UK could experience overall emigration in the near future.

Mr Milburn said this could leave businesses with a shortage of skilled workers and there could be a greater focus on employing young people classed as Neet.

He said: “Employers are going to be offering jobs to young Brits before migrants for a very simple reason that there is a bigger pool now of unemployed not in education and employment Brits than there are migrants coming in.

“So honestly, the equation has changed and I view this as a really big opportunity.”

He acknowledged that moving Neet young people into jobs would not be straightforward and would place an extra “pastoral burden” on businesses.

He told Thursday’s press conference: “Employers are going to have to work a bit harder in order to get the very best out of those young British workers, but that’s what they should be doing.

“And the deal that we need to construct, I think, as a society, is if employers are going to do that, how can the Government help them and enable them to do that as well? That’s the new deal.”

Mark Willmore, Llamau’s Director of Education explained that: “From our extensive experience of working with young people who, for a diverse range of reasons, have not been able to succeed in mainstream education, we know that when a person centric approach is taken, it allows personal characteristics including mental health issues to be accommodated alongside learning.

“At our six education centres in Wales, we deliver a tailored programme where we work with the individual to help them back into education.

“In the last year 88% have progressed positively into further Education, Employment or Training showing how a trauma informed, safe education space can have a positive impact.”