London will only get a £7 million grant from the Government, which is not enough to plug the deep and widening hole in youth service funding says Assembly Member Sian Berry. [1]
Today the Government announced an investment of £40 million in grants to youth services shared across the UK.
Sian Berry published two reports on youth service cuts in London last year. She found that London councils have cut at least £36 million in funding for youth services compared with 2011 budgets.
The Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport new grants announced today will only benefit a handful of charities and youth organisations in London.
Sian Berry’s research also revealed more than 30 youth centres have shut down in London and more than 450 youth workers’ jobs have been axed. [2]
Sian Berry says:
I’m pleased the Government has started to value youth services but these grants are crumbs compared with the cuts council have had to make in recent years.
My research found that just in London nearly 500 jobs have been cut in youth services along with £36 million in budget cuts since 2011.
It’s a criminal waste to have youth centres sitting empty. The Government and the Mayor need to do much more to invest in our young people.”
Notes to editors
[1] Table of Government £40m grant for youth services London breakdown
[2] Youth services in London – what next? Sian Berry AM, 6 Mar 2017
(this updates the figures in Sian Berry’s report London’s lost youth services, published in Jan 2017) https://www.london.gov.uk/press-releases/assembly/sian-berry/londons-lost-youth-services-report
- Total youth service cuts across London between 2011/12 and 2016/17 are now more than £36 million – an average of 34 per cent
- At least 457 youth worker jobs have been lost since 2011 – a staffing cut of 48 per cent
- 36 youth centres have closed across the city
Sian Berry was elected as a Green member of the London Assembly in May 2016. She has been a councillor for Highgate ward in Camden since 2014.