Questions arise over Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s £2bn youth jobs scheme
There is limited evidence that Rishi Sunak’s £2bn jobs programme for young people is working, according to a new report.
The National Audit Office (NAO) watchdog warned that the government has “limited assurance” over whether the Kickstart scheme, aimed at 16 to 24-year-olds, is having any positive effect or creating high quality jobs.
The government says that some 100,000 jobs have been created through the scheme, but it is unclear if these roles would have been created anyway, said the NAO.
The Kickstart scheme was designed to create six-month work placements for young people claiming benefits following a sharp rise in unemployment following the pandemic last year.
But the NAO has also cautioned that more could be done to ensure that the jobs created are “targeted at those who need them the most”.
Gareth Davies, head of the National Audit Office, said: “At the start of the pandemic, DWP (Department for Work and Pensions) acted quickly to set up Kickstart to help young people into work when youth unemployment was predicted to rise significantly.”
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Chancellor extends the Kickstart scheme
“However, DWP has limited assurance that Kickstart is having the positive impact intended,” Mr Davies said. “It does not know whether the jobs created are of high quality or whether they would have existed without the scheme.”
In its report, the NAO added that the labour market reopened in ways that were not originally expected due to following lockdowns.
This increased the risk of the government subsidising jobs that would have been created anyway, the NAO said.
The government had initially stated that it intended to get 250,000 young people on a Kickstart placement by the end of this year – but fewer than 2,000 young people had started new roles through the scheme as of January 2021.
This summer, the DWP admitted that this target was unrealistic. It now estimates there will be up to 168,000 starts by the end of March 2022.
Labour’s largest union donor, Unite, has voted to suspend Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner over her role in the Birmingham bin strike row.
Members of the trade union, one of the UK’s largest, also “overwhelmingly” voted to “re-examine its relationship” with Labour over the issue.
They said Ms Rayner, who is also housing, communities and local government secretary, Birmingham Council’s leader, John Cotton, and other Labour councillors had been suspended for “bringing the union into disrepute”.
There was confusion over Ms Rayner’s membership of Unite, with her office having said she was no longer a member and resigned months ago and therefore could not be suspended.
But Unite said she was registered as a member. Parliament’s latest register of interests had her down as a member in May.
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The union said an emergency motion was put to members at its policy conference in Brighton on Friday.
Unite is one of the Labour Party’s largest union donors, donating £414,610 in the first quarter of 2025 – the highest amount in that period by a union, company or individual.
The union condemned Birmingham’s Labour council and the government for “attacking the bin workers”.
Mountains of rubbish have been piling up in the city since January after workers first went on strike over changes to their pay, with all-out strike action starting in March. An agreement has still not been made.
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Rat catcher tackling Birmingham’s bins problem
Ms Rayner and the councillors had their membership suspended for “effectively firing and rehiring the workers, who are striking over pay cuts of up to £8,000”, the union added.
‘Missing in action’
General secretary Sharon Graham told Sky News on Saturday morning: “Angela Rayner, who has the power to solve this dispute, has been missing in action, has not been involved, is refusing to come to the table.”
She had earlier said: “Unite is crystal clear, it will call out bad employers regardless of the colour of their rosette.
“Angela Rayner has had every opportunity to intervene and resolve this dispute but has instead backed a rogue council that has peddled lies and smeared its workers fighting huge pay cuts.
“The disgraceful actions of the government and a so-called Labour council, is essentially fire and rehire and makes a joke of the Employment Relations Act promises.
“People up and down the country are asking whose side is the Labour government on and coming up with the answer not workers.”
Piles of rubbish built up around Birmingham because of the strike over pay
Sir Keir Starmer’s spokesman said the government’s “priority is and always has been the residents of Birmingham”.
He said the decision by Unite workers to go on strike had “caused disruption” to the city.
“We’ve worked to clean up streets and remain in close contact with the council […] as we support its recovery,” he added.
A total of 800 Unite delegates voted on the motion.
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