The Government should introduce a Young Britain Credit to encourage firms to recruit young people and prevent the UK creating a “lost generation” of jobless youngsters, the head of the CBI has told West business.
Speaking at the CBI South West’s annual dinner in Bristol last night, John Cridland said incentivising business through tax credits to take on teenagers could help tackle the “scarring effect” youth unemployment can have. One in five young people between 16 and 25 are not in work, education or training, he said.
Such a scheme would cost the Treasury around £150m. “That’s a lot of money, but the Government has recently found £200m to restore weekly bin collections.
“I’m optimistic that businesses will rise to the challenge because we can’t afford another lost generation.”
Mr Cridland also said the Chancellor’s deficit reduction programme was right – but not sufficient to generate growth.
“I don’t think Plan A is good enough,” he told the 350 guests at the black tie dinner, which was sponsored by Barclays Corporate. “The Government is going to have to do more. We need a Plan A+.”
