The jobs crisis engulfing a generation of young people across the North East “will get worse” without urgent action, the former health secretary has warned. A landmark review conducted by Alan Milburn issued a stark prediction earlier this year that as many as 1.25 million young people across the UK could be out of work or education by 2031, a social emergency costing the country £125 billion a year.
Stark warning at St James' Park
Looking out across the pitch at St James' Park on Friday, Mr Milburn knew that the staggering number of 16 to 24-year-olds from our region who are not in employment, education or training (NEET) today could fill every single seat in the home of his beloved Newcastle United – and then some. The Blair-era Labour minister’s recommendations on what the Government must do to prevent a lost generation of youngsters are expected in the coming weeks, though have reportedly been delayed until after the Budget, and he was on Tyneside for the launch of a new commitment from the Premier League to support more than 250,000 at-risk children and teenagers over the next five years.
Mr Milburn told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that the second part of his review would be published “in the next month or so” and that, despite the reported delay, Andy Burnham was “deeply committed” to tackling the crisis. Latest Government figures put the North East’s NEET rate among 16 to 24s at 19.6% as of March 2026, the highest in the country and equating to roughly 59,600 people.
'Perfect storm' of entry-level jobs and mental health crisis
Mr Milburn told leaders assembled at St James' that the “intolerable” problem was chronic and “will get worse” unless the UK changes course, with the combination of a lack of entry-level jobs and a youth mental health crisis creating a “perfect storm”. The crisis is not only one afflicting struggling families from more deprived communities, like in the West End of Newcastle where he was raised, with 15% of the NEET generation having a degree and 30% with good GCSE grades.
But, he remains optimistic that the nation is coming together to tackle an issue that he described as the most “visceral” in all of his decades in politics, such is the level of fear people have for the children and grandchildren's future. Mr Milburn told the LDRS: “Nobody is resting on their laurels or sitting on their hands.
“I grew up in Benwell in the West End of Newcastle and I don’t know the exact numbers there, but I am guessing that if it is one in five young people who are NEET across the region then it is probably one in four there. You can’t have one in four people where it becomes a normal way of life where you are not in education, employment or training.”
Funding and benefits reform
Asked if there would be sufficient public finances to enact the major reforms Mr Milburn believes are needed, ahead of a Budget where Downing Street is facing headaches over defence spending and potential tax rises, he said that discussions were being held with Mr Burnham and Chancellor John Healey and that the issue “will be fully resolved in the Spending Review”.
He added: “They are not daft and they realise this is going to require the Government to put its hand in its pocket, because it has to. But the prize is that if we can get young people into work we can get them off welfare. Too many young people are needlessly ending up in the benefits system.
“If you get a health and disability benefit today as a young person, you stand a 50% chance in 15 years’ time of still being on that benefit and still being unemployed. The obvious answer and the only sustainable way to cut the benefits bill is to get young people into work, get them earning, and get them paying their taxes. That is what we have got to do.”
Students share their experiences
During his visit, Mr Milburn took questions from pupils from Gateshead’s Emmanuel College. 14-year-old Charlotte said that the lack of training and work experience chances meant that many young people simply “cannot find where you are meant to get a job from”.
Fellow pupil Sofie, 15, told the LDRS: “People should be more aware of how hard it is to get into work now. When you apply for a job that you don’t get, you don’t even get a reply back – you just don’t hear anything. That can be so harmful to your confidence.”
The Premier League said its investment will enable more than 100 football club charities, like the Newcastle United Foundation, to work with schools and employers to identify young people in need of support and give them the skills and connections they need to avoid becoming disengaged. Clare Sumner, the league’s chief policy and social impact officer, said it was “really dispiriting” that many young people don’t even get the courtesy of a reply when applying for jobs and that the nation was “at an inflection point that we all have to step up together on”.
She added: “I have not met a single other business that is not as passionate as I am about this, to help make a difference. We should not ever write off our young people – what are we doing? Because they are the talent of our future and we need to make them know that we believe in them.”
Newcastle United Foundation managing director Andrew Foster said that football clubs were in a “unique” position to intervene because of their cultural importance, including on helping young people get their foot in the door for a work experience placement or first job. He told the LDRS: “Saturday jobs don’t exist like they used to, or those little part-time jobs. My first job was delivering milk in the morning. Doing that or a paper round or an odd shift in a bar or restaurant is really tough for a young person to get hold of now.
“I think we can leverage our connections with business to get to young people in a different way. Rather than putting an application in and the bots filter it out because you haven’t got Grade 4 or above in GCSE maths, we get the employer to meet the young people first. Come and speed some time with them, get to know them, we will provide some support and training, and in the end they can make a decision based on the young person and not what is written on a piece of paper.”
