By David Williams
Councils should be given more power and resources to tackle joblessness if Britain is to avoid creating a new ‘lost generation’, the Local Government Association has claimed.
Councils should be given more power and resources to tackle joblessness if Britain is to avoid creating a new ‘lost generation’, the Local Government Association has claimed.According to the association, a localised system for dealing with employment and training must be developed to prevent lifelong unemployment and deal with regional variations in the effects of the recession.
A report published by the LGA on February 16 showed that the past two recessions have concentrated long-term joblessness in specific areas of the country, such as northern cities in the 1980s.
It called on the government to devolve resources for work and training schemes to local authorities, and to enable ministers to delegate employment programmes to councils.
Latest figures show that 38,000 workers aged 18 to 24 were laid off in the final quarter of 2008, accounting for one in four of the total redundancies.
LGA chair Margaret Eaton said: ‘The over-centralised way that we have addressed this issue has failed to stop the creep of long-term unemployment. It is clear that a national, one-size-fits-all approach simply isn’t sufficient.’
