On Wednesday 25 November, Sir David Amess, MP for Southend West, asked the Chancellor, after his Spending Review announcement, to commit to delivering the Youth Investment Fund.

The £500m Youth Investment fund was announced in 2019 and intends to create services outside of a school setting to engage young people in positive activities that support their learning and development.

Sir David said “In what must be the most challenging circumstances ever to deliver a spending review, I welcome the Restart scheme to help the unemployed. Last year, £500 million was announced to help youth services, and Southend YMCA greatly benefited from that. Will the Chancellor recommit to that £500 million, and will he set out a timeframe in which that can be delivered over the next five years?”

Rishi Sunak replied “My hon. Friend is absolutely right about the importance of youth services. I am not entirely sure exactly which bit he refers to, but I am happy to talk to him further about it. He will see in today’s spending review that the National Citizen Service is still there and we have provided more funding for capital projects for youth organisations, but I will happily pick up the specific case he mentioned separately”.