Nick Raynsford, Labour MP for Greenwich and Woolwich, welcomed the announcement today that Greenwich Council has been successful in its bid for a Future Jobs Fund.

The Future Jobs Fund is a £1bn Government initiative aimed at creating jobs for unemployed young people rather than abandoning them to the dole. The project works with councils and other authorities to develop new jobs in the local area. By January next year, every 18 to 24 year old who is approaching 12 months’ unemployment will be guaranteed a new job, training or paid work experience place. This is a new approach to create jobs and provide hope for young people and jobseekers as part of the ‘Backing Young Britain’ launch.

Nick today called on every local authority, voluntary sector and social enterprise organisation to bring forward their ideas of jobs they could offer to young people in the area.

This would build on the scheme Greenwich Council has already implemented to create more jobs in the borough. With funding from the Working Neighbourhoods Fund, the Council has created 250 employment opportunities as environmental workers, park wardens and other officers to ensure a cleaner, safer, greener borough. This is an example of how Labour is committed to providing real help now during these difficult times.

Nick says: ‘I’m determined that we never again repeat the failed policies of the past – which is why I supported the Labour Government in investing £5bn to help people get back into work quickly. It is imperative that we don’t lose a generation of our young people to unemployment because of the global downturn. This is what happened in the 80s and 90s when long-term youth employment went up and up and communities were scarred for generations.

The Tories say we can’t afford to help, but the truth is we can’t afford not to. Abandoning a generation would cost us all more in the long run and devastate entire communities.

The Future Jobs Fund is a fantastic initiative to ensure we do not let our young people in Greenwich and Woolwich down and I am delighted that Greenwich is one of the local authorities that is bidding. It coincides with the hundreds of training and employment opportunities the London Olympics 2012 are bringing to the borough’.