Youth centres may seem tame places – a pool table, a boxing ring, some books, a health adviser, an ex-offender turned mentor. But they save huge amounts of money in averting a life of crime and punishment. At present, Britain is seeing the closure of places of communal coming together. The loss of the youth club would be most dangerous.”

Youth Concern does not like describing itself as a youth club because that smacks of table tennis and after school hang out. While we offer both of those things, we’re so much more. We prefer Guardian columnist Simon Jenkins’ description of our service as being ‘utterly essential’. We are proud to offer a Drop-in Centre, counselling and homelessness prevention services so Aylesbury Vale’s 13-25 year olds can feel safe, feel seen, and be supported to live with confidence, purpose and possibility.

Youth Concern, as Simon Jenkins explains, is answering a ‘chronic urban need’. Yet services like ours are collapsing. A 2024 Institute for Fiscal Studies report charted a 30% fall in the number of youth centres in London between 2010 and 2019 – and London’s better served than most places.

Central government has left more services to the discretion of local councils include rubbish collection, libraries, care of the elderly and youth clubs. ‘Since the sums spent on these functions are not ordained by central government, they were butchered by austerity after 2010. They have never recovered.’

We work in partnership with our friends at Buckinghamshire Council but echo the author’s call that more is done. Together, we help to shape the decision-makers of the future. Not the criminals or repeat offenders.

Read the Guardian article here