EXCLUSIVE by Nicholas Cecil

Tony Blair today heralded a "quiet youth revolution" with long-term unemployment among 18 to 24-year-olds in the York area falling by 59 per cent.

The Prime Minister stressed that since coming to power, Labour had launched the first strategic attack on hard-core unemployment since 1945.

The number of 18 to 24-year-olds unemployed for more than six months in the York area was 381 in April 1997, according to Government figures.

Within a year this had fallen to 217 and by October 1998 it was down to 157.

Mr Blair told the Evening Press: "We are immensely proud of the New Deal and what it is achieving.

"We believe it is a quiet youth revolution in the making. It is literally transforming the prospects of thousands of youngsters up and down the country.

"This is the first time in this country really since the Second World War where there is a strategic attack on structural unemployment."

But the Conservatives stressed it was the sound economic legacy they had left Labour which had led to the dramatic fall in unemployment.

John Greenway, Ryedale Tory MP, said: "It is virtually impossible for them to claim that this is all New Deal.

"Unemployment was falling dramatically and had done so over a number of years.

"No-one wants to criticise efforts to get young unemployed people into jobs.

"But there has been an awful lot of money spent on this and no-one is convinced that money has got jobs for youngsters who would not have found work, anyway."

Mr Blair, though, said the key tool was the Government's flagship New Deal programme, introduced in January 1998.

In April, people started on six-month options of a subsidised job, further education and training, working in the voluntary sector or on an eco-taskforce.

Since then long-term youth unemployment in the York area had fallen by 28 per cent.

Mr Blair stressed the rate of unemployment of more than six months among the young nationwide had halved (a fall of 51 per cent) since the General Election.

In the York area the total number of 18 to 24-year-olds unemployed had fallen by 37 per cent between April 1997 and October 1998, from 1,217 to 765.

The total number of unemployed people of all ages had dropped by 35 per cent from 4,894 to 3,198.

Our crusade will give better Deal

Prime Minister's message to Press readers

York's future - and that of our country - depends upon making the best use of all our talents. It means tackling the waste of unemployment, ensuring everyone has a stake in our society.

It's a goal, I know, shared by the Evening Press and its readers. And it's a goal shared by the New Labour Government.

It's why we've launched the New Deal. It's nothing less than a national crusade - Government, business, the public sector and individuals working in partnership to give young people a chance. And it's beginning to work.

Figures today reveal more than 100,000 young people across Britain have already moved into a job, training, voluntary or environmental work through the New Deal. Nearly 60,000 have gone into jobs, subsidised or unsubsidised.

Another 70,000 are still in the initial advisory and support stages of the New Deal. And the figures also show nearly 40,000 firms nationally have pledged employment places for the New Deal.

Locally, it's making a difference too. More than 1,400 young unemployed have already started in the New Deal in North Yorkshire. Over 420 are already in work.

And the New Deal has only been running nationally since April. So these figures - excellent as they are - reflect just the first full eight months of its operation.

But this is no quick-fix jobs scheme whose only aim is to shovel the jobless into the first available scheme or vacancy. This is about individual help, matching wasted talents to real jobs and training. About building careers, not massaging the unemployment figures.

It is also about seeing that firms benefit too, by ensuring they get the right person for their vacancy. That takes time too but it's also beginning to prove its worth.

Many businesses signed up, above all, because they wanted to put something back into their community. But the vast majority of those who have already recruited under the New Deal have found they have an able and dedicated new member of staff.

It is these individual good news stories - thousands of them - from young people and firms which are proof that the New Deal is beginning to have a real impact.

Good news stories like Dean Chadwick, 21, from Selby, who has used his interest in music with the help of the New Deal to get a job in a local music shop after nine months out of work, or Nigel Walton, from Harrogate, who has been taken on in subsidised employment by a local nursery.

Thanks to the New Deal, unemployment among the young is now down nationally to levels not seen for 20 years. In the York area, the number of long-term young unemployed has fallen by 59 per cent since the election.

It's why we are now extending the opportunities of the New Deal to other groups - to the older long-term unemployed, for lone parents, and the disabled. Offering them the chance of the same individual tailored advice to help them back into work.

We are already offering a much better deal to the long-term unemployed over 25. The chance, for instance, of a subsidised job with training or financial help to study full-time.

The New Deal is a flagship policy of this New Labour Government. It is one of our key pledges. And we are delivering. As we will by getting 250,000 young people off welfare and into work by the next election.

Delivering pledges is vital to building the modern, fairer country that you want. It will need us all working together to achieve this goal. And the New Deal shows the way forward.

York job-seeker blasts Labour's unfair deal

A York worker is furious at having her personal details released as an example of a Government scheme's success in driving down unemployment.

Charlotte Smith, now employed at medical diagnostic services firm INFAI UK Ltd, of Upper Poppleton, says she did not give permission for her details to be released - and she does not even not think New Deal was particularly helpful to her.

Charlotte spoke out after she was chosen as an example of how the New Deal was working to coincide with an appraisal of the project by the Prime Minister.

Tony Blair has written an article singing its praises in tonight's Evening Press, but Charlotte declared: "I don't think I am a positive outcome for New Deal and I think I would have got my current job anyway.

"It is just a fancy name for getting people off the dole. I got this job through my own merits, and New Deal hasn't made a lot of difference.

"I had to sign up for it so I could do some training, but had the scheme not started I could have done the training anyway," she said. "I can't believe that the Government would release my personal details without my permission. I am very angry about all this."

Charlotte, from Acomb, was cited as an example of the success of the New Deal programme in statistics released by the Department of Education and Employment.

The statistics contain personal details about Charlotte, 23, including her salary and the number of children she has.

A spokesperson for the New Deal project's North Yorkshire office admitted today: "It was a mistake - we should not have released her details."

Meanwhile Wayne Gregson, 22, from Tang Hall, working at TCJ Designs on Stonegate as a jewellery-repairer, says he IS grateful to the New Deal scheme.

"I would not have got this job without the scheme, I think it's very good," he said. "I want to be in this line of work and now I've got my chance."

The Government claims the New Deal scheme is responsible for a 59 per cent fall in unemployment among young people.

The number of 18 to 24-year-olds unemployed for more than six months in the York area was 381 in April 1997, according to Government figures.

Within a year this had fallen to 217 and by October 1998 it was down to 157.

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