'It is a catastrophe' - the man battling to stem rising youth unemployment

"This is a story of lost lives," says Alan Milburn, as he stands outside the front door of the house where he grew up, in Benwell, Newcastle.

The former New Labour minister is returning to his home town as part of his review for the government into how to stem the rising number of young people not in education, employment or training, also known as Neets.

Almost a million 16 to 24-year-olds are in this group - the highest level for more than 10 years.

More than half are deemed to be economically inactive, meaning they are not looking for work.

Milburn says the north-east of England, which is one of the hardest places for a young person to find work, is at "the sharp end" of the problem.

It is, he says, "a social catastrophe, an economic catastrophe and a political catastrophe".

But for him it is also very personal.

"I grew up in this area and I know what life is like here. It might be a long time ago but you never forget.

"It was 50 years ago and you never forget just how hard it is for people to get the opportunities and chances that I had in my life."

He says his family were "pretty poor" and his school was "terrible".

If it weren't for luck and chance, he says, his "life could have taken a very different turn".

Around the corner from his old home is Patchwork, a local youth project where Milburn is a trustee.

Karl Maughan Gilbert, a senior youth worker, says the term Neet is a "horrible" one with "really negative connotations".

"It implies there is a choice whereas there is not really a choice," he says.

"It is so easy to just blame people rather than looking at the whole thing and think - 'actually what are we doing'."

One trend that particularly alarms Milburn is the number of young people who are economically inactive.

"This is no longer a problem of youth unemployment," he says, "it's a problem of youth detachment.

"That's the new phenomenon. This is not a cyclical thing...it's endemic and it's getting worse."

He says an unfit schools curriculum, a mental health crisis and a changing labour market have created a "perfect storm".

"And unless we address it… Hey Houston, we're gonna have a problem."

Not long ago, Jordan Thompson, 20 and Morgan Hogarth, 18, were at the eye of that perfect storm.

Both now work as leisure assistants at the Newcastle United Foundation, an organisation they credit with turning their lives around.

But they say they left their schools with low aspirations, little confidence and no real work experience.

They say Covid is a big factor. "A lot of people my age have lost crucial years of their life and developing life skills," says Thompson.

"I didn't really know how to talk to somebody because I was on the screen for two years."

Hogarth agrees. "People talk about 'our kids are too attached to technology these days' - but that's all I had for three years."

"I didn't want to be sitting watching YouTube for three hours a day but I was forced to."

And time online meant time on social media.

Thompson says: "I feel like people go on their phone and see someone who's doing a bit better in life, like driving a nicer car and think 'why can't I do that'.

"But it's sort of unrealistic to get that straight away. And I feel like people want to skip that first step or even the second or third step. That's where people go wrong in my eyes."

They also feel their school left them unprepared.

"I can tell you how to calculate angles… but I couldn't tell you how to do my taxes or what a pay slip is or how to go and apply for a job," says Thompson.

And even if you are able to get a job, he says some people of his generation don't see the point.

"When you think about it what have we got to work for? I mean realistically I won't be able to buy a house.

"You've got to pay your rent and then your gas goes up and electric goes up. By the time I've worked and worked to pay my bills, I've got nothing left."

Milburn shares their concerns about how schools prepare young people for finding work.

"We have got to ask, is the education system really equipped to prepare young people for the future? I think the answer right now is probably not."

He says he thinks employers feel young people are not "work ready" and the curriculum focuses too much on qualifications and not enough on the attributes - such as being communicative, creative or agile - needed in a quickly-changing labour market.

"You think it's changing already? Boy oh boy watch what happens in the next five and 10 years when AI bites."

The government is due to publish its proposals for schools in a white paper on Monday, and Milburn says it needs to make sure the curriculum is aligned with what employers need.

The Conservatives have accused the government of making it harder for employers to hire young people through its increases to the National Living Wage and employers' National Insurance contributions.

Milburn acknowledges it is "always a risk" with young people "because they're unproven" and the government should "make sure the risks are minimised, and the incentives are maximised".

Turning to the welfare system, which some have argued traps people in a lifetime of worklessness, he says it is a big issue and understands why people focus on it, but he thinks it is only part of the problem.

"This is a whole systems failure - it's what happens in schools, what happens in mental health, what happens in employment support.

"Just because you've got a mental health problem we shouldn't be saying to people you can't work.

"The first question we should ask is 'what is it that will help you to work'."

'Put yourself in our shoes'

Milburn says he wants his review, which is due in the summer, to be "far-reaching".

However, with a prime minister whose authority is weak and a sizeable chunk of Labour MPs wary of restricting access to benefits, what chance would any radical proposals have of being implemented?

"The politics are going to look after themselves," says Milburn.

"I don't know what's going to happen in the future - it's very difficult to know what's happening day to day.

"All I can do is...produce a review."

He adds that he is talking to other parties about his work in the hope of getting cross-party buy-in for his proposals.

Back on the roof of the Newcastle Football Foundation, Jordan Thompson and Morgan Hogarth think about what they want politicians to do.

"Put yourself in our shoes," says Thompson.

"You've got the stable job, earning more money than I ever will.

"You can sit there and criticise us for not getting jobs, but if you were in our shoes six months ago, where you felt like you'd had no future prospects what would you do?

"I'm pretty sure you'd be lost."

You can listen to the interviews on BBC Radio 4's Westminster Hour at 2200 GMT on Sunday and then on BBC Sounds.