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Sunday, 01 February, 2009 
Interesting meeting with Ian Billyard the other week. Ian is Principle at the very successful Leeds College of Building providing skills and qualifications for thousands of students wishing to become plumbers, plasterers, builders, roofers and more. Ian told me how a small but significant number of his students arrive having hated school, achieved no academic qualifications and how he and his team encourage them with bite sized starter courses to get them used to achieving and succeeding What makes this interesting to me is how it dovetails with the work of a small organisation with which I have involvement. I am currently Chairman of the board of a not-for-profit city regeneration company in Leeds called Re’new, which includes an excellent organisation called Leeds Re’build. Re’build supports people, mainly up to the age of 25, who have in many cases simply dropped out of society as we know it. These are often people who have, for whatever reasons, ended up with no qualifications or prospects and are destined for an unfulfilling life of underachievement So how does Re’build work? Well, the team start to focus on the basics, and I mean basics, by getting their new clients to practice turning up to a place on time, looking people in the eye and starting to develop a work ethic. When the client’s confidence is built and they are ready to look at training, with the support of Leeds College of Building, they are enrolled. A member of the Re’build team will often start off by hammering on the door of the client to make sure they are out of bed, dressed and attending until they become reliable. Re’build provides the moral support and advice that most of us would get from our parents but for which these clients’ parents are unable, unavailable or incapable of doing. After the course is completed, working with some supportive employers, clients are assisted in getting through interviews and starting work. From here the service is available for ad hoc advice to try to keep these successful individuals in gainful employment I was told by Re’build of a case of a young man, who we’ll call John, who had been through this process. Initially John’s manager was delighted with his work, the enthusiastic new joiner volunteering for extra work. However, after a while he became unreliable, arriving late and leaving early. The boss rang Re’build to let them know of his intention to sack John. Re’build contacted John to ask what was happening. It seems John’s dad was less than pleased when he had found that John had a job. This, he reckoned, had “brought shame on the family” who had lived happily on benefits for several generations and it risked their way of life. John had been threatened with being kicked out of his home. Worried about being homeless, John would get up on a morning, tell his dad he was going to his mate’s house to play computer games or smoke dope and sneak into work. He couldn’t leave at the same time every day as he’d be rumbled. Re’build helped to negotiate a deal with the employer to be flexible on John’s hours until they could help him find somewhere to live. John kept his job This brings up more questions that one can discuss in a short article, but the point here is that getting every ‘John’ in this city into work requires one to one support and it’s not a cheap option, but it is crucial. The fact is that John, unlike his dad will lift himself up. He’ll probably find a nice girl, maybe get married, have some kids and instil a work ethic in them. He’ll hold his head high throughout his life. His father, however, will not only be a burden, but will waste his potential But how can we afford this intensive one to one support? Easy, it’s the cheapest option going. Let’s say John works hard and gets earns the average wage in the UK. That means he’ll be paying £6100 in tax and National Insurance. His dad will be paying none. His dad’s house will cost taxpayers £3020 per year, Council tax benefit - £825, Jobseekers (no laughing please) Allowance - £3150 and more besides. So the difference between John’s contribution to society and his dad’s expense to taxpayers, like his son, is a staggering £13,100 each year, every year At that rate, if we could get John’s dad into a job, any job, even on half of John’s salary, it would be great value for money even if it took someone in an organisation like Re’build their full time job for six months to get him into work, we’d be seeing benefits in year two I appreciate we are now entering a fairly grim economic time and there will be many more job seekers than jobs, but in Leeds over the last 10 years when 10,000 new jobs were created, it simply passed people like John’s dad by. In simple economic terms this intense work is value for money. In social terms, I believe the most powerful force for regeneration is to support people into work, we won’t do it by building community centres. In the next boom, we cannot let people like John’s dad sit by on the sidelines, we need to get them ready for work now
All the best
Matthew Lobley Roundhay Ward Conservative Councillor
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