PM and culture secretary visit Buckinghamshire to launch £88m plan for youth support
They spent the day meeting young people in Milton Keynes Central Library
Last updated 6th Aug 2025
The Prime Minister and culture secretary visited Buckinghamshire today to unveil an £88 million investment in youth services, with Lisa Nandy telling the LDRS it was “one of the best days I’ve had in the job.”
Sir Keir Starmer and secretary of state for culture, media and sport Lisa Nandy spent the day meeting young people in Milton Keynes Central Library, as they launched the government’s Building Creative Futures programme.
A package of funding aimed at reversing a decade-long decline in youth provision and giving young people new opportunities after the school day.
In an LDRS exclusive interview, the Culture Secretary said the visit reinforced the government’s commitment to backing every child, regardless of background.
She said: “It has been one of the best days I have had in the job in the last year, they are young people phenomenal.
“The Prime Minister and I went to see this project I have never seen such happy children.
“They were teaching us to play the piano some of them have only been doing it for a couple of days, but they are really good.
“It is something that we are really passionate about as a government, is that every child deserves the right to live the richer larger life.”
The funding, which includes £30.5 million for upgrading youth clubs and £22.5 million for extracurricular activities in schools, is part of what Nandy called the “floor, not the ceiling” of the government’s ambition to rebuild youth services.
Reflecting on conversations she had with the young people, Nandy said: “Talent is everywhere but opportunity is not and when you put a musical instrument in front of a child it opens up also sorts of possibilities.
“The PM knows that from his own experience, it was picking up a musical instrument that changed his life.
“That led him a working-class lad from an ordinary background to go on to be director of public prosecutions and then to be PM, and we want those opportunities for every child.”
She acknowledged that for many communities, especially rural ones like parts of Buckinghamshire, the challenge isn’t just about having youth clubs– it is about getting young people to them.
“In rural areas young people have told us that what they most need is often not the youth facilities it is the transport to get there”, she said.
“So rather than pre-scribe what communities can spend that money on we are working with them to back what they need.”
The Culture Secretary highlighted concerns over a lack of activities for young people and how today’s digital world is affecting thier real-world confidence.
She said: “For too many young people they are either out on the streets with nothing to do or they are at home retreating into their bedrooms.
“Spending a lot of time online where relationships aren’t that healthy, losing confidence to be able to interact with people in the real world.”
The new investment aims to change that, she said, not just with more clubs and activities, but with a wider effort to restore youth spaces across the country.
She said she was “shocked” to learn that only one in five young people have been able to access any kind of arts or music provision in the last year, often because their families couldn’t afford it.
“We are determined that is going to change, so we are targeting down who most need our help,” she said.