Wise up Mr Grayling: youth unemployment is no mere distraction

Could it be that Matthew Taylor, the RSA’s chief executive, is even more influential in Downing Street today than he was when he was head of policy under Tony Blair? His latest blog post is certainly causing a huge stir. David Aaronovitch picked it up in yesterday’s Times and put a rocket under it.

Matthew suggests a ‘bond for hope’ to fund a programme to tackle youth unemployment and I hear this has already caused a massive flurry of excitement inside Number 10. Here is the bones of the suggestion in his own words:

‘The Government should create a “bond for hope”. This would be a five year bond earning say 1% tax free interest (so, below inflation but above what banks are offering). To reduce the worry that this is more Government debt liability, investors would have to carry the risk of Government taking up an option to roll the bond redemption date on by a further five years.