 Brown: teenagers will get the chance to serve their community |
A new scheme to keep teenagers on the right track is to be announced today - by the chancellor of the exchequer. The proposals will include rewarding teenagers who behave well with vouchers which can be spent on sport and leisure activities.
But youngsters who mis-behave repeatedly will get their vouchers taken away.
The Chancellor is expected to announce a pilot scheme today in ten areas, aimed at improving levels of fitness in young people - and getting them more involved in the community they live in.
All youngsters aged from 13 to 19 will be given cards allowing them to spend between �12 and �25 a month on sporting and other facilities.
This morning on Breakfast:
We talked live to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown. We asked him about his plans for teenagers - and we put to him some of the hundreds of e-mails we've had, complaining about hospital telephone and car-park charges.
On his plans for young people, Gordon Brown told Breakfast: "We have been tough on anti-social behaviour and that will continue.
"Ninety eight per cent of young people behave themselves - and they are as angry as the rest of us with those who don't.
"But they did tell us that there is not enough to do. "
The chancellor has been touring the country, visiting schemes for young people, from summer holiday radio stations, to floodlit football which stays open until midnight.
We also asked the chancellor about the NHS.  We also put to him a sheaf of e-mails about hospital charging |
He promised to look into viewers' complaints over charges for hospital services such as car parking and bedside TVs and phones. But he made it clear that it's up to Hospital trusts to sort out their own finances and to keep out of the red:
"If trusts have deficits, they've got to bring them back into surplus - and it's as simple as that you know.
"We are tough on these things and people have got to be prudent in the way they manage their money.
"But there's absolutely no doubt that, where the money has actually gone is in employing the nurses we need."
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