Measures to tackle youth unemployment have been discussed by the district’s leading councillors.

Allerdale’s executive discussed the proposals on Wednesday following a report from the council’s scrutiny committee.

Celia Tibble, chairman of the community scrutiny youth unemployment sub-committee, said: “The first thing we discovered that really worried us is that we don’t have any training providers in West Cumbria that deal with the hard-to-engage people.

“We used to have providers such as Rathbones in Workington.

"It was bad enough for people from Maryport and Aspatria to travel through when we had this, but now we don’t have it at all.

“We need to look at what we can do as a council and which agencies we can engage.”

Councillors agreed the authority should liaise with businesses to encourage vocational training, encourage opportunities for jobseekers to attend work fairs and examine issues affecting young people including education provision and opportunities in manufacturing, tourism and self-employment industries.

The report said youth unemployment rates in Allerdale were well above Cumbria and national levels.

Figures show that 1,100 people claimed jobseekers allowance or Universal Credit in August 2016, 275 of which were aged between 16 and 24. In September, there were 103 people in the academic year 12 to 14 who were not in employment, education, or training in the Allerdale area, excluding Wigton.

Councillor Barbara Cannon said: “The report says that 17 per cent of people between 16 to 64 are economically inactive. The numbers sometimes look small but these are our people, we need to target those who are in most need of help.”

Issues around affordability of homes were also highlighted by the report.

Coun Tibble said: “The biggest shock we got is what is an affordable house to buy for young couples.

“Even those who have employment would struggle to afford a house costing more than £63,000 and that is if they have managed to save a hefty deposit.”

Alan Smith, leader of the council, asked the scrutiny committee to do a separate report on housing and affordability.