After a decade of austerity closed more than 1,000 centres, the government has promised £500m to renew youth services. We tour a glossy new venue in Preston – and a girls-only one in London
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reston, Lancashire is no stranger to trailblazing architecture. The city’s bus station, the largest in Europe when it opened in 1969, is a brutalist masterpiece. Next month, a new public building opens opposite the bus station built with similar aspirations to transform local lives: a youth centre.
To a generation raised when cuts had gutted services – between 2010-11 and 2023-24, local government spending on youth services fell by 73% and more than 1,000 youth centres closed – the idea of a place designed just for young people may seem as anachronistic as coach travel, but 2026 brings big changes to youth services in the UK.
The government’s Youth Matters strategy, launched in December 2025, is the first national youth strategy in 15 years. It promised £500m investment over a decade to rebuild the service with a priority of creating 50 Young Futures (YF) hubs, with eight pilot schemes in Nottingham, Manchester, Birmingham, Brighton and Hove, Bristol, Leeds, Tower Hamlets in London and Newton Aycliffe in County Durham.
