The Government’s work programme is an “abject failure” according to property maintenance boss Will Davis, MD of Aspect.co.uk.

“The fact that 90% of 160,000 18 to 24 year olds it pledged to put back into work are still out of work is a real cause for concern”.

The Government’s work programme offers business a subsidy of £2,275 for taking on a young person who has been out of work for at least six months.

Mr. Davies who pioneered ‘Boot camps’ in Britain to enable unemployed London youth to vie for a job said “bureaucrats are not getting young people working”.

“Jobs are what we need, not more hand-outs to subsidise companies to hire people to do jobs that are not a real requirement”.

“People will find money to employ people in areas that are a real requirement”.

Figures show that it has only paid wage incentives for 4,690 young people from its start in June 2012 to the end of May 2013 – significantly behind the target of 160,000 over three years.

Shadow work and pensions secretary, Liam Byrne, said: “The Youth Contract has utterly failed to get our young people back to work. This flagship scheme is on course to miss its target by more than 92 per cent”.

Davies adds: “The government needs to get out of the business of providing business with bribes to create artificial jobs”.