GM Mayor: "I will have failed if I don't improve the lives of young people in Oldham"

Greater Manchester’s Mayor has told the Chronicle that he will have failed at his job if he is not able to change the lives of young people in Oldham.

Andy Burnham was speaking at the official opening of the Oasis Academy school at Leesbrook.

He addressed students and staff from the school, saying he wanted to help inspire them to be the best version of themselves that they can be.

"Too many young people are growing up in Greater Manchester and when they get to their middle teenage years, they don't have hope.

“I feel it's our mission and it's got to be our moral purpose to give young people growing up here hope.

"That's very true of a place like Oldham.

“I want all young people growing up here to have hope.

“That's why I said to them, when they look at what's happening here and in the city centre, I want young people growing up in Oldham to think, 'I could work there.'”

Mr Burnham, who is also pledging free bus travel for teenagers aged between 16 and 18, believes life for young people is much harder now than it was when he was growing up.

The Greater Manchester Mayor thinks there are several challenges facing the young people of Oldham that his generation did not have to consider.

"I'm worried for them because I think life is tougher for them than it was for us,” he continued.

“Education is more expensive if you want to go to university, it's harder to get on the housing ladder now, the cost of transport is much higher than it was, jobs are zero hours contracts, so it's hard for young people to make their way in the world and it's easy for them not to have hope that they can get a position like me or be a lawyer or a doctor or whatever it may be.

"It's our job to make sure that they don't set their ambitions too low.

“I won't have done my job as Mayor of Greater Manchester if Oldham doesn't move forward alongside our city centre.

“I believe in this place. I think it's got such great values, a proud history, but also a great future.”