Youth Investment Fund

Infrastructure and Construction

Record date: 31 March 2026

Whole-life cost: £360.2m
Published schedule: 01/04/2022 – Mid: 31/03/2028, High: 31/03/2028
NISTA delivery confidence: Not disclosed
Senior responsible owner: Jamie Williams

What the project is for

Over £300 million to create, expand and improve youth facilities and services in England by September 2026. The Youth Investment Fund’s (YIF) objective is to create, expand and improve up to 300 local youth facilities and their services, in order to drive positive outcomes for young people, including improved mental and physical wellbeing, and skills for life and work. YIF is a commitment to young people to transform the out-of-school youth sector. It will provide truly innovative youth facilities in priority areas, and early-stage/seed resource funding to underpin them, enabling more positive activities that deliver improved outcomes for young people.

Departmental delivery commentary

Compared to financial year 24/25 Q4, the NISTA/SRO Delivery Confidence Assessment (DCA) rating at 25/26 Q4 the programme improved it's delivery confidence rating to Amber. This is primarily due to the following factors‚ the majority of projects within the programme have now been completed with the remainder due to be complete within the first half of the next financial year. This means we can be more confident that the last part of the year we are likely to deliver the programme's expected benefits.

Schedule

Compared to financial year 24/25-Q4, the project's end-date at 25/26-Q4 increased from last year's published end-date to this year's published end-date, 31 March 2028. This is primarily due to the inclusion of the MMC workstream in the programme, end dates of which have slipped into 2026/27 FY; and the delivery of our benefits realisation programme then supports projects being financially viable one year after opening.

Cost

Compared to financial year 24/25-Q4, the project's departmentally agreed Whole Life Cost at 25/26-Q4 (measured in £m) increased from last year's WLC 316.94m to 354.58m. This is primarily due to the actual costs for 25/26 and forecasted costs for 26/27 being accounted. Please note figures referenced in the narratives were entered as nominal and the system automatically converts them to Real Terms.

Benefits

Compared to financial year 24/25 Q4 the projects departmentally agreed Benefits 2,455.29m has increased to this years Benefits total £2,922.600m. This is due to a programme model change, which decreased from 30 years to 20 years. This is reflective of the current re-modelling, with the FBC now inclusive of the MMC figure which provides a justification to this change.