A budget that sidelines the young is a budget that sidelines Britain

 At 19 I have my dream job, racing cars, but most young people, my friends and their siblings, aren’t as lucky. 

As a generation we’re misunderstood, struggling and too often overlooked in policy and tax making decisions.  Outside racing I see something worrying: a generation working hard but getting very little back.

This week’s figures paint a picture few in Westminster seem willing to acknowledge or address, more young people are drifting out of education or training, school attendance is falling and knife crime is climbing.

That points to wasted potential, and potential is what fuels any growing economy.

The harsh reality is that most young people are trapped in insecure work and unstable living.  The Budget must do more than offer slogans about ‘opportunity’.

It needs to tackle unaffordable housing, scarce apprenticeships, slow training routes that don’t match the jobs available and a tax system tilted towards older, asset-owning voters.  I’ve not seen any strategy to address this, no credible plan on rent, and no realistic pathway into skilled careers.

I opened my business, Full Send Racing Lounge, because young people want spaces that inspire, connect and challenge them.

And I wanted to open up motor sport to more diversity (we have the same simulators that I trained on).  However, I also wanted to do my part in helping young people get the skills and experience they need. We employ people currently in education (university) and we’re also planning on offering work experience placement. We train our team in customer service and to run the venue. But starting the business felt like racing with the handbrake on. 

A single call to HMRC means losing half a day waiting for the phone to be answered. National insurance and minimum wage increases were introduced in the last budget with little thought for whether start-ups could absorb them. 

How much profit margin do they think we have? It’s not that young entrepreneurs don’t have ideas, it’s that the system makes acting on them unnecessarily difficult.

Too often young people are treated as preparation for the future rather than participants in the present. That mindset is holding the country back. You can’t talk about economic growth while ignoring the people who are meant to deliver it.

Young people carry the risk of modern working life but rarely see the security that older generations were offered.  Tax and spending decisions need to recognise the struggles of those who are starting out in life.

In sport, if you don’t invest in your junior ranks, the whole system eventually collapses. Business and employment work the same way. Ignore the next generation and sooner or later there is no next stage, just a slow decline.

Most young people aren’t asking for handouts. I might be the exception, I’m looking for sponsorship for my Formula 3 season, but even that shows the point: access determines opportunity. Talent alone isn’t enough.

What we’re asking for is simple: if the country believes in ambition, it needs to budget for it. Otherwise, the next generation will be stuck in the pits while the race moves on without us.

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By Felix Baggott is a 19-year-old Formula 3 driver & MD founder of Full Send Racing Lounge

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