Scrapping the National Citizen Service was “not an ideological decision”, the culture secretary has said.

Appearing before MPs on the  Culture, Media and Sport Committee today, Lisa Nandy said the decision to scrap the National Citizen Service was not just about saving money and was instead “about how we spend money well in the current context”.

Last month, Nandy announced plans to scrap the £1.5bn youth programme and wind up the NCS Trust that runs the scheme, as the government embarked on a new national youth strategy.

The decision was met with a mixed response across the sector, with some welcoming the new youth strategy while others criticised the government for failing to repurpose the NCS.

When quizzed by MPs today about the decision to close the NCS programme entirely, Nandy said: “One of the things I was keen to stress was that this was not an ideological decision. 

“We know that NCS did very good work and it had over a million young people through its doors, many of whom are proud of what they achieved and we respect that.”

When asked if the decision to close the scheme was made solely to save money, Nandy said: “No. It was about how we spend money well in the current context.”

She added that when Labour took office in July, there was “no youth strategy across government”. 

Nandy said: “Different departments fund different things around young people. Most of the programmes that I inherited had been pet projects for various prime ministers, secretaries of state and ministers.”

She said she believed it was “undeniable” that the challenges facing the current generation of young people were getting worse, adding: “There is an overwhelming sense among young people out in the country that the government is not gripping them.”

Nandy said the government’s national youth strategy aims to grasp these challenges, which “means putting the right support in the right place”. 

“I cannot justify, for example, spending the vast majority of my department’s budget for youth on a summer camp for young people.”