YOUTH services are not a luxury, says advocacy group YMCA, as it calls for greater funding commitments from the next government.

The organisation estimates that cuts in recent years have seen thousands of young people miss out on opportunities to build confidence and skills.

It said that in the past decade, the number of local authority-run youth centres fell by 53 per cent in England and 62 per cent in Wales, based on its research and data gathered by the public services union Unison.