Boat charity blasted by Tory leader now
praised by Minister

Mr Cameron was Leader of the Opposition when he called NHS Hull’s decision to buy a £500,000 yacht for the CatZero project “completely crazy”.

But now three years on, after hearing how the scheme has helped transform the lives of hundreds of young people, Mr Duncan Smith hailed its success and declared it an example to follow.

Speaking on a visit to the project in Hull Marina, where the 72ft yacht is berthed, Mr Duncan Smith called it a “fantastic” scheme and said: “It really is exactly what we are looking for. I’ve just been to a presentation and we talked about possible funding streams and possibly looking at how we can replicate this. I’m interested in how this would fit into the work programme.

“The fantastic thing is when I’m visiting programmes like this is it’s local areas working out what their problem is locally and what to do about it. Not every area has the same issues and problems and they have to look at how that works to get a programme together.

“Here (in Hull) we have a fantastic history, a sea-going one that was all about fishing, so the idea of looking at the sea and bringing it into this project is a brilliant idea. It’s continuing that history and at the same time using an innovative project.”

The scheme offers a range of courses for young people not in employment, education or training (so-called NEETs), including a sailing element where they learn life skills.

Figures released by the charity in February this year showed that 70 per cent of its trainees had either gone back into education or training or found work.