Greens challenge Burnham over Sainsbury’s youth placements
Greens have challenged Andy Burnham’s backing for a Sainsbury’s youth scheme whose published terms leave pay and expenses unclear.
Young people in poorer areas are being offered places on a Sainsbury’s work-experience scheme, but the published plans do not say whether they will be paid or have their costs covered.
What young people are being offered
The scheme, announced by Downing Street and Prime Minister Andy Burnham on 25 August, promises around 10,000 work-experience and employability opportunities over the next year. It is aimed at schools with higher free-school-meal uptake and communities with high youth unemployment.
Sainsbury’s says its programme will include school-based learning, practical work experience, workshops, store visits, meetings with staff and CV support. Activity is due to begin in October, with marketing starting this month.
But neither the government nor the company has set out the length of placements, weekly hours, travel and meal support, safeguarding arrangements, selection process, or whether participants will be offered interviews or paid jobs afterwards. Those are not small details when the scheme is aimed at young people least able to carry the cost of getting to work for nothing.
Green criticism and Sainsbury’s answer
That gap has drawn criticism from Martin Abrams, the Green leader of Lambeth Council. Novara reported that Abrams called the plan provision of ‘free labour for billion-pound companies’, saying Burnham’s support would perpetuate neoliberalism.
The phrase is Abrams’ political description, not an established fact about the programme. Sainsbury’s told Novara that participants would not do the work of paid colleagues or fill employee roles.
That is the strongest case for the scheme: it may give young people without family connections access to workplaces, advice and employers they would otherwise struggle to reach. Yet the company has not published the practical safeguards that would show how it will prevent placements becoming a substitute for entry-level paid work.
A profitable company with questions to answer
The announcement comes after Sainsbury’s proposed cutting more than 3,000 roles in January 2025, including through café and food-counter closures. There is no evidence that the new placements replace those jobs or seasonal recruitment.
Still, the contrast is plain. For the year ending 28 February 2026, Sainsbury’s reported £1.025bn in retail underlying operating profit and returned more than £800m to shareholders.
Burnham has also declared £164,347.42 in donations and in-kind support from Lord Sainsbury of Turville, the former Sainsbury’s chairman. The register establishes that financial connection, but does not show that it caused the government’s promotion of the scheme or any wrongdoing.
The first test arrives in October: whether young people leave with paid work, recognised skills and their expenses met, or simply experience on a CV while a billion-pound retailer keeps the terms out of sight.
