British teenagers believe their generation will be worse-off than their parents, suggests new research.

Money, or lack of it, jobs and a climate crisis are among the concerns of those aged 14 to 17 surveyed by children’s charity Barnardo’s.

Rather than buoyed with enthusiasm and a firmly-held belief they’re a generation set to change the world – as all future generations should – the survey conducted by YouGov paints a picture that’s quite the opposite.

And between eye-watering amounts of student debt, a housing crisis and some years now of watching their families struggle in a lengthy cost of living crisis post-pandemic, many spoken to foresee nothing but a struggle ahead.

That ‘sweet spot’ – where everything from relatively cheap access to university education to easier home ownership has faded – and with it, I think, has a social contract been broken.

No longer do today’s young people carry the hope that with a bit of luck and knuckling down, they’ll do better and have better than their parents and grandparents. Feeling defeated before they’ve even started is worrying in itself.

Until Jeremy Hunt stands up in the Commons tomorrow the exact contents of his budget is nothing but a guess.

However the Chancellor has already been warned by poverty charity the Joseph Rowntree Foundation that he risks condemning the country to another ‘lost decade’ that will leave many working families worse off.

Just today it’s emerged Birmingham residents face fortnightly bin collections, dimmed street lights and hiked council tax because its cash-strapped council can’t any longer balance the books. Plenty of other authorities we know, are also in a precarious position.

When there’s not enough money to leave the lights on perhaps young people can be forgiven for feeling things are a bit dismal.

Add to that long waiting lists for everything from mental health support to medical appointments or simple access to a dentist and maybe you can sympathise with their perception that little is going to come easy. The average house price in Kent for example – now £383K – and while that’s not necessarily a first time buyer’s house, the sums remain eye-watering.

Dare I say it even Brexit may be partly to blame, which has hit young people the hardest, restricted their options for freely living and working through Europe, and just this week prompted Labour’s Sadiq Khan to argue the need for a ‘youth mobility agreement’ to lessen the ‘damage’ being done.

And that’s not forgetting this is a group whose education and exams have already been blighted by a pandemic and cancelled schooling.

In 1997, after 18 years as the opposition, New Labour and Tony Blair danced into Downing Street to the tune of D:Ream’s ‘Things Can Only Get Better’.

But ahead of this year’s general election politicians on all sides have some work to do if they’re going to restore any sense of optimism among the UK’s youngest voters.