Since 2010, spending by councils on services for young people has reduced by 40 per cent, cutting £260m from youth work budgets and resulting in the closure of 600 youth centres across England.
The LGA has called for money currently given to the government's flagship youth social action initiative to be devolved to councils to offset these losses.
It said the NCS programme, which received £634m of funding between 2014/15 and 2017/18 - 95 per cent of the government's youth services budget - had seen take-up figures as low as four per cent in some areas.
Figures for the NCS in 2016 showed 12 per cent (93,000) of eligible young people took part in the programme, which sees 15 to 17 year olds undertake four weeks of activities in the summer and autumn holidays.
The LGA said the money would be better spent on year-round provision for young people in their home towns rather than a time-limited programme which is restricted to a certain age group.
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