Open shows what can be achieved

Given that it has been more than six years in the making and several services have already been working from the building since 2005, it did have an unfair advantage.

The final result is something the centre's founders, the youth work sector and the government can be proud of. Without the Dacre family's vision, Norwich would probably never have had a magnificent youth centre; without the efforts of organisations such as 4Children and the National Youth Agency, the government would never have created the Myplace fund; and without a government that believed in the need to invest hundreds of millions of pounds in youth facilities, Open would not provide the range of services it now offers.

The government has committed to investing £270m in youth facilities through Myplace by the end of this year, yet sadly this amount won't be anywhere near enough to fulfil the Aiming High for Young People pledge of having high-quality youth centres in every constituency.

With the promise of investment in youth projects through money held in dormant bank accounts, perhaps it would be best for the youth sector to temporarily lower its sights. The creation of a central government fund pledging between £500,000 and £1m to every local authority in England for improvements to existing youth facilities or for building more small-scale projects might be a more realistic expectation during a recession. It would also help give desperately needed funding to those areas that have been overlooked by Myplace.

- Andy Hillier, editor, Youth Work Now, andy.hillier@haymarket.com