Brown's call for gap-year volunteers

Gordon Brown is today urging teenagers to use their gap year to help others as he unveils plans for a 21st-century form of "national service".

The Chancellor is to call for one million more youngsters to give up backpacking in their year off and instead commit themselves to voluntary work for the elderly or the environment.

In a speech praising Britons' "selfless" spirit, Mr Brown also promises fresh government cash to top up record donations to victims of the tsunami. The Chancellor-believes that getting more people involved in voluntary work is a key way to harness the generous reaction in Britain to the tragedy.

Some 81 per cent of adults gave to the appeal in the UK, with an average of ?1.65 per head compared to 43p in France and 58p in the US.

Mr Brown is to say: "I sense a new spirit in Britain, that people want this massive demonstration of generosity to be given enduring purpose. And that enduring purpose is to make it possible for more men and women - and especially young men and women - to engage in voluntary action nationally and internationally.

"Let us set an objective - that national youth community service becomes a feature of the lives of the majority of young people.

"Let us set a practical aim, that the majority of young people do volunteer and that over the next five years one million new young people become volunteers."

A report on the Government's year-long inquiry into ways of getting more support for the voluntary sector and charities is due out next month.

The Russell Commission is expected to recommend offering cash to teenagers who swap globetrotting for caring for the elderly and others in the UK.

Some three million 16-25 yearolds already do voluntary work, according to a Mori poll.