Something is definitely afoot in Westminster. It does seem as though politicians, on the right specifically, are starting to (finally) wake up to the fact that younger people are struggling financially.
Over the weekend it emerged that the Brexit Secretary, David Davis, has reportedly been calling on the government to completely change their approach to student debt and tuition fees.
Jeremy Corbyn has, famously, promised to scrap tuition fees altogether. However, he has been slightly more ambiguous when it comes to how he would tackle historic student debt for those who are already paying back loans. The issue was front andcentreof the Prime Minister’s pitch at Conservative conference a couple of weeks ago, but her offerings were less than radical. She pledged to freeze fees at £9,250 and prevent them from rising further as well as to conduct a complete review of the current system which is leaving graduates with as much as £50,000 worth of debt.
According to The Times, Davis, is apparently going further. He is supposedly concerned that student debt is stopping graduates from contributing to the economy, i.e. spending money. This is hardly news to anyone currently paying back their student loan but the change in tone amongst Conservative politicians is certainly significant. The sourcereported that Davis compared the student loans company to an independent company and said if it were any other bank or loans company the loans would have to be written off because they are ‘bad debt’s that many graduates will never actually repay. The Institute for Fiscal Studies put the number of graduates who will never repay their debt at two thirds.
The reasoning behind this stance is apparently that Davis thinks scrapping student debt would mean that young people could contribute more to the economy in other ways. The source told The Times:
‘Doing so will help the younger generation get mortgages and would give them more money to spend, which would raise tax revenues for the Treasury. The mythical debt depresses everything.’
‘He would urge the Treasury to start with the answer and look at the financial structures to see if there was a better way for students that doesn’t leave the debt to hang over their entire life.’
The Debrief contacted the Department for Education and asked them to comment on the reports that Davis is lobbying for change within the Government. They directed us to an old statement, made by the Minister of State for Universities, Jo Johnson, on October 9th in which he announced that the earnings threshold for repayment was going to be increased and confirmed that tuition fees would be capped as per the Prime Minister’s promise.
However, The Times also reported that the Secretary of State, Justine Greening, is also in favour of reforming the current system and is frustrated that the conservatives are allowing Labour to dominate the conversation instead of taking action on the issue. The Times reports that she is in favour of bringing back student maintenance grants for those on low incomes.
Cynically, you might wonder whether the Conservatives have woken up to the fact that student debt, soaring housing costs, and stagnant wages have turned an entire generation off of capitalism and contributed to ‘Corbynmania’. Less cynically, it’s possible that someone somewhere in Whitehall has started to crunch the numbers and realised that intergenerational inequality is actually pretty bad for the economy and stopping young people from spending and getting on with their lives.
There is no doubt that this is one of the most divisive issues and, for young people, one of the defining political issues which will influence how they vote for years to come.
Like this? You might also be interested in:
Why Scrapping Tuition Fees Isn't Necessarily The Answer To Young People's Problems
Tuition Fees Continue To Be The Problem No Politician Knows What To Do About
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.