Dr Neil Hudson, Member of Parliament for Epping Forest, has welcomed plans put forward by the Conservatives on their New Deal for Young People – a new plan to support young people and demonstrating the new direction of the Party under Kemi Badenoch’s leadership. Too many young people are working hard but finding the system isn’t working for them. Youth unemployment remains high and graduate recruitment has fallen.
That is why the Conservatives are setting out a New Deal to fix it, a plan for younger voters who have been neglected for too long, building on the Conservatives pledge to abolish Stamp Duty at Conservative Party Conference last October. This New Deal will go further to support young people by:
• Scrapping real interest on Plan 2 Student Loans, saving graduates tens of thousands of pounds.
• Supporting 100,000 more 18–21year olds to take up apprenticeships by funding their training, and supporting employers with up to £5,000 for each 18–21-year-old apprentice they take on who is a British citizen.
• Introducing a First Job Bonus to let young people keep the first £5,000 of National Insurance they would have paid when starting their first job
Real interest rates on Plan 2 Student Loans will be abolished, ensuring student loan balances will never rise faster than RPI inflation. This will benefit millions of English undergraduates who started courses between 2012/13 and 2022/23.
Plan 2 loan graduates have seen the balance they owe rise for years, even while repayments are made – with the IFS estimating that the average Plan 2 Graduate needs to earn £66,000 a year just to keep pace with the interest. This leads to an endless cycle of debt for too many whilst the taxpayer has to pick up the tab for those who are never able to fully repay their balance and write off their loans. Under this New Deal, indicatively, a doctor in 2029 with £80,000 of student debt will save £58,000 in lifetime repayments and clear their loans, while a graduate with £40,000 of student debt on a salary of £50,000 would save £26,000 in lifetime repayments - and would clear their loan five years faster than under the current system.
Dr Neil Hudson MP for Epping Forest said:
"Our young people in Epping Forest rightly want exactly what generations before them enjoyed: their hard-work to be rewarded, not punished with eye-watering student loans debts they will never be able repay, and costs pricing them out of their dreams of homeownership and raising a family."
"Where Labour’s punitive choices are making everything worse for young people, the Conservatives New Deal for Young People is as ambitious for our young people as they are for their future."
"Cutting interest on student loans and helping our young folk get on in life is what this New Deal will bring."
Kemi Badenoch MP, Leader of the Conservative Party, said:
“Britain’s young people are facing a worse deal under Labour. Youth unemployment is at its highest level in a decade, graduate recruitment is at the lowest level on record, and too many are going straight from education to welfare.
Leaving university has become a moment of despair. Not just for young people but their parents too. This is why we’re launching a New Deal for Young People: a step-by-step plan to fix what Labour is making worse and it starts with the student loans system.
“In particular, the Plan 2 student loans are an unfair debt trap: millions of graduates are doing the right thing, paying every month, yet watching the balance they owe growing bigger because interest piles on faster than repayments."
“If Labour had any sense, Rachel Reeves would act now and adopt this plan.”
