Dame Rebecca Harris, Member of Parliament for Castle Point, has put forward a motion in Parliament to address the clear unfairness in the current student loans system.

The motion calls for the Labour Government to abolish real interest on Plan 2 student loans to ensure balances never rise faster than inflation; calls on the Government to stop the freeze on repayment thresholds and also calls on the Government to create more apprenticeships for 18-21 year olds, by controlling the number of places on university courses where the benefits are significantly outweighed by the cost to graduates and taxpayers. The motion will be debated and voted on in Parliament.

When growing numbers of graduates are leaving university with student loan balances that only ever rise and with graduate recruitment at a record low, there is an urgent need to address the system. The reality is that the measures announced by the Chancellor in the Budget last year will cost the average graduate a further £300 a year by 2030, in an environment where rents are through the roof, job opportunities are falling and the tax burden is at an all-time high.

The Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch has raised this directly with the Prime Minister but he has refused to acknowledge this as an issue. That is why Rebecca is supporting the Conservative Party’s New Deal for Young People.

It is time to reform the unfair student loans system and so the Conservative Party would abolish real interest on all Plan 2 student loans, ensuring that balances never rise faster than inflation. The people who lose out most from the current system are the middle earners and those from poorer backgrounds. This discrepancy is wrong and this change will help get graduates off the debt treadmill.

Rebecca is also supporting the introduction an Apprenticeship Guarantee by lifting the funding for apprenticeships for 18–21-year-olds, ensuring employers have fully funded access to training and college places for every apprentice they recruit, to help 100,000 extra young people into work every year.

To make work pay, the next Conservative Government would introduce a First Job Bonus, where the first £5,000 of National Insurance would be placed into a personal savings account in the name of the individual who has taken their first job.

Together with a plan to scrap stamp duty this will help young people achieve home ownership, financial independence and to start a family. Fixing the system should be a priority for the Government because it is about fairness and ensuring that young people who play by the rules are rewarded for their aspiration and not taxed on it. The Labour Government do not appear to be interested in making any changes.

Rebecca will continue to lobby Labour Ministers in Parliament to change course and to adopt the Conservative Party’s proposals.