There is a certain irony that it is the children of Margaret Thatcher’s era who are suffering so badly under David Cameron’s government.
The under-35s have been especially disadvantaged under this Tory-led government where – from wages to housing, from student debt to secure work – the younger generation is losing out.
There are fifteen million younger people under the age of 35 in this country and in nine months they face a choice about how the economy and government will reflect their ambitions and aspirations.
And why does this matter? Because this is the generation upon whose shoulders the future prosperity of our country depends: the generation driving our international competitiveness and productivity and the generation who will be working to support those in retirement and our future generations.
But for those developing their careers, the so-called ‘generation rent’ at the start of their working lives, the headwinds have been growing stronger. New analysis from the House of Commons Library shows that under George Osborne, the weekly income of the under 30s has been slashed by over nine per cent, and for the under-21s, there has been a staggering 10.3 per cent drop.
We know from this month’s record low pay growth figures that everyone is suffering a severe cost-of-living crisis under this government. But these new figures underline just how bad things are for the under-30s. Not only has average weekly pay taken such a hit, but the pay gap between the age groups has increased significantly under this government.This government’s policies have made things worse not better for people in their 20s and 30s.
Under the Tories, apprenticeships for the under-25s have been devalued and their number are falling. Broken promises and short-term decision-making have seen tuition fees trebled to £9,000 and graduates in this country sharing a collective £62bn of student loan debt from a student finance system that is broken. The claimant count for those young people out of work for more than 12 months is up 42 per cent since the coalition came to power and we still have an unacceptably high 750,000 young people out of work in this country.
Moreover, the world of work has changed rapidly under the Tories, so that when this generation manages to find work, they can encounter a world of exploitative zero-hours contracts, agency working and temporary assignments often disguised as ‘self-employment’.
The Tory and Lib Dem failure on housing – with the lowest supply of new housing since the 1920s – has fuelled an affordability crisis and risks making the ambition of owning a home a fantasy for many of today’s 20 and 30 year olds.
Britain cannot afford for this to continue and ‘generation rent’ cannot afford another five years of the Tories. We ought to be valuing the contribution of this generation and harnessing their economic potential far more coherently.
The choice at the next general election is between more of the same with David Cameron or a Labour government that will provide a package of measures to give young people the best start in life – on skills and training, employment free from exploitative zero-hours contracts, a ‘jobs guarantee’ for the long-term unemployed, the encouragement of ‘make work pay’ contracts to support decent wages.
Labour will deliver 200,000 houses a year by 2020, helping many young people get on the housing ladder. We will tackle abuses in markets like the private rented sector to help ensure young people are not ripped off. And we support a lower 10 pence starting rate of tax so that those on the lowest wages and trying the hardest to make ends meet are supported, fully funded by a mansion tax on properties of over £2m.
We also have to do more to look strategically at the economic, social and environmental questions that risk burdening this generation and have a way to improve dialogue within government on how we can unlock this vast stock of potential. As I explained today, establishing a United Kindom Advisory Forum on the under-35s within government should be one such way to proceed.
Politics needs to pay more attention to those in their 20s and 30s. Because everyone benefits if this generation succeeds.
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Chris Leslie MP is shadow chief secretary to the Treasury
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Photo: Robert Huffstuffer
Yes, we’ve had 13 years of Labour in between??
Note the correlation between the chances of an age group voting and how well they do out of successive governments! I keep pointing this out to (other?!) young people; they will get a better deal if more of them vote. If MPs hear mainly from older people who’ve paid off their mortgages yet whose prescriptions, winter fuel allowances, and TV licences are paid by mortgage-payers (or renters) who are also struggling to afford holidays for their children, legislation will more and more discriminate in favour of the former. And so against the latter.
No party’s really raised this differential. The first to do so could reap a significant dividend. Is the clue in our name?
Not only did Labour contribute to the housing shortage which they MUST have forecast due to the sell-off of council housing, the most successful piece of demagogery in Britain’s political history, but there are other knock-on effects. For instance, the first thing Thatcher did when she came to power was to abolish the Registration of Business Names Act which now means anyone can trade under any name they like and get away with it – a thieves’ charter. And the loan sharks’ charter has been brought about by Thatcher’s abolition of the Moneylenders’ Act which put a legal curb on who may lend money legitimately and what interest rates are chargeable. Now companies boast openly on TV of the nearly 2000% interest rates they charge. All of this is down to Margaret Thatcher and her evil government.
I don’t think it ironic that “it is the children of Margaret Thatcher’s era who are suffering so badly under David Cameron’s government”. It’s just plain predictable.
What is so depressing is that the suffering is down to Thatcher’s toy boys – the young men (and women) who went to university or business school in the 80s and 90s, absorbed all that Thatcherite market fundamentalism and now are in senior positions not just in politics but across industry and our public services.
I do agree with the comments about Margaret Thatcher Children. Its not only Thatcher children who is suffering. Labour is paying the price also. For under the Blair Government he kept all the Thatcher Government policies. We tend to forget that Cameron was the political adviser of Margaret Thatcher.