Last week’s budget’s stamp duty and railcard tinkering will not deal with generational inequality and the north-south divide, argues Rosie Corrigan
‘One of the things I love most about this country is its sense of opportunity. I have always felt it, and I want young people growing up today to have that same sense of boundless opportunity.’
Watching as chancellor Philip Hammond proclaimed this during his autumn budget, I cringed. A comment like that could only be made by someone with no grasp of the reality faced by today’s young people.
Nevertheless, let us consider his plan to deliver ‘boundless opportunity’. Could it be investment in infrastructure to create jobs and support wage growth? Measures to reduce the spiralling cost of renting? Or even tackling out of control house prices?
On the contrary. The answer, it seems, is cancelling stamp duty for first-time buyers, and a railcard.
Frustratingly, on housing, Hammond understands the problems – but he is not bold enough to implement real solutions. He is right to point out that house prices are increasingly out of reach, that it takes too long to save for a deposit, and that rents absorb too high a portion of income.
However, cancelling stamp duty for first time buyers is not thoughtful or ambitious enough. In fact, the Office for Budget Responsibility has pointed out that the latter could actually increase house prices, benefitting those who already own a home, to the detriment of first time buyers. Awkward.
The second key to boundless opportunity is a railcard for 26-30 year olds. Now, I am still young enough (just!) to have a 16-25 railcard. However, I cannot use it when I commute because it cannot be used at peak times. So it is not exactly life changing.
Instead, he should have used his budget to unlock northern potential by committing to ‘Northern Powerhouse Rail’. It is a scandal that London is still set to receive £1,500 more on transport per person than the north, and that government has reversed the electrification of the transpennine route – along which the chancellor instead announced plans to trial mobile connectivity. Andy Burnham best summarised the ridiculousness of this: ‘At least we’ll now be able to send texts to say the train is stuck in a field near Huddersfield.’
I am fiercely proud to be northern, but it is frustrating that the United Kingdom is the most geographically imbalanced economy in Europe. We are being held back. We know that both northern young people, and the whole of the UK will prosper when the north prospers.
Interestingly, not one member of Theresa May’s cabinet is under 40, while just 14 members of parliament are under 30. Just imagine if young people had a meaningful input into the budget.
IPPR North recently held a roundtable of young people at which we discussed the ‘State of the North’ report which identifies demographic change, Brexit, globalisation, the environment and automation as the biggest challenges to the north in 2030. It is imperative that we begin to prepare now for future challenges, and that young peoples’ voices are listened to, and acted upon.
Perhaps if politics was more representative, if we had a chancellor who knew what it felt like not to have a sense of boundless opportunity, but was ambitious enough to create it, the economy might work for young people across the UK.
––––––––
Rosie Corrigan is media and campaigns manager for IPPR North. She tweets at @Rosie_Corrigan
Photo: © UK Parliament/Jessica Taylor