Aphra Brandreth

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Lewell. I declare an interest: I have two children at university who both have student loans. I am proud to represent part of the city of Chester, home to the University of Chester, which is a fantastic asset to our city and region. Young people are today’s innovators and tomorrow’s entrepreneurs—our future high-skilled workforce, our teachers, doctors and nurses—and the foundations that we set today, and the start that we give them, are an investment in the future of our country and economy. That is why the student finance system matters so much. Many young people in Chester South and Eddisbury are struggling under the weight of student finance. I cannot go into all the emails I have received, but one young constituent from a low-income family told me that she had no choice but to take out a loan to pursue her dream of working in education. She does not expect to clear that loan in her lifetime, and she says that because of the threshold freeze, she will simply pay more each month without ever making a meaningful dent in it. By freezing the plan 2 repayment threshold until 2027, the Chancellor has chosen to increase the burden on young graduates at a time when the economic odds are already stacked against them. That is why we need a new deal for young people, as the Conservatives have set out: reducing interest rates on plan 2 loans so that balances never rise faster than RPI, ensuring that students and taxpayers are not burdened by low-value courses, and increasing apprenticeship funding to expand high-quality vocational routes, such as those offered at the excellent Reaseheath college in my constituency. If we are serious about growth, opportunity and intergenerational fairness, we must ensure that the system designed to invest in young people does not instead hold them back.