Alison Taylor

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Lewell. I commend my hon. Friend the Member for Ilford South (Jas Athwal) for raising such an important debate. I declare an interest as the mother of a daughter who still has a student loan. I was the first in my family, male or female, to go to university, and when I went, it was an opportunity confined to just one in 20 young people. Today, that number is more like one in two. The design of the loans and repayment plans are the creation of the previous Government, and is one of many legacy issues that have been left for this Government to clean up. Students who are alarmed at having made payments and yet finding themselves even further in debt, are victims of the Conservative’s appalling management of the economy, which led to a RPI well above 12% in 2022. Opposition claims that they would now cap rates ring hollow, given they did little about them when they were in power. As this Government get the economy and inflation under control, the interest rate will come down. It is right that the Government keep the impact of loans on students and young people under review. Students should not feel the burden of their families’ financial position. Wealth inequalities in society should not lead to inequalities of outcomes for students.