Prime Minister pledges tuition fee overhaul and £10bn boost for first-time buyers

As well as capping university bills at £9,250 a year
and raising the threshold for graduates to start paying
back their student loans to £25,000, the Prime Minister
pledged to “look again” at the issue of student
financing, including bringing back the old maintenance
grant.
It is understood the Government is also exploring ways
to give students incentives to study subjects that “plug
the skills gap” by offering lower fees, better interest
rates and grants to budding engineers, scientists and
doctors.
Promising to “build a better future for our country,”
Mrs May also announced additional funding for the
Government’s Help To Buy scheme, which will help
135,000 more young people get on the property ladder.
But one Cabinet minister warned of generational
battles ahead as he refused to rule out more building
on the greenbelt.
Transport Secretary Chris Grayling said the “older
generation” had to “take some difficult decisions about
where there needs to be new housing”. Recognising
that students felt they were not getting “value for
money”, Mrs May said: “In my first speech on the
steps of Downing Street, I set my Government a
mission to make our country a fairer place.
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“Today I announce the next steps in that mission –
with more help for students and graduates with tuition
fees and billions of pounds of investment that will help
thousands more people get a home of their own.
“This country has world-class universities and I am
proud that more young people than ever from
disadvantaged backgrounds are attending them.
“But we know that the cost of higher education is a
worry, which is why we are pledging to help students
with an immediate freeze in maximum fee levels and
by increasing the amount graduates can earn before
they start paying their fees back, amounting to a
saving of £360 a year, while the Government looks
again at the question of funding and student finance.
“Taken together, these are key parts of my plan to
spread opportunity and build a better future for our
country.”
Announcing a £10billion expansion of the Help to Buy:
Equity Loan scheme, where the Government lends
buyers up to 20 per cent of the cost of the property,
leaving them only needing a five per cent deposit,
Chancellor Philip Hammond said: “Young people are
worried that life will be harder for them than it was for
their parents and owning a home is a key part of that.
This Government understands that for many people
finding a deposit is still a very big hurdle.
“Making progress as a nation means supporting young
people and families to achieve their dreams of home
ownership.
The PM pledged £10billion to help first-time home
buyers
“Conservatives will always help those who work hard
and save for the future.”
Mr Grayling, a key ally of Mrs May, said: “Getting more
young people on the housing ladder is a really central
part of what we’re going to need to do. I’m not in
favour of wholesale development of greenbelt land but
I suspect in every part of the country there are little
bits of land where the local community would say
actually it wouldn’t be a problem to develop that to
enable the next generation to get on the housing
ladder.”
The unapologetically youth-centred policies are
designed to appeal to so-called “Corbynistas” who
overwhelmingly favoured the Labour leader during the
last election.
They are also intended to head off a threatened revolt
ahead of today’s party conference, with backbench
Tory MPs demanding Mrs May acts on energy prices,
benefits and migration to reassert the party’s capitalist
credentials. The announcements came as Boris
Johnson was once again accused of undermining the
Prime Minister by calling for a public sector pay rise,
as well as saying there should be no “monkeying
around” over Brexit.
The Foreign Secretary said any post-withdrawal
transition period must not last “a second more” than
two years.
Anti-Brexit protest ahead of
Theresa May's Brexit speech
Fri, September 22, 2017
Live photos as anti-Brexit British expats protesting
in Florence ahead of Theresa May’s speech
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Protesters with placards in Piazza Santa Maria
Novella (Santa Maria Novella's Square) for the
event of the no Brexit Demonstration, in Florence
[EPA]
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He also argued that the UK should not have to abide
by any new EU rules during the transition period and
that Britain should not make payments to Brussels
after it.
The four “red lines” prompted Scottish Tory leader
Ruth Davidson – seen as another rival for the national
leadership – to call for “serious people” to take charge
of the Brexit process. She also issued her own
demand for more civil service jobs to be located north
of the border.
Brexit is not going to take centre stage at the four-day
event in Manchester. Instead, Mrs May will seek to
push her domestic agenda and hammer home the
message that Labour is “unfit to govern”.
“Yes, we have to get the best Brexit deal – but we
must also take action here at home to make this a
fairer place to live for ordinary working people,” she
said. “The social contract in our country is that the
next generation should always have it better than the
last. Conservatives have a plan to make that a reality.”
With most polls putting the Tories and Labour neck
and neck, Mrs May is under pressure to make up for
the mistakes of the party’s disastrous manifesto and
election campaign.
The youth-centred policies are designed to appeal to
so-called 'Corbynistas'
Last week she defended free market capitalism in a
speech at the Bank of England and restated her
determination to retain a “balanced approach” to
public spending, despite political pressure to ease
austerity.
Downing Street sources say Mrs May is keen to offer
young people “genuine” help rather than “pie in the sky
promises”.
A Number 10 insider said: “We are not looking at
abolishing tuition fees – that’s the blue water between
us and Labour’s pie in the sky promises. We believe
that it is right that people who benefit from higher
education make a fair contribution towards those
costs.
“But we will be looking at building greater fairness,
greater competition, greater value for money into the
system.”
Among the proposals under consideration is index-
linking the right skills courses to a more favourable
student loan interest rate.
It would mean those studying to become professionals
on the UK Shortage Occupations list, which includes
engineers, healthcare professionals and physics and
maths teachers, could be offered lower fees than
someone studying a degree in a subject like media
studies.
Mr Johnson said any post-withdrawal transition period
must not last “a second more” than two years
Tuition fees were due to rise with inflation from £9,250
in 2017/18 to £9,500 in 2018/19 but they will be frozen
while the Government looks again at the entire funding
model.
The amount graduates can earn before they start
repayments is being raised from £21,000 to £25,000
and will rise in line with earnings after next year. The
£1.2billion proposals will be brought forward in next
month’s Budget.
Meanwhile, the Government has pledged to build one
million homes by the end of 2020, with a further half a
million more by the end of 2022.
The Help to Buy: Equity Loan scheme has already
helped more than a million people, over 80 per cent of
whom are first-time buyers.
Communities Secretary Sajid Javid said the rights of
private sector tenants will be increased. Under the
new initiative, all landlords will have to become
members of an ombudsman redress scheme in a bid to
improve the resolution of disputes for tenants.
All letting agents will be registered and new incentives
will be launched to ensure landlords offer tenancies of
at least 12 months. “Everyone has a right to feel safe
and secure in their own homes and we’ll make sure
they do,” he said.

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