“What young people really want to see from the budget is a budget that centres around living standards, tackling inequality, and fair taxation.”
By Vincent Conquest
An approaching budget day means all the usual noise and speculation over tax rises and spending cuts, and all the usual nervous anticipation. For young people, hit so hard by the cost of living, absurdly high rent, and high prices for food and essentials, there is a sense that the main thing desired from the budget is relief that things can get better.
What young people really want to see from the budget is a budget that centres around living standards, tackling inequality, and fair taxation. For so long in this country, privatisation, marketisation and austerity have negatively affected the lives of young people. Students are barely able to afford their own education, and prospects for them after education look bleaker all the time; so much of their money goes toward rent, essentials, and paying off their record-high student loans.
It is not just the case that young people want to see a budget with no cuts and more public spending; the Government must make efforts to tackle inequality, and that cannot be done unless you talk about redistributive tax measures – where fixing public services is paid for by the rich, not the working class, and the poor and vulnerable are treated with dignity and respect. The rich really have never been richer, and an evermore politicised younger generation cannot look past the radically unequal society we live in now. The government would do well to recognise that.
The government should use taxes to help tackle inequality. Not necessarily by raising income tax, but through a series of wealth taxes: a tax on those with assets over £10 million and the equalisation of capital gains tax (which is currently the lowest in the G7) with income tax, to name just two. Anyone who thinks that just tweaking around the edges of the tax system will fundamentally stop the rise of rampant inequality is mistaken, and those who say there must be more cuts to welfare and support for the disabled are gravely wrong.
As for young people in poverty, the government could and should lift the two-child benefit cap – in full, that is – which experts have predicted is the single biggest driver of child poverty in the UK. At a time when so many people, including young people, live in such destitution and poverty, regressive policies such as the two-child limit should be gotten rid of, and a progressive, fairer tax system put in place – so that all young people, not just those lucky enough to be born into great wealth, have a chance at life. Reports from recent days suggest that Rachel Reeves may indeed scrap the cap. If so, this is a major win for the left, who have campaigned on this issue relentlessly since its introduction in 2015.
The top issue for young people in the most immediate sense is the cost-of-living crisis. The idea of the government introducing price caps on bills, rent, and even food items in certain stores seems completely out of step with where the current Labour Party is politically, but these ideas are increasingly popular amongst an economically radical youth who want to see a different world. Rent controls remain one of the most politically salient issues for young people, particularly students. People wanting to live in decent, affordable housing should not feel let down by yet another budget.
Everyone wants to see prices come down, but for young people who so often rely on public transport, rail fares and bus prices are a key priority. The government have announced that rail fares will be frozen for the first time in thirty years – certainly a significant first step. However, with rail prices so high, ideally, we would be able to see them go lower.
Overall, the government could use the next budget as a genuine reset – an indication that inequality will be tackled and the cost-of-living crisis curbed. They could show young people and students that there is a future for them in this country, and that the hope of a fairer, more equal society is possible. The only way to stop young people falling so out of step with the Labour Party, and abandoning it for more progressive alternatives, is for Labour to pivot left. The next budget is the perfect opportunity to do so.
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