May pledges £10bn for homebuyers and tuition fee freeze
Under fire prime minister launches Tory conference with plans to lure younger voters
Theresa May has announced plans to freeze university tuition fees and an additional £10bn of help for homebuyers, as she launched this week’s annual Conservative party conference with policies aimed at younger voters.
Mrs May, who has been buffeted by cabinet tensions over Brexit and manoeuvring for the party leadership by foreign secretary Boris Johnson, wants her party’s convention in Manchester to focus on a domestic agenda.
The prime minister has announced her intention to fight the next election in 2022, but the next four days will prove a tough test of her authority over a party still recovering from the shock of the bungled general election.
Speaking on the BBC’s Andrew Marr programme on Sunday morning, Mrs May declined to directly apologise for her handling of the general election, but said: “I’m sorry some of our good members of parliament lost their seats and some very good candidates did not gain their seats.”
Mrs May also demurred when asked whether she would fire Mr Johnson, saying only: “I have a cabinet which is united on the mission of this government to build a country that works for everyone.”
Mrs May’s first announcement was a freeze of student tuition fees at £9,250 from next year, accompanied by a rise of the repayment threshold so that graduates will only start paying back their loans once they are earning £25,000, up from £21,000.
The prime minister’s proposals are modest compared with Labour’s promise to abolish tuition fees altogether, but Mrs May believes such a move would undermine university funding and mainly help higher-earning graduates.
Speaking to the Sun on Sunday, the prime minister said: “Too many young people fear they are going to be worse off than their parents. We have listened to those concerns and we are going to act to offer a fairer deal for students and young people.”
Mrs May told the BBC on Sunday that the tuition fee freeze and higher repayment threshold marked the first stage of a wider review of student financing.
The Conservatives will also put a further £10bn into the Help to Buy loan scheme, intended to help another 135,000 buyers purchase homes. The funding will allow recipients to get a mortgage with a deposit of 5 per cent and can only be used for the purchase of new-build homes.
Meanwhile Sajid Javid, communities secretary, will on Sunday announce reforms to improve the security of tenants, ensuring that all letting agents are registered and requiring landlords to join a dispute resolution scheme for tenants who say they have been wronged.