Layla Moran MP: Ignoring young people once again in this Budget would be a mistake

Layla Moran is the Lib Dem MP for Oxford West and Abingdon.

A budget is many things. It is an economic blueprint and tax policy document yes, but it is also a signal of Government priorities and a shout-out to the causes it believes in.

From the pre-budget whispers I’m hearing, the main signal seems to be “don’t rock the boat!”. Tinkering around the edges with a small tax on banks here, a tax on online marketplaces there, a small giveaway to pensioners, and some measures to tackle the cost of living.

The ‘everyday fixes’ expected in the budget include measures such as the removal of import tariffs on gherkins. Cheaper gherkins are all well and good, but do not address the major structural problems in our country.

It contrasts with the bold rhetoric of the Prime Minister in his first few months in office. Proportional Representation, the end of the triple lock, a new deal with Europe, with free Movement and maybe even rejoining on the cards.

Biggest of all, he has promised a National Care Service. As Chair of the Health and Social Care Committee, I have shouted loudly for action on Social Care.

The costs of inaction are enormous; unpaid carers under enormous strain to the extent they are
unable to hold onto their jobs, delayed discharges costing the NHS a fortune, and millions simply not having their needs met. But warm words alone aren’t going to cut it.

Like so many of Burnham’s promises, it is planned after the next election. Why
wait 3 years, why not take action now?

And some things really can’t wait at all – young people being top of that list. It is worth putting yourself in the shoes of someone who is in their early twenties. At the pointy end of school when Covid hit, they suffered through the uncertainties of GCSEs and A-Levels under lockdown. University places, apprenticeship and employment opportunities were snatched away at the hands of an unfair, opaque, and systematically biased algorithm.

For those who went to university, what should have been some of the best years of their lives were reduced to zoom lectures and confinement to the bubble of their flat. Isolated, dealing with the toxicity of social media without the escape normally available.

Now, just emerging blinking into the job market, they are hit with a Government made crisis, between the Tories botched Brexit deal to the Reeves budget that hiked National Insurance contributions small businesses just don’t have the headroom to offer those precious first jobs anymore. Where is the future which was promised to them by their elders for getting good grades and working hard?

Many are burdened with student loans which are manifestly unfair, with spiralling debts, excessive interest rates and frozen repayment thresholds. We should be lowering the monthly payments, increasing repayment thresholds, and supporting public service workers and disadvantaged students who desperately need relief. 

It is no wonder that the mental health of our young people is suffering. The Health and Social Care Committee’s current inquiry is examining mental health support and services provided in education and community settings. The picture is bleak. 

Waiting times are so high that in some cases with a years-long wait list the service may as well not exist. The severity of needs is continuing to rise, and a large proportion of people never receive the help they need. 

What is so frustrating is that I have seen best practice which shows that it does not have to be this way. In the East Midlands, one CAMHS service has reduced referral wait times to less than five days. Early Support Hubs such as the one I visited in Devon, with a walk-in, holistic service for young people’s mental health have made a huge difference to young people. But the Government drags its feet over funding the limited number that exist every year. 

Best practice should instead be rolled out nationwide.  This would require the Government to look at long term benefits, rather than short term balance sheets. For young people who contact me, it is often the long term that really concerns them. 

The destructive and remorseless juggernaut of climate change, the effects of which are being felt ever more keenly. The worry over job prospects in a world being overtaken by AI. A world that feels less safe, and less secure every day. 

To tackle these require long term thinking. Investment in services such as those Early Support Hubs, whose benefits won’t be felt tomorrow, or even in five years time, but in the long run we know that it will make all the difference in the world. 

I challenge the Chancellor to do today what very few Governments have the courage to do. Avoid the short-term sugar rush of fleeting measures that look good in a newspaper. Instead, think long-term.