Meg's Hackney Gazette Column: Inquiry launched into student loans system

Hackney is a borough of aspiration. Our schools and sixth-form colleges send more young people to university than ever before with many being the first in their family to go. For them, student loans aren’t and weren’t a luxury. It is the only door into higher education. 

But ever since the Conservative and Liberal Democrat government introduced a new student loan regime, graduates have seen eye-watering increases in their total student debt.

That's why, as Chair of the Treasury Select Committee, I am leading an inquiry into student loans and the way graduates are taxed. As part of this, we launched a survey to capture graduates and young people’s experience of the system. The response was extraordinary. More than 52,000 people filled in our survey – one of the largest responses any committee has ever had. The message landed loud and clear. 

Of those who had taken out a loan, around four in five told us repaying it had been worse than they expected. Most felt the interest and repayment terms simply weren't reasonable. Many didn't fully understand what they were signing up to as teenagers.

And while almost all said they couldn't have gone to university without the loan, around half said they wouldn't take it out again. 

Whilst not everyone had a bad experience, the sheer scale and strength of feeling is powerful. 

The Labour Government is alive to this. It has capped the interest on Plan 2 and 3 loans, so a sudden spike in inflation (for instance, anything caused by war in the Middle East) doesn't balloon what graduates owe.  

But the underlying central question of fairness remains: have the goalposts been moved on a generation who signed up under different expectations? Graduates are feeling buried under the interest piled on top of the debt.  

And fairness for a whole generation – the young workers keeping Hackney’s shops, health services, and tech start-ups going – matters for our country’s future. The sense that hard work pays for itself is being put at risk. 

The Treasury Committee is hearing from the economists, universities, and graduate campaigners, who know the system best, as well as Ministers. Over the coming weeks my Committee will weigh the options and put recommendations for change to the Government. At the forefront of my mind will be the sense that Hackney's graduates and young people deserve a system that's straight with them.