Labour will reduce tuition fees from £9,000 to £6,000, the party has announced. In addition, the maintenance grant will rise by £4,00 to £3,800 for families paying the basic rate of income tax. Significantly, the policy will apply to students already at university, increasing its vote-winning potential.
Ed Miliband believes that the current system is both unsustainable – it is piling £16bn extra worth of debt to the public finances every year and will have added £281 bn worth to the national debt by 2030, according to Labour analysis – and betrays what he calls the “promise of Britain”, that “the next generation would do better than the last”.
In a speech that binds together the coalition’s cuts to SureStart, benefit reforms and the rise in tuition fees, Ed Miliband will said:
“What has happened over the last five years is more than just a betrayal of election promises, it is a betrayal of an entire generation: a betrayal from their first steps to the time when they stride into the world of work; a betrayal from nursery to school, from college to university, a betrayal to the jobs or homes they hope to have afterwards – and even on their ability to vote.”
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He revisited the “promise of Britain” idea, saying:
“This used to be a country where it was almost taken for granted that the next generation would do better than the last. This was the Promise of Britain. Now we are a country where it is almost taken for granted they will do worse.
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Ed Balls, also in attendance, added:
“This government’s system is not only bad for students it’s bad for the public finances too. Students are graduating with a bigger burden of debt and our zero-based review has exposed how it is leading to higher national debt too.”
The presence of the Shadow Chancellor – who has been rumoured to harbour doubts about the wisdom of the policy – highlights Labour’s unity on the issue in the face of attacks both from business and vice-chancellors, and, removing that distraction from the discussion of a policy that Labour believe will allow them to lock in Liberal Democrat defectors.