MPs launch student loans inquiry amid perfect storm' for young people in UK

"One of my concerns is the layering and layering of challenges on that generation. She cited the eyewatering cost of housing, inadequate pensions saving, and the looming jobs threat from AI. Every government will make what seem like rational decisions in their own silo. So you can look at student loans, you can look at renting, you can look at home ownership, you can look at pensions. But cumulatively, the 20-to-30 generation has had a lot piled on them."

"Now those young people are coming out and finding rents are sky high. House prices in my area are particularly high. You couldn't possibly be a young person locally and look across the road and think, I'll buy that property that's being built,' because they're 650,000 for a two-bedroom flat, or 750,000."

The Treasury select committee has launched an investigation into student loans as young adults in the UK confront multiple interconnected economic challenges. Committee chair Meg Hillier emphasizes that student loan burdens represent only one layer of difficulties facing people in their 20s and 30s. Additional pressures include prohibitively high housing costs, insufficient pension savings, and emerging employment threats from artificial intelligence. Hillier notes that while individual government decisions may seem rational in isolation, their cumulative effect disproportionately affects younger generations. She highlights specific concerns in her London constituency, where property prices for two-bedroom flats reach £650,000-£750,000, making homeownership virtually impossible for young people and contributing to declining birthrates.

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