Lib Dems in £18,000 pledge to students

LIBERAL DEMOCRAT leader Sir Vince Cable has pledged an £18,000 “learning endowment” for young people staying in education after turning 18.

In a speech ahead of this month’s autumn Budget, Sir Vince said his party would redistribute wealth from old to young to address the “inequality” between generations.

Sir Vince also called for a Government that “prioritises economic competence over political dogma” – something he argues cannot be provided by the “no deal Brexit extremism” of the Conservatives or the “socialism in one country” offered by Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour.

Sir Vince said: “Young people have been left behind for too long. There now has to be some form of redistribution between generations to restore the implicit contract in every society between young and old.

“A better proposal than populist gestures like cuts in tuition fees and freezing rents is to create an endowment or learning account for young people on their 16th or 18th birthday which they can draw down at any time in life all to pay for further and higher education.

“Let us consider, notionally, a generous and ambitious learning account of, say, £18,000.

“This would cost just over £14bn per annum for each new age cohort.”

Looking ahead to Chancellor Philip Hammond’s November 22 Budget, Sir Vince said Lib Dem priorities were to free up capital for investment in homes and infrastructure, to revive the NHS with a targeted injection of cash, and to have a crackdown on tax havens.