The Tories: Party of the Young and Aspirational

It is no secret that the Conservative Party has had a problem engaging with youth voters on the whole. In the 2019 general election, the average age of a Conservative voter was 39. Although this is an improvement from 2017, when the average age was 47, the only significant reason for this is due to the large growth in the Liberal Democrat vote between 2017 and 2019, particularly among 18-29-year olds. This is a problem that the Conservatives must confront. And it is no good claiming that, as young people age, they will become more conservative. Simply put, we cannot practically wait for this to happen.

In my opinion, this problem is twofold: First, there is the perception that the Conservatives are a party of elderly, white and wealthy voters. It is often the stereotype that Tories wear suits around University campuses. However, thanks to Young Conservatives across the country that make the effort to communicate with those who won’t necessarily vote Tory and therefore dispel the myth that we are the party of elitist snobs and elderly white males.

Secondly, and the point that I will focus on, is that it could be also be due to decisions made under the coalition that, although necessary, did damage our image in the minds of voters. As well as the need to manage Britain’s exit from the EU for the past 3 years, which unintentionally absorbed our bandwidth to communicate other policy matters, such as a potential reform to tuition fees.

Therefore, this parliament would be the best time to forge a contract with young people and make it unequivocally clear: The Conservative Party will protect your livelihoods, despite this crisis.

There are several ways to do this, but I would say there are broadly 3 key issues that we should begin to with:

Education Reform

To begin with, we must take into account the fact, to many, £9,250 is a rather daunting figure to consider for 1 year of education. If you consider alongside this the interest rate present for tuition fees, we can see how many are put off university.

While it would be unrealistic to write off the debts of University students, given the current economic state, but it is feasible to reform tuition fees. Therefore, I would suggest utilising CPI as a measure of interest rather than RPI, a measure widely discredited by economists and considered obsolete.
This will ensure the debt as a burden doesn’t rise above inflation, but also ensures that students are able to save up to £20,000 in debt.

I would also consider the introduction of new tax incentives, such as a tax credit available to students that wish to take an industrial placement with a company. The benefit of this would provide aid to students that, although interested and capable of achieving placements, are unable to afford living in a large city, such as Manchester and London. Therefore, this will enhance easier access to work experience.

Housing Supply and the Private Rented Sector

Alongside this, we should tackle the housing shortage and promote home ownership. The Conservative Party is the party of capitalism and, simply put, people will not become capitalists unless they own capital and have something that they are responsible for. The cause of the lack of housing available is due to both demographic and sociological changes, with young people often leaving home earlier. This is something we cannot change and nor should we try to. In my opinion, to maximise housing available for recent graduates and those looking to move to home ownership, we should begin by considering further devolution of house building to local councils and Community Land Trusts. While steps have been taken by the coalition, such as through the Localism Act 2011, there are further steps required to devolve control of housing to local government. By encouraging local government to collaborate with developers and lenders will encourage more development of build-to-rent properties as well as lower costs through inducing competition between developers. This could translate into lower housing prices.

But building new supply alone will need to be combined with additional measures, given the indication that a greater number of people will spend longer in the PRS. For instance, we should consider making reforms to the Private rented sector to ensure it can reasonably service the demands of the various groups that rely on it. To do this, I would suggest potential tax advantages to enable individual landlords to bring supply forward. One study (Oxley et al 2010) suggests that, like in many other nations with a large PRS, the landlord is permitted to use losses from rental income to reduce tax on another income. This measure has the potential to enable a landlord to maintain the supply of property over time. As well as this, we need to incentivise the development and fit-out of properties for rent, rather than simply purchasing them.
This should be combined with reforms to the existing tenancy framework to reflect the 2020 circumstances of housing.

Voter Communication

Alongside this, the Tories do not display our policy aims and successes enough. We should be placing more emphasis on the fact that in office, we have been socially progressive, environmentally conscious and placed the worse off first in our economic decisions. After all, we as a party have pledged to be climate neutral by 2050 and delivered gay marriage in 2013. To communicate our policy aims and intentions, we should make extensive use and be more welcoming of the input of University Young Conservatives as well as young conservatives in general, with some associations not even having a young conservative branch. What better way to communicate our policy aims to potential voters than people who actually have the same concerns and so can understand the struggles that they may have.

In my opinion, the Conservative party has the capacity to be the party of the aspirational and entrepreneurial, and the youth of today are certainly that. It is just a case of engaging with them, finding policies that make life easier, not just for them but for every voter and then delivering it.

Thomas Inman

"Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak 'Clap for our Carers'" by UK Prime Minister is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0