By Maud Humphries, News C0-Editor
Keir Starmer's government is entering 2025 with big plans. But how will these planned policies affect you as a student?
Starmer's Labour government has seen their popularity ratings decrease rapidly since their electoral landslide victory in July 2024. The widespread riots following the Southport stabbings, the Autumn Budget, including taking away the Winter Fuel payment for many pensioners, and the inheritance tax on certain British farmers, are only some of the complex issues and controversies that this government has faced since July. Before the election, Starmer's approval ratings were still positive at +2%, but have now fallen, according to an Opinion Poll taken before Christmas, to -32%.
However, they enter 2025 with high hopes to introduce their promised big policy reforms.
Education
Included in these plans are significant education reforms. Education minister, Bridget Phillipson, is focusing on increasing pupil attendance and retaining more teachers. One of their memorable election commitments will also be introduced this year, free breakfast clubs to all primary schools.
It was announced in Autumn last year that that university tuition fees in England will rise for the first time in eight years. The maximum annual fee will increase by £285 to reach £9,535 next year, a 3.1% rise linked to inflation, according to the government.
Alongside the planned fee increase, maintenance loans for university students in England will now rise in line with inflation, potentially providing students with up to an extra £400 per year.
Housing
Ministers have promised to build 1.5m new homes, central to this commitments was to improve the ease and possibility of young people and graduates being able to buy homes. The UK has seen a serious decline of home ownership and first-time buyers in the 16-34 age category. The decline is particularly steep in young adults with middle incomes, in 2023 just over 10% of people aged 25-34 in England owned a home.
2025 will the planning and infrastructure bill that will give central government powers to bypass local councils in order to speed through housing development. This planning bill will also fast-track devolution, giving more powers to local mayors so they can better tailor services such as transport to local needs. Local elections for mayors take place in May 2025.
Minimum Wage
Another policy to be introduced that may affect you in April 2025 is the minimum wage for those aged 21 and over which will increase from £11.44 to £12.21 per hour, a 6.7% increase.
Overall, a key mission of the Labour Government was to 'Kickstart economic growth'. Reeves' Autumn Budget aimed to gain more money for public services. Economic growth however, is stalling, with only 0.9% growth in 2024. Economists predict the UK's GDP to increase between 1.2-1.5% in 2025, however they also warn that geopolitical events and international relations may alter this, with President-elect Trump being sworn in later this month.
