The Conservatives are the only party looking out for young people

In many parts of this country young people simply have no chance of ever owning their own home and will be condemned to be forever 'generation rent'. This is profoundly un-conservative

Conservative leader and Prime Minister Theresa May speaking at the Conservative Party conference to an audience of all ages (Reuters)

The Conservative Party’s abject failure amongst 18-30 year olds in the 2017 general election cost us our majority. It nearly cost us the government and could still loose the Prime Minister her leadership. Further still, if such a demographic shift is not reversed soon and at scale, it will cost us the future of the very party.

A sustained drift of young voters away from the party would relegate us to a slow political death as our support base fails to be replenished in the coming years. This is even more distressing if you believe as I do, that it is the Conservative Party, and not the Labour Party who can realistically provide a brighter future for the next generation.

And so I was extremely happy to see so much time and effort devoted to this issue at party conference this week. It was the subject of a myriad of fringe events, bar conversations, keynote speeches and new policy announcements. So what was the result of all of this conversation and internal reflection?

We need more homes

In many parts of this country young people simply have no chance of ever owning their own home and will be condemned to be forever “generation rent”. This is profoundly un-conservative. We have always been the party of home ownership, and so it was great to hear the Government has committed to build 1 million new homes by 2020 and 500 thousand more by 2022.

There is also a commitment to spend an extra £2bn on affordable housing. This has the real potential to improve the lives of young people in this country who have been left in the cold as property values have steadily increased faster than wages and pooled wealth in the hands of their parents’ generation.

If this plan can be delivered successfully and we as a party can demonstrate the benefits of this type of private home ownership versus Labour’s big state and social housing approach, we will have made significant steps towards securing the support of a future generation of private home owners.

As an aside, I’m writing this sitting in my three bed rented house share in London now absurdly valued at over £1m!

The rental market requires reform

As a result of our current housing crisis the number of young voters living in rented accommodation has skyrocketed, as have rental prices, and so it is critical to offer positive solutions to issues in the rental sector as well as promoting eventual home ownership.

I can say from personal experience that rogue landlords are a real and persistent issue. Also as someone who has moved seven times in seven years I can also attest to the financial and mental toll a lack of security and continuity can take.

The Government has now thankfully committed to banning rip-off letting fees for tenants, which often cost a small fortune and can become a major issue when you are moving every year or so. In addition to this is a proposal to increase the length of tenancies which under the current 12 month terms leave renters exposed to eviction on a yearly basis. Not great for community integration, financial stability, or piece of mind, I can assure you.

Crucially though, the Conservative party will oppose the Labour party’s ill-conceived proposal to introduce rent controls – a policy well summed up by Swedish economist Assar Lindbeck: “Rent controls appear to be the most efficient technique presently known to destroy a city – except for bombing.” The Conservative Party will instead work to fix the root causes of these issues and deliver better conditions for tenants.

University funding needs sustainable solution

There is a clear anger expressed by many students at the ever growing debt pile they are saddled with in order to get a degree. However as Conservatives we do not agree with reckless and unaffordable promises to simply abolish tuition fees. Neither do we think it fair to transfer the cost burden via general taxation from those who will directly benefit to the over 50 per cent of young people who don’t go to university.

Nevertheless there is now a clear understanding in government that these costs cannot be allowed to continue their upward spiral. That is why Theresa May reaffirmed in her conference speech a pledge to freeze tuition fees at the current £9,250 pa and to raise the threshold for repaying student loans to £25,000.

Other proposals include discounted fees for selected courses that would address skills gaps in the workforce. This along with a review of loan interest rates, and the long term university funding model, the Government is starting to address the future for today’s students in a responsible and sustainable way.

That said, I still feel there is far more that needs to be done to shape the suitably robust offering we will need to make to students before the next election.

We want a greener future

Polling shows that the young people of this country care deeply about climate change and environmental protection. This is something that we should be embracing and capitalising on as Conservatives who are fundamentally conservationist, and who have an overwhelmingly positive record to show.

This does seem to be hitting home now as party conference was flooded with events concentrating on the green economy, conservation, wildlife protection and how to position ourselves to be a world leader in environmental policy after Brexit.

We need to take this fight to Labour who have been notably weak on the these topics. Bold commitments made to ban the sale of petrol and diesel vehicles after 2040 and phase out all coal fired power plants by 2025 should put us in a strong position to do so.

We have a real opportunity here as the green economy continues to grow, and the Government continues to support businesses in this sector. We will be able to make the case to younger voters for capitalism, not socialism, as a driver for positive social and environmental change.

These are clearly the main policy areas where we saw the big announcements over the last four days but of course there are a raft of other proposals flowing out of No 10 and the various think tanks engaged with this subject, all aimed at the youth of today. There are detailed proposals being put forward on mental health reform, future pensions, retraining schemes, and apprenticeships, to name just a few.

Such is the party’s renewed concentration on addressing the concerns of younger voters, that of the dozens of youth focused forums on various topics scheduled throughout the conference, all were oversubscribed, many with double the capacity of the room standing outside. Caught off guard in the last election we certainly were, but complacent for the next we certainly are not.

I hope this will simply be the tip of the metaphorical policy iceberg with many more ideas yet to come and the existing visions fleshed out in the coming weeks.

Key to making a success of any renewed pitch of these ideas to younger voters, in addition to bold and concrete policies, will be the all important communication of these ideas. This is something that we woefully lacked in the 2017 general election. A question I’ve heard asked which clarifies this point perfectly is simply – “what were our clear and defining messages?”. Even I find that hard to answer – is “strong and stable” really a message?

For all the negatives I could heap onto Corbyn and his team, they had very clear messaging which was easily repeated, textable, tweetable, slapped on leaflets, etc. We will need to overcome the view held by many that the Conservative Party is the boring administrator of continuity, and lay out bold new visions backed by policies that will truly inspire the under 30s who abandoned us this year to return by the next election in 2022.

If we can learn the lessons and make a success out of our current failures we stand in good stead to secure our position with the next generation. And if we don’t, we won’t have a future to worry about.