The SNP has said the Autumn Budget must be a Budget with action needed to boost squeezed incomes, tackle the housing crisis, and secure a better future for young people.

The SNP has said the Autumn Budget must be a Budget with action needed to boost squeezed incomes, tackle the housing crisis, and secure a better future for young people.

In a joint letter to Chancellor Philip Hammond, the SNP’s MPs urge the UK Government to address the specific problems young people face due to stagnant wages, rising inflation, skyrocketing housing costs, and Tory cuts to financial support.

The letter warns that young people have been hit by a “Tory triple whammy”, with a decade of Tory austerity cuts, a Tory extreme Brexit, and the UK government’s failure to address the wages and housing crisis, all contributing to young people becoming the first generation in modern times to be “poorer and less secure” than their parents.

The SNP has called for “long-overdue” measures including:

Giving young people a decent wage by replacing the ‘Minimum Wage’ and ‘National Living Wage’ with the Real Living Wage, and extending it to under 25s who currently earn as little as £4.05 an hour.

Making housing affordable by reversing Tory cuts to Housing Benefit for under 21s, and following the SNP Government’s lead on building more genuinely affordable and social housing.

Securing young people’s future with action to protect the environment and invest in renewables.

Patricia Gibson MP said:

“Thanks to this Tory Government, young people now face being the first generation in modern times to be worse off than their parents, with lower lifetime earnings, cuts to support, skyrocketing housing costs, and a Brexit that is squeezing living standards and robbing young people of opportunities.

“This week the Chancellor must take the long-overdue action needed with a Budget that addresses the specific problems faced by young people, including a real living wage.

“Of course, these are not just problems that young people face. There must also be action to boost incomes across society, after a decade of stagnant wages, insecure jobs, and Tory cuts to social security, that have pushed many families into poverty, debt and crisis.

“This budget must address the failings of the last decade and the damage done by a Tory government whose austerity politics have held back economic growth, and left millions of people poorer and less secure.”