Student loan repayment rates an ‘unsustainable burden’, chancellor told

Laura Trott, shadow education secretary for the Conservatives, and Munira Wilson, education spokeswoman for the Liberal Democrats, are among MPs who have signed the letter.

Tom Gordon, Liberal Democrat MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough, also signed the letter and told the BBC he could not “see an end in sight” to his own Plan 2 student loan repayments. Instead, he said he expected his debt to be written off after 30 years in line with the repayment terms.

“If someone earning an MP’s salary still isn’t likely to repay their student loan in full, what chance does someone on a much lower income have?” Gordon asked, adding it was “an issue of fairness”.

“Governments have changed the repayment terms and increased interest rates after people had already signed up,” he said.

“No bank or mortgage lender could retrospectively rewrite the terms of a loan like that. It simply wouldn’t be allowed. So why should the government be able to do it?”

Oliver Gardner, founder of Rethink Repayment, said the letter showed “the student loans crisis” was not “a partisan issue”.

“We believe that now is the time to create a system that is fair and that unshackles millions of graduates from mountains of student loan debt,” he said.

Responding to the Treasury select committee’s report last month, a government spokesperson said ministers were “already taking decisive action” and would “continue to look for ways to make the system fairer for students, graduates and taxpayers in a financially sustainable way”.