A Labour frontbencher is calling on Sir Keir Starmer to introduce a “youth triple lock” for 18 to 30-year-olds to help young people’s finances.
Luke Charters, MP for York Outer and Parliamentary Private Secretary at the Department for Business and Trade, warned that the party risks losing younger voters unless it acts with greater urgency on housing, transport and savings.
Writing exclusively for The i Paper in the wake of the local election results, which he describes as “a wake-up call,” Charters argues that Labour “has not yet connected the dots into an overall vision for how we help young people through their lives”.
Here is how the under-30s triple lock would work:
Discounted travel for under-21s
Charters is calling for a universal travel discount for under-21s covering trains, trams and buses, arguing that young apprentices, care workers and school leavers currently pay full fares to reach work while many students get discounts.
The i Paper understands that a number of metro mayors are preparing to take a similar version of this proposal to Downing Street.
It is expected to cost around £800m, though proponents argue it would be broadly cost-neutral when set against reduced welfare spending and higher employment among young people.
Automatic savings with tax incentives for under-25s
The second element is to introduce savings taken automatically through the payroll, much as pension contributions are made.
Money for savings would go into a deposit account with tax advantages built in. The i Paper understands the scheme would allow young workers to accumulate up to £1,000 a year tax-free.
It would replace existing schemes, including the Lifetime ISA (LISA) and Help to Buy, which Charters describes as a “broken mess” that has “simply not delivered”.
Separate conversations are understood to be under way on reforms to Plan 2 and Plan 5 student loans, which Charters sees as a precondition for giving young people the capacity to save.
He suggests models worth replicating include Canada’s First Home Savings Account, introduced in 2023 to enable first-time buyers to save up to $40,000 (£29,255) tax-free with pension-style tax relief on contributions, and Germany’s Bausparvertrag, a state-subsidised home savings contract treated by lenders as equity.
A rent-to-own pathway for over-25s
The third element would create build-to-rent-to-own schemes in which renters’ monthly contributions, alongside government top-ups, accumulate toward a deposit and eventual ownership of a home.
Charters suggests planning reforms could incentivise developers to build such properties, and that existing affordable homes capital could be repurposed rather than requiring significant new spending.
The most immediately deliverable change would be compelling mortgage lenders to treat a strong rent payment history as evidence of financial reliability when assessing affordability.
Primary legislation would likely be required, given the fragmented regulatory picture governing mortgage lending, but proponents believe it could be achieved quickly and at no direct cost to the Treasury.
He draws on models from Australia, where several private providers now operate rent-to-own schemes at scale, and Singapore, where the government’s Housing and Development Board offers eligible low-income families a structured pathway from rental into subsidised homeownership.
Why do MPs want a youth triple lock?
The proposal comes after Thursday’s local election across England, in which Reform UK made significant gains and the Green Party of England and Wales strengthened their position among younger urban voters.
Charters, 30, is one of Labour’s younger MPs and argues the results should be read as a warning.
Young voters, he writes, are “a generation with its back against the wall” – and he accuses the Green Party of opposing housing developments that young people need while “building an entire brand on speaking for the young.”
He also frames the youth triple lock as complementary to, rather than in competition with, the pensioner triple lock.
“Get this right and we generate the prosperity that sustains the triple lock itself. These are not competing promises. They are the same promise, made across generations,” he says.
No date has been set for when the proposals might be formally submitted to the Government, and no independent costings for the full package have been published.
It’s time for a youth triple lock – and here’s how it would work
By Luke Charters, Labour MP for York Outer
A quiet social contract sits at the heart of British life.
At 55, you can access your private pension. At 60, eye tests and prescriptions become free. At 67, the triple-lock secured state pension begins. Britain rightly honours the generation that helped build it.
Yet campaigning across the country as one of Britain’s youngest MPs, I’ve seen a very different reality. In Leeds, Camden, Gorton, Denton and York, I’ve met young people sardined into cramped houseshares, others still sleeping in their childhood bedrooms well into their twenties, and many quietly dipping into overdrafts just to cover the rent.
If the housing market is brutal, the jobs market is no kinder. Entry-level roles routinely demand experience that no candidate could realistically have. More and more young people are starting to wonder whether the system was ever built for them at all.
The local elections were a wake-up call. Young people are not a sleeping vote waiting to be roused. They are a generation with its back against the wall, and they are angry. They are right to be.
Labour has already delivered monumental change through renters’ rights, stronger employment protections and a higher minimum wage. There’s more to come, too, with things like the EU Youth Experience Scheme. But we need even more ambition, more urgency, and bolder policies, learning from countries across the world.
We have also been too timid about naming who has stood in the way. The Greens have built an entire brand on speaking for the young, but brands lie, and Green politicians have opposed thousands of the homes young people desperately need. You cannot march for a generation and vote against the roof over their heads. And if we are honest with ourselves, Labour has not yet connected the dots into an overall vision for how we help young people through their lives.
For decades, Britain has built pensioners a ladder towards security and dignity. We must now build young people a ladder into working life. Get this right and we generate the prosperity that sustains the triple lock itself. These are not competing promises. They are the same promise, made across generations.
I call it the Youth Triple Lock: a ladder through life for every young person aged 18 to 30, built on three hard guarantees.
The first rung is a Transport Guarantee for under-21s. Young apprentices, care workers and school leavers often pay full fares just to get to work, while many students already receive discounts. A universal travel discount across trams, trains and buses would help young workers reach opportunities and signal that Britain values their contribution. Sweden and Switzerland have youth travel schemes we should mirror.
The second rung is an Early Career Savings Guarantee. First, we fix the broken mess of Plan 2 and Plan 5 student loans and give young people room to save. Then we must go further, because as a former regulator, I saw that schemes like LISAs and Help to Buy have simply not delivered. Instead, we need something ruthlessly simple: automatic payroll saving into a ringfenced deposit account, with tax advantages built in from day one. One line on a payslip, growing every month, could do more to restore faith than any Westminster speech.
In Canada, young people save up to $40,000 tax-free from age 18. In Germany, hundreds of thousands under 25 already watch a home deposit grow in their name. We should make this the British story too.
The third rung is a Rent-to-Own Pathway for over-25s. Young renters are pouring tens of thousands into rent while being shut out of ownership unless they have family money behind them. Build-to-rent-to-own schemes, drawn from models in Australia and Singapore, could let renters contribute towards a future deposit, backed by government top-ups. Mortgage lenders should also be compelled to treat a strong rental record as hard proof of financial reliability. In short, renting should be a stepping stone to home ownership, not a trap.
The triple lock told one generation the state would not abandon them. The Youth Triple Lock makes that same promise to the next. Britain’s pensioners did not build this country so their grandchildren could be priced out of it.
So with over three years left in this Parliament, we have the time and the mandate to do something bold and lasting. We should use it.