Martin Lewis urges John Healey to tackle student loans and energy bills
Martin Lewis has issued his first message to Britain’s new chancellor, offering his help to tackle the “many outstanding consumer issues” facing the UK economy.
Wishing John Healey the best in his role, which he called a “surprise”, Mr Lewis highlighted student loans and energy bills as some of the biggest financial challenges.
The Money Saving Expert founder has been vocal about government policies in the past and clashed with Rachel Reeves on several issues, including her decision to freeze the student debt repayment threshold.
In a post on social media, Mr Lewis wrote: “So John Healey is the new Chancellor - a surprise.
“Wishing him all the best for the country, there are many outstanding consumer issues that need work from student loans to LISAs, energy bills to mid-contract price hikes, Capita pensions to council tax and more.
“As always, anything my team and I can do to help improve the situation on things like this, we will do.”
He also said the government’s announcement that it was removing VAT from domestic energy bills was a “welcome” move, but added that people would not feel much of the benefit in practice.
“Ultimately though it does mean people will pay less than they would’ve done without this. Yet it is going to need a lot more policy cost reductions, likely at the budget, for things to feel materially cheaper.”
Andy Burnham’s cabinet announcements on Monday saw Ms Reeves lose her job along with David Lammy, Steve Reed, and other senior ministers from Keir Starmer’s top team.
In an unexpected move, Mr Healey was made chancellor, while Ed Miliband was named foreign secretary, Shabana Mahmood was reappointed as home secretary, Wes Streeting accepted the role as defence secretary, and Angela Rayner returned as housing secretary.
Mr Lewis had hit out at Ms Reeves several times during her time as chancellor and repeatedly called for the government to make policy changes.
He slammed her decision to freeze the student debt repayment threshold, saying it was not the “moral thing to do”.
In a direct message to Ms Reeves, he said: “Chancellor, you know – you know that you’re doing this as fiscal drag as if student loans are a tax. But it’s not a tax; it’s a contract that the government signed with young people who had not been given any education on these loans. I do not think it is a moral thing for you to do to be freezing the repayment threshold in this way … This isn’t right – please have a rethink.”
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