Rip off Britain - young people should be encouraged to move abroad, says Tom Swarbrick

6 June 2025, 15:59

By Tom Swarbrick

@TomSwarbrick1

They say travel broadens the mind but after coming back from Spain last week, in my case, travelling rather focussed it.

I mentioned on the show about the price I paid for a few drinks at a bar in Seville which was probably about half what most would pay here. It was another ice-cold, fizzing sign of just what a rip off Britain has become.

The average age of buying a home is well into its 30s, more grads are having to go back to mum and dad, rent has skyrocketed, the tax burden is the highest since WW2: you now have to earn £54,000 per year to start paying back the capital of your student loan.

At the Spending Review next week, the Chancellor will seek to find money to protect people from these spiralling costs. One suggestion is that pensioners with a household average discretionary spending of up to £ 37,000 a year (i.e., income after tax) will be entitled to taxpayer-subsidized winter fuel payments.

So if you have around £3k a month, after tax, and you’re over 66, you could get some cash to pay the energy bill for your private home.

Honestly?!? That’s who this money is going to??!!

No wonder people in their 20s and 30s are upping and leaving this country.

The malaise we’re in is most keenly felt by young, working-age families, and yet they are the ones being asked to, if reports are to be believed, stump up for richer, older folk.

To me, this is yet another reason why many Brits are now moving abroad.

Is this not a sign to those Millennials and Gen Zs of where politicians believe the help is most needed? Can you blame the next generations for casting their eyes further afield and moving abroad? Frankly, they should probably be encouraged to.

At least then they might be able to raise a cold, affordable pint to their own escape because it doesn’t seem like there will be much here for them to cheer.

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