By Jake Ventham

What are UK politicians able to deliver for the next generation of voters?

One responsibility for politicians is to enhance democracy by listening to all audiences, including those of the youth. Although many, in the older generation, view the youth of today as immature and erratic, our generation cares about a multitude of problems occurring in the UK such as global warming, mental health and expensive housing.

Our future is important, every day that passes, global warming gets worse, threatening humanity’s existence. Global warming produces higher sea levels making a large amount of land unusable and causes extreme weather such as flooding, droughts, wildfires and heatwaves undoubtedly leading to unwarranted death. To gain support of the younger generation it is vital that politicians aim to fix this issue. Currently the government aims to reach net zero by 2050, this is far too late and will leave the youth in dire circumstances as we become older. If politicians put more funding into lowering carbon emissions, they would be thanked by humanity in the future. An increase in funding for green initiatives would also create new job opportunities as well as setting Britain up to be a revolutionary powerhouse.

The mental health epidemic in the UK warrants politicians to make a stance, mental health problems are becoming increasingly prevalent in schools across the nation and seems to affect the youth of today constantly. The NHS found that 20.3% of 8-16 year olds had a probable mental health disorder in 2023, for 17-19 year olds it was approximately 23.3%. These numbers show a clear problem in UK society and they make it hard for the next generation of voters to trust the government when they are not addressing mental health properly and arent destigmatising mental health issues. Therefore politicians should implement policies that aim to improve the mental health sector as the underwhelming support and spending for this sector needs to be addressed. Seeing as 1 in 5 children are affected by mental health problems, a government that acts would gain a sizeable portion of the future electorate. One way of tackling the problem could be by increasing the amount of schools that have well trained counsellors.

The average London residential property has seen a 350% rise in price since 2000. A main cause of the price increase is national migration, which stems from the regional disparity between the South-East and the North. HS2 was meant to reduce inequality between the two regions by creating better transport links so that those living in the North could work in London, which contains more appetising jobs. A side – effect of HS2 would be London house prices falling, due to less demand for houses in London causing the market equilibrium of London residential properties to decrease. Although HS2 uses a substantial amount of taxpayers money to build (~£106bn), the next generation of voters would benefit from HS2 being completed as they don’t pay tax.

Essentially if politicians want to be productive and deliver for the next generation of voters then they need to put in effective legislature that protects the youth currently and for the future.