Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lord Willetts and Sheila Gilmore

Thursday 24th May 2012 Commons Chamber

[Sheila Gilmore (Edinburgh East) (Lab)]

From today’s answers about regulation, it appears that, in the Government’s eyes, progress has already been made. Why, then, has growth slowed so far that we are now back in recession? Does that not show that all this deregulation is not working and that we need measures to increase demand?

[Mr Willetts]

Growth has slowed because of the problems in the eurozone driven partly by levels of regulation much greater than those in Britain.

Opportunities for the Next Generation

Debate between Lord Willetts and Sheila Gilmore

Tuesday 13th September 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Willetts]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. The debate is an opportunity for me and all Government Members to set out very clearly what we are trying to do with more apprenticeship places, 80,000 work experience places, and a funding system for universities—however controversial—that has been set up on a reliable basis for the future that will enable us to maintain the number of places to students. That adds up to more education and training places in total for young people than ever before. We are also making bold reforms on schools through free schools and the pupil premium, which will help children from low-income families, as well as through the spread of the academies programme and the arrival of university technical colleges. Going beyond education, we are also making bold reforms on housing with the new affordable homes programme bringing 170,000 new affordable homes by 2015. That all adds up to a programme that is absolutely aimed at ensuring that young people get a fair deal.

[Sheila Gilmore (Edinburgh East) (Lab)]

Will the Minister explain how properties at 80% of market value rent are affordable and how that links to his party’s declared aim of reducing spending on housing benefit?

[Mr Willetts]

In our affordable homes programme we have set out arrangements whereby new providers will deliver extra homes for a given amount of rental income. We aim to generate and achieve more house building as a result.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lord Willetts and Sheila Gilmore

Thursday 14th July 2011 Commons Chamber

[Sheila Gilmore (Edinburgh East) (Lab)]

What assessment has the Minister made of the impact of the Scottish Government’s decision to charge English students tuition fees of up to £9,000?

[Mr Willetts]

I know that there is strong feeling in England about that, but it is a matter for the Scottish Government and therefore not one for which this Government are responsible.

Off-quota University Places

Debate between Lord Willetts and Sheila Gilmore

Tuesday 10th May 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Willetts]

I share my hon. Friend’s dislike of the system that we have inherited. I deeply dislike a system in which universities are fined for taking on students who meet their entry requirements, but of course there are public expenditure constraints, because each student comes with a cost. That is why I am being perfectly explicit about the fact that we are considering ways in which it would be possible for students to be accepted into university outside the quota, under the conditions that I have clearly set before the House this afternoon. I hope that moves us some way towards his admirable objective.

[Sheila Gilmore (Edinburgh East) (Lab)]

How will the Minister monitor the bona fides of charities that might be involved in these transactions?

[Mr Willetts]

I agree that that is very important, and that the principles of fair access must apply. When we produce our White Paper and our proposals are consulted on, that question will of course need to be properly addressed.

Higher Education Policy

Debate between Lord Willetts and Sheila Gilmore

Wednesday 27th April 2011 Commons Chamber

[Sheila Gilmore (Edinburgh East) (Lab)]

Some months ago the Minister indicated in the House, in response to a question from me, that his proposals were not to do with the deficit, but were to do with a new way of providing for the financing of higher education, yet he introduces his speech by referring to the deficit.

[Mr Willetts]

I will turn to that point as I develop my argument. I hope the hon. Lady will accept that the Government whom she supported left behind a fiscal crisis. We were borrowing £120 million a day and were heading for the largest budget deficit in the G20. In fact, the position was so bad that the previous Chancellor had set out proposals for bringing down the deficit by reducing public spending. It is an irony that the Opposition called this debate in the very month when the previous Government’s spending cuts would have started to take effect—£14 billion of cuts planned for this financial year by the previous Chancellor, £16 billion of cuts that we are implementing.

As the shadow Secretary of State knows because he was in the Government at the time, it is clear from the pre-Budget report of December 2009 that there was a commitment to £600 million of cuts from the higher education and science and research budget. It was never explained what those were to be. As we know from the work done by the Institute for Fiscal Studies when it tried to assess Labour’s plans when the previous Government left office, there were to be reductions in public expenditure that the IFS estimated as a 25% reduction in the budget of the Department where the Secretary of State and I serve. So we inherited a mess that we have to sort out.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lord Willetts and Sheila Gilmore

Thursday 13th January 2011 Commons Chamber

[Sheila Gilmore (Edinburgh East) (Lab)]

4. How many universities he expects to charge £9,000 in tuition fees in 2012-13.

[The Minister for Universities and Science (Mr David Willetts)]

Universities have not yet set their level of graduate contribution for 2012-13. Any institution in England wishing to charge above £6,000 must have an access agreement approved by the director of fair access. The Office for Fair Access will shortly begin discussions with individual institutions that intend to submit an access agreement under our demanding new requirements. We have always made it clear that £9,000 should be charged only in exceptional circumstances.

[Sheila Gilmore]

The Minister will be aware of the discussion within the university sector; many universities, especially Russell group universities, have already said that they are likely to charge at the higher level. Even some other universities are saying that to break even, they would need to charge more than £7,000. What modelling did the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills do when presenting its financial calculations to the Treasury, if it does not know the answers to questions that the universities appear to know?

[Mr Willetts]

We are waiting for universities to approach OFFA; they will have to submit a request to OFFA if they wish to go above £6,000. In our financial modelling, which we shared with the House, we made it clear that on average, replicating the income that universities are getting at the moment would involve fees of around £7,000. Of course, we are expecting universities, just like every other organisation in Britain, to make significant efficiency savings and hold down their costs.

Higher Education Funding

Debate between Lord Willetts and Sheila Gilmore

Wednesday 3rd November 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mr Willetts]

One of the big sources of frustration for students at the moment is that they do not feel that they get enough practical experience of the world of work while they are at university, and they do not think they are properly prepared for it. That is why we are asking all universities to produce a statement of what they are doing to ensure employability for their students. We want much more, and much more precise, information to be available in future so that prospective students can see the graduate employment prospects of individual courses at individual universities.

[Sheila Gilmore (Edinburgh East) (Lab)]

The Minister’s boss said in the House when he last spoke on the matter that the reason why he and his colleagues had swallowed these proposals, and indeed their pledge, was the need to pay down the deficit within five years. If the change is about deficit reduction in such a short period, why is it necessary to invent a system that will burden several generations of students?

[Mr Willetts]

We have been completely frank with the House throughout in saying that of course there are public expenditure savings here, which are necessary because of the mess that we inherited from the previous Government. However, this is not simply a matter of saving public money. We are also using the challenge of doing that to propose what we believe is an improved and progressive system. We are delivering reform as well as saving public money.