Paul Blomfield
Main Page: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)Department Debates - View all Paul Blomfield's debates with the Department for Education
(10 years, 1 month ago)
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Vince Cable
The process that the hon. Gentleman described is the right one: if it is good business practice, good businesses will follow it and out-compete their competitors, and I hope that that is what will happen.
Paul Blomfield (Sheffield Central) (Lab)
2. What recent estimate he has made of the resource accounting and budgeting charge on student loans.
The Minister for Universities and Science (Mr David Willetts)
We currently estimate the RAB charge to be around 45%. The estimate changes frequently in the light of new economic forecasts and will continue to change.
Paul Blomfield
Back in the days when the Minister was confidently predicting that the RAB charge would not rise above 32%, writing in The Independent in October 2012 he described an RAB charge of 38% as the worst outcome for the taxpayer. How does he describe an RAB charge of 45%?
Mr Willetts
What we have achieved with our higher education reforms is significant savings to the taxpayer and extra income going to our universities. That is the right combination.