Oral Answers to Questions

Adrian Bailey Excerpts

Wednesday 5th December 2012 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I am very grateful to my hon. Friend for his question. I am a very big supporter of Britain’s special schools; I think they provide an absolutely vital service for parents and for children who have those special and sometimes quite acute needs. I am proud of the fact that this Government have invested in special schools and they are doing such a good job, including in his constituency.

[Mr Adrian Bailey (West Bromwich West) (Lab/Co-op)]

Q13. Following the Government’s new funding formula for universities this year, student admissions dropped by more than 50,000. Despite meeting its target, the university of Wolverhampton—my local university—suffered a cut in its core allocation and has been told that there will be another cut next year. What guarantees can the Prime Minister give that universities such as Wolverhampton’s will not suffer year-on-year reductions in student numbers as a result of this new formula?

[The Prime Minister]

The whole point is that this Government took difficult decisions to make sure we could maintain the number of people going to our universities, and the question really goes right back to the Labour party: if you don’t support a proper system of student contributions, how on earth are you going to pay for our universities? We have set out our plans, and they are actually working well. You don’t start paying back money until you earn £21,000, and you don’t start paying back in full until you earn £35,000. We have a method for making sure we invest in our universities; the Labour party has not got a clue.