Devolution: England
Debate between Baroness Williams of Trafford and Lord Morgan
Baroness Williams of Trafford
My Lords, it will be for a future Government to decide whether they want to move forward with fiscal devolution. However, as regards business rates retention, £11 billion has been retained in local areas.
Lord Morgan (Lab)
My Lords, has not one of the problems with our arrangements been that our constitutional changes have been very piecemeal and haphazard? Should not the excellent suggestions of the noble Baroness be considered side by side with proposals for further devolution, fiscal and otherwise, for Scotland and Wales, preferably in a constitutional convention, as has been so wisely proposed by the leader of the Labour Party?
Baroness Williams of Trafford
My Lords, we have had a Silk commission, a McKay commission and a Calman commission. We are not currently contemplating a further convention. There is no particular demand for it—
Higher Education: Funding
Debate between Baroness Williams of Trafford and Lord Morgan
Baroness Williams of Trafford
My Lords, the way in which the repayment system is structured means that no student, when they complete their studies, should ever be at a financial disadvantage. No graduate has to pay back their loan until they achieve an earning of £21,000 a year. There should not be any fear of an inability to pay back for the postgraduate student.
Lord Morgan (Lab)
My Lords, is there not a serious imbalance in university funding in terms of research, which has not been covered so far? The biblical precept has been followed of “To him who hath, more”—much more—“shall be given”. The effect is that only a small number of large, highly endowed universities are able to conduct a full research programme and be research active. Is it not seriously damaging to higher education in this country that our financing of research should be based on this inbuilt inequality?
Baroness Williams of Trafford
The noble Lord is absolutely right that research is fundamental both to universities and to the economic future of the country. I refer him to the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement, in which the Chancellor announced a significant amount of new money for research.