Chi Onwurah
Main Page: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)(9 years, 1 month ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text
Mr Speaker
I call Luke Hall. He is not in the Chamber, so I call Chi Onwurah.
Chi Onwurah (Newcastle upon Tyne Central) (Lab)
T7. As term starts, Newcastle will proudly welcome 57,000 university students. However, the Government have stopped compensating Newcastle City Council for the fact that students do not pay council tax, and have excluded student accommodation from the new homes bonus. Given that the council has already suffered over £100 million of cuts, will the Minister take into account the number of students and others who do not pay council tax when calculating what remains of the grant?
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (Mr Marcus Jones)
It is good to see some representation from the north-east on the Opposition Back Benches, given that the Front Bench has very little, or none. [Interruption.] Ah! The hon. Member for City of Durham (Dr Blackman-Woods) is on the Front Bench, so it has one.
I thank the hon. Member for Newcastle upon Tyne Central (Chi Onwurah) for her question. Newcastle has a spending power far in excess of those of many other local authorities, and certainly in excess of the national average. As she knows, we are undertaking a spending review and we will listen to what she is saying, but I must say that her part of the world does not do badly in comparison with many other parts of our country.