Tories will slash school spending, Liberal Democrats claim
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Version 0 of 1. The Conservatives are on course to slash funding for schools, nurseries and colleges by a quarter, according to the Liberal Democrats, who say the move will seriously harm children’s chances in life. Education minister David Laws turned on his coalition partners after ordering an analysis from the House of Commons library that suggests a Tory government would cut about £13.3bn a year from funding from the education budget by 2020. The Lib Dems asked for the figures because the chancellor, George Osborne, has refused to say whether or not he could continue to protect funding for schools . So far, the Conservatives have only said that they would ringfence the NHS and foreign aid budgets if they were to win power after 2015. Laws pointed out that Lord Nash, a Tory schools minister, warned in October that schools would have to “cut their cloth” after the next election. Laws said a Conservative-majority government would be “a serious risk to our education system” and the scale of such drastic cuts “would have a profound impact on the life chances of children”. He said: “The Conservatives are not only committed to eliminating the deficit, but also running a surplus and, bizarrely, giving away a further £7bn in unfunded tax cuts for the rich and not raising any taxes. That means George Osborne’s axe will make much deeper cuts in unprotected departments than is necessary to balance the books.” he Conservatives refused to comment on Sunday about the schools budget, but attacked Laws for describing the £7bn in tax cuts as a proposal “for the rich” because it includes a commitment to raising the personal allowances for low earners. “The Liberal Democrats may now oppose helping 30 million hardworking British families but the Conservatives will deliver lower income tax,” a Conservative spokesman said. “It’s clear that hardworking people will pay more income tax under the Liberal Democrats.” Laws is the latest senior Liberal Democrat to round on the Conservatives over their projected cuts in the next parliament, after Vince Cable, the business secretary, argued on Sunday that Osborne’s plans were devastating, foolish and ideologically driven. In particular, the armed forces would be reduced to having a “largely ceremonial role”, he said. In their warnings about the scale of cuts, Laws and Cable have struck a similar note to Ed Miliband, the Labour leader, and Ed Balls, the shadow chancellor, who recently hinted that he would be inclined to protect the schools budget. The figure of £13.3bn is calculated by assuming reductions to public spending would be spread evenly across non-protected departments, after an extra £12bn in welfare cuts and £7bn of tax cuts are taken into account. It suggests that more than £9bn would be cut from schools funding, about £640m from the extra pupil premium for disadvantaged children, about £775m from early years education and more than £1.6bn from the budget for 16- to 19-year-olds. Tory sources took issue with the calculations, saying they did not take into account the £5bn of projected income from cracking down on tax avoidance. Osborne has so far not specified how he will make the public spending cuts necessary to meet his targets on balancing the budget and running a surplus by 2018-19. He is due to publish a charter of budget responsibility to be enshrined in law, which could be made available this week and be voted on in January. The chancellor has specified that he would like to make £12bn of extra welfare cuts, with about a quarter of this coming from a two-year freeze on some benefits and tax credits in the first two years of a parliament. However, the vast bulk of savings that would need to be made under a Conservative administration in the next parliament have not yet been set out, despite David Cameron having promised about £7bn of tax cuts. Iain Duncan Smith, the work and pensions secretary, indicated on Sunday that it was “well worth” considering limiting child benefit to a family’s first two children, saying this could save money and help prompt “behavioural change”. Labour said last week that it would reduce the deficit more fairly, while accusing Osborne of making plans to slash public spending that could take Britain back to the depression-era of the 1930s. On Monday, David Cameron is due to accuse Miliband of planning to “run a budget deficit – permanently adding to debt – indefinitely, every year, for ever” because Labour’s surplus targets relate to day-to-day current spending, not capital spending for investment in infrastructure. Although Miliband has promised to balance the books as soon as he can and make “sensible” cuts, the prime minister will argue the Treasury has done some analysis on equivalent plans that suggests “compared to our plans, the national debt would be almost £500 billion bigger in 21 years’ time” under Labour. “That is a great, black, ominous cloud on the horizon – and if a real economic storm hit again, the fall-out would be felt by families up and down this country...people lying awake worrying about their mortgage payments...businesses closing down; jobs lost; homes lost,” Cameron will say. The remarks are likely to be strongly dispute by Miliband, who said last week: “We will cut the deficit every year while securing the future of the NHS. And none of our manifesto commitments will require additional borrowing.” The prime minister will announce an earlier start for a scheme to give a 20% discount to under-40s buying homes on brownfield land. About 100,000 new homes will be available to young home owners, who will be asked to register their interest via the Starter Home initiative from the start of next year, at least six months earlier than planned. Emma Reynolds, the shadow housing minister, said: “No one will believe David Cameron’s promises on housing and home ownership. He said he would get Britain building but instead he has presided over the lowest levels of house building in peacetime since the 1920s.” |