News
19/11/13
Motion to repeal ‘Bedroom tax’ falls Theodore Antoniou-Phillips News Reporter
On 12 November a motion tabled in the House of Commons by Labour ministers to immediately end the spare room subsidy was defeated by 26 votes, with 252 to 226. The spare room subsidy, dubbed as the ‘bedroom tax’ by Labour, cuts housing benefit by 14 per cent for those deemed to have a ‘spare’ bedroom. Some have claimed that the tax is arguably the coalition’s most controversial legislation, with 96% of those affected having no smaller council properties to move into, and controversially pensioners are exempt. It has been suggested that this move is politically motivated, with the Conservatives more worried about the older vote. However, the government describes the move as removing a spare room subsidy and believes it will save the taxpayer around £500m. Labour ministers pointed out Around 400,000 people who are affected by the tax are disabled who need the extra room to store vitally important equipment to be able to function in day to day life. They also criticised the fact that the Work and Pensions Secretary Ian Duncan Smith was absent from the vote. Steve Webb, the Lib Dem pensions minister, standing in for the work and pensions secretary said that social property was available for families to move into, saying he was aware of the availability of 56,000 onebedroom properties. A handful of Liberal Democrat MPs abstained from voting including Norwich
South’s Lib Dem MP Simon Wright. Mr Wright commented that “Labour have no proposals to deal with the problem of overcrowding. Their term in office ended with 400,000 fewer social homes than when they entered government [...] The Coalition is reversing this trend, and will have built 170,000 new houses
“We need to encourage the fairest and most efficient use of the limited housing stock we have” by 2015. In the meantime, we need to encourage the fairest and most efficient use of the limited housing stock we have – and subsidising empty rooms for some people, while so many other families are in need of more bedrooms and living in overcrowding, does not help.” Clive Lewis, Labour Parliamentary candidate for the Norwich South stated that the bedroom tax is a “Shameful piece of legislation and I think it epitomises everything that is wrong with this coalition government.” Mr Lewis also thought it was “worthy of note” that despite 26,000 Norwich City residences being affected, “City Council has not evicted one single person” and that the Labour run council is “trying to protect the most vulnerable.” He also said that Simon Wright’s position was “reprehensible.”
We Are Norwich to hold free music and poetry event Ffion Jones News Reporter The anti-racist coalition ‘We Are Norwich’ will be hosting a free music and poetry event later this month. The group formed in November 2012 in opposition to the first ever march of the English Defence League in Norwich, in which they successfully outnumbered the far-right group 6:1. The campaign was backed by over 20 local organisations, including the Union of UEA Students, Norwich Pride and Chapelfield Mosque. A year on, spokesman Nick O’Brien says that,
“people have expressed a desire to keep We Are Norwich going… to do all we can to prove that all kinds of people are welcomed here.” The evening will feature performances by poet and spoken word artist Hollie McNish, and local music acts the Piratones, Dandelion and the Rockets, and Banana Moon. The event will take place at the Blueberry Music House in Cowgate, close to Anglia Square, on Thursday 28 November from 7pm. There is no attendance charge for the evening, but donations will be accepted.
Issue 289
concrete.news@uea.ac.uk
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Vince Cable reveals possibility of a postgraduate loan system Andrew Ansell News Editor Speaking to the Sutton Trust, the Business Secretary Vince Cable revealed that the Government has entered into negotiation with banks to provide a loan system for postgraduates. Mr Cable acknowledged that at present no equivalent of the undergraduate loan system exists for postgraduates, forcing the majority of postgraduates to ‘self-finance’. According to the recently disbanded 1994 Group, 80 per cent of postgraduate students were privately funded. Mr Cable said: “We do recognise that this is a significant barrier to social mobility”. Although, he added: “There’s not a great deal we can do about it given the limited funding we have.” He disclosed that “David Willetts, the Minister for Universities and Science, is meeting banks to try to devise a loans
scheme that will help people progress through postgraduate education”. The postgraduate loan system detailed by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) displayed that a postgraduate loan system does not have to come at a great expense to the state, provided the repayment threshold is lower than that for undergraduates. Under their proposals a £10,000 loan would be repaid at a rate of nine per cent of earnings between £15,000 and £21,000.
UCAS warns of “worrying” university gender gap Lara Ellice News Editor The head of UCAS has warned that women are overtaking men in gaining university places, and that there is a “very worrying” gender gap. UCAS has stated that the gender gap could prove a greater problem than the issue in access to university between students of rich and poor families. Chief Executive of UCAS, Mary Curnock Cook, has said that women are a third more likely to obtain a place at university than men. She recently warned that the gap will continue to grow over the next decade. Mrs Curnock Cook has said that universities will have to treat boys as an under-represented group. She also said that the “very worrying difference between application rates for men and women” should be treated as an “important
: widening participation issue”. She went on to say: “Women are a third more likely to apply for higher education. “In fact, our report last year showed we’ve got to the stage where more women are entering higher education than men are applying and the gap is getting wider. Universities will need to consider more about the difference between men and women than socio-economic background”. “I continue to think that is an issue that’s not getting enough air time in the policy debate. It’s a really important factor to keep an eye on.”