25. Mr. Gresham Cookeasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science whether he will introduce legislation to transfer to central Government the expenses of university grants and of technical colleges, so as to reduce the burden of rates.
§ Mr. PrenticeNo, Sir.
Mr. Gresham CookeWould the hon. Gentleman agree that there is a certain amount of logic in transferring a proportion of the expenditure of university grants to the central Exchequer because university grants in particular are national, and technical colleges also serve a wide area? Is the hon. Gentleman aware that in Richmond, a comparatively small borough, the cost of serving these two things is £800,000?
§ Mr. PrenticeIt depends what the hon. Gentleman has in mind. If he says that there should be no variation in grants when there is local option, the Government have no proposals to meet him. If he is speaking of the problem as one of the financial burden on local authorities, I refer him to the White Paper published on 25th February in which the Government are proposing a new system of grants to take some of the financial burden away from local authorities.