§ Lord Walton of Detchantasked Her Majesty's Government:
Why they have refused to make available to the universities supplementary funding to enable them to meet the estimated £35 million additional costs incurred by them in order to meet the 21 per cent. increase in VAT imposed by the Budget, despite their decision to make such supplementary funds available to health authorities.
§ Baroness BlatchThe Chancellor made clear in his Budget report that some additional VAT would fall on central government programmes as a result of the increase in the standard rate, and that this should generally be absorbed within existing provision. Against the background of a planned increase of 10 per cent in public funding for the universities in 1991–92 for the second year running, the Government are unable to provide further sums for extra VAT costs not recoverable through higher output charges.