HC Deb 01 December 1987 vol 123 cc547-8W
Mr. Ashdown

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will list, for each higher education institute, the estimated cost of the community charge to be borne per student(a) at the full rate and (b) with an 80 per cent. rebate.

Mr. Howard

Where a student is undertaking a course of full-time education he will be liable for 20 per cent. of the full community charge for the area of his term-time address. Tables placed in the library on 17 November show, on the basis of 1987–88 spending, what the full community charge in each area might be.

Mr. Simon Hughes

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, pursuant to his answer to the hon. Member for Leyton (Mr. Cohen) on 12 November,Official Report, column 190, on the basis of each Salvation Army hostel in Greater London paying a collective community charge and not passing the charge to its residents, if he will estimate absolute and percentage increases in costs (a) per annum and (b) per bed that will accrue to each hostel.

Mr. Howard

I do not accept the premise on which the question is based. Each resident in a property designated for the collective community charge will be under a duty to pay a contribution to the landlord, who will be responsible for passing it on to the local authority. The collective community charge is simply a mechanism for levying community charges on people who change address frequently.