The Liberal Democrats are to include a pledge to increase education spending by £4.6bn in their general election manifesto, of which £980M will be sourced by reducing the strategic road-building programme ‘by 90%’.
Lower-than-planned spending growth would be ‘necessary’, given the size of the public deficit (Surveyor, 20 November, 2008), no matter what the make-up of the next government, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers.
However, the Lib Dems have set out plans to increase spending on education by £4.6bn, partly at the expense of the Highways Agency’s budget.
The party plans to unveil further details of areas where it would reduce public spending that was ‘wasteful, wrong, unnecessary or of low priority’ by a total of £20bn in its manifesto.
The Conservatives are also reviewing which areas would be suitable for a reduction in spending. The Lib Dem plan includes spending an extra £1.2bn on higher education, in order to ‘fill skills gaps for industry,’ including the scrapping of fees for advanced apprenticeships and undergraduate degrees.
Vince Cable, Lib Dem deputy leader, said that demonstrating how the party would pay for its education pledges ‘gives our policies the credibility that people both expect and deserve’.
The party had argued that the £12.5bn for a temporary reduction in VAT would be better spent on infrastructure, including £4.1bn on building new and improved heavy and light rail systems.
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