In her speech at the Labour Party Conference today,
Labour's Education Secretary pledged to introduce new
targeted means-tested maintenance grants by the end of this
Parliament.
Phillipson made the announcement as part of plans to spread
opportunity to young people across the country, supporting
students from the lowest income households to excel in higher
education.
The maintenance grants will help to support tens of thousands of
students from level 4 – 6 studying priority courses that support
the industrial strategy and the Labour government's wider mission
to renew Britain.
This announcement comes on the second day of the Labour Party's
Annual Conference, where the government has set out how it will
be pushing ahead with delivering on the Prime Minister's promise
of national renewal to build a fairer country and make working
people better off.
The grants will provide young working-class people with crucial
targeted additional financial support to undertake both
university degrees and technical qualifications under the
Lifelong Learning Entitlement, including Certificates of Higher
Education (CertHEs), Diplomas of Higher Education (DipHEs),
technical qualifications, and degrees.
The new maintenance grants will be fully funded by a new
International Student Levy, ensuring that revenue from
international students is used to benefit working-class domestic
students, and support growth and opportunity.
Further details on maintenance grants and the International
Student Levy will be set out in the Autumn Statement.
, Labour's Education
Secretary, said:
“The Tories treated our universities as a political battleground,
not a public good. Labour is putting them back in the service of
working-class young people.
“Last year, I took the decisive steps we needed on university
finances, so opportunity is there tomorrow, for all who want
it.
“But I know, you know, that we must do more.
“So that is why today I'm announcing, that this Labour government
will introduce new targeted maintenance grants for students who
need them most.
“Conference, their time at college or university should be spent
learning or training, not working every hour God sends.
“That is the difference a Labour government makes.”
The news follows Phillipson's announcement of the full rollout of
free breakfast clubs, delivering on a pledge made in Labour's
2024 manifesto, helping to drive down numbers of children living
in poverty and lifting educational attainment.
Phillipson, who chairs the Labour government's Child Poverty
Taskforce, cited the pledge as part of a guarantee that child
poverty would lower at the end of the Parliament than at the
start.
, Labour's Education
Secretary, said:
“Conference, all these changes, all this delivery — we do these
things not simply to win elections, we do them because there are
right. Because we believe in them. Because time and again, we
turn our values into action.
“In education, across government, in our mayoralties and our
councils. And nowhere is that more important than in bringing
down child poverty, the moral mission of our time.
“For too long poverty has cascaded down the generations: a stain
that scars and shames our country. It's not inevitable: and
tackling it is a choice. Labour chooses to drive it down, to end
it. It is a scourge I grew up with, a scourge I want to end.
“That is why we launched the Child Poverty Taskforce, which I'm
proud to chair. I am determined that child poverty will be lower
at the end of this parliament, than at the start. More than that:
I guarantee it.
“We will break the cycle that scars anew so many in each
generation in our country. By giving every child the best start
in life — my focus in government, my lodestar. And the driving
moral purpose of our party.”
Ends
Notes to Editors:
- Further detail on the International Students Levy and
maintenance grants will be set out at the Autumn Budget.
- The levy will apply to English higher education providers
only.
- Further plans for higher education reform will be announced
soon, as part of the Post 16 Skills White Paper.
