Policy Announcements, Thursday 05 July

Government

• The government has announced a major reform of the student support system. New universities secretary John Denham told MPs on Thursday that maintenance grants would be "substantially" increased to include two thirds of those in higher education. The £400m package will see full annual grants of £3,145 available to new students from families with incomes of up to £25,000 per year from September next year, a threshold increased from £18,560. Up to 50,000 more students each year will benefit. In addition more than 100,000 partial grants will also be available to students from families with incomes up to £60,000 per year, meaning two thirds of undergraduates will receive some form of support from the current half.
• Harriet Harman has given details of plans to give the public a say on the contents of the Queen's Speech. In a break with tradition, ministers will set out their legislative programme for the next Parliamentary session before the summer recess. The Commons leader said MPs would then be allowed to debate it and there would be an extensive public consultation. The move is intended to boost public and parliamentary awareness of the plans ahead of the Queen's Speech.

Conservatives  

• David Cameron has said that empowering local communities "can heal our broken society". The Conservative leader was speaking at the Local Government Association's annual conference on Thursday, when he pledged to tackle "social breakdown". He described Britain as "ridiculously over-centralised" and said he was "a convinced localist". "Local councils can do a far greater job than central government, if they are given the freedom and power. I believe that social breakdown is the greatest challenge we face as a nation. Broken families, broken neighbourhoods, lives blighted by addiction, generational unemployment, crime and disorder."