£20bn student boost
INTERNATIONAL students contribute more than £20 billion to the UK economy each year, according to a new report.
It argues that the financial benefits overseas university students bring far outweigh the costs of them studying here. As well as contribution in terms of tuition fees, international students help to create jobs, and boost local economies, while a fall in numbers would mean job losses, and an impact on businesses such as taxi firms and bars. CAMPAIGNERS and political opponents have branded Theresa May’s environmental plan a “missed opportunity” that lacks urgency.
Greenpeace UK said the most glaring gap in the strategy is lack of support for deposit return schemes, which are “tried-andtested” ways to keep plastic bottles out of the environment.
Louise Edge, senior oceans campaigner, said: “This announcement was billed as a major push to tackle our plastic problem, but it looks more like a missed opportunity.
“It’s good that the Government wants to make tackling plastic waste a priority, but the specific measures announced today don’t match the scale of the environmental crisis we face.
“Encouraging more water fountains, extending charges on plastic bags and funding for innovation can all be part of the solution, but the overall plastics plan lacks urgency, detail and bite.”
Sue Hayman, shadow environment secretary, said: “This plan, years behind schedule, is a cynical attempt at rebranding the Tories’ image and appears to contain only weak proposals with Britain’s plastic waste crisis kicked into the long grass. This is all simply too little too late to reverse the damage of the Tories’ inconsistent and failed approach to environmental policy.”
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Vince Cable said: “The Conservatives should be eliminating all avoidable plastic waste now – a target of 2042 beggars belief. They ramped up expectations only to disappoint.
“The Conservatives have shown a complete lack of ambition. Notably, they have failed to deal with the excessive waste of coffee cups through the levy proposed by the Liberal Democrats and recently embraced by a powerful group of crossparty MPs.
“This is only a small step rather than the leap that is needed. Even the extension of the 5p tax on plastic bags only closed exemptions unnecessarily introduced by the Conservative Party.”
In a joint cross-party statement through Open Britain, which campaigns against a hard Brexit, Labour’s Mary Creagh, Lib Dem Sir Ed Davey and Green MP Caroline Lucas said: “We have heard many warm words of late from the Government on the environment. But be in no doubt: there is no such thing as a ‘green Brexit.’
“In fact, when it comes to managing the growing stresses on the environment, Brexit poses a greater challenge than any other political development that has taken place in our lifetime.”