PARLIAMENTARY EARLY DAY MOTION
Abolition of Inner London Education Authority (25 March 1990)

That this House recalls that for more than one hundred years the Inner London Education Authority and its predecessors have enriched the lives of millions of Londoners by providing a high quality level of education, above all by the development of comprehensive education; considers that these have been carefully tailored to the diverse needs of the changing inner London area, but that the country as a whole has derived great value from the Inner London Education Authority's initiatives; notes that this excellent service was supported by means of a system of financing which redistributed a share of inner London's wealth in favour of inner London's poorer children and students; regrets that abolition was pushed through against the express wishes of thousands of London's parents; deplores Her Majesty's Government's policies in gradually withdrawing funding from inner London's education service, and by so doing denying this and future generations the range and quality of life-chances awarded to previous generations; calls for avoidance of short-sighted and divisive education policies; and urges Her Majesty's Government to meet demographic trends and industrial and economic imperatives by planning rationally the financing, co-ordination and expansion of training and education for inner Londoners.

Sponsored by:
Lord Hattersley (Labour)