Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg says English primary schools may have "some difficulties" in meeting his pledge to provide free meals for children aged four to seven. Despite insisting the pledge had been both "well-funded", 34 councils in England told the BBC that they were having to use money from their own budgets to provide the meals from September.
The government could face defeat over its controversial “bedroom tax” after the Liberal Democrats called for the policy to be reformed. The Times reports that Labour now plans to call a fresh Commons vote on the spare room subsidy - forcing Lib Dem MPs to choose whether to continue to support a policy which is deeply unpopular within the party. A recent report showed that 60 per cent of affected claimants had gone into arrears as a result of the policy of cutting housing benefits to social housing tenants with unoccupied bedrooms, and only 4.5 per cent had been able to move to a smaller property.
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