Watch my question to the Education Secretary about maintenance grants

Last September, the Education Secretary announced that maintenance grants would return for some university students in England by 2029.

This announcement came almost ten years after the then-Chancellor George Osbourne abolished maintenance grants, which, at the time, were benefiting more than half a million students from the most disadvantaged backgrounds.

The Lib Dems have long called for maintenance grants to be reinstated, so we, of course, welcomed this announcement. But the grants will be a fraction of what they used to be.

For instance, under these plans, a third-year student will only receive a maximum of £750 a year – hardly enough to cover a month’s worth of rent in some places.

This week, I asked the Education Secretary if a grant like this was really going to shift the dial?