ÖйúAƬ

The Government is to reconsider the ÖйúAƬ Budget cuts announced by the Chancellor of the Exchequer last November.

In the first public acknowledgement that the Budget dealt too harshly with universities, deputy prime minister Michael Heseltine told the House of Commons that "we consider carefully - we shall do so again in the forthcoming public expenditure round - the requirements of the ÖйúAƬ sector".

Mr Heseltine was responding to Nicholas Winterton, the Conservative MP for Macclesfield, who said there was a problem with university capital spending reductions and had asked for the deputy prime minister to assist "in ensuring that capital expenditure reductions in ÖйúAƬ do not prejudice the tremendous success of ÖйúAƬ, which is vital to our economy".