Policy Announcements, Tuesday 29 May

Government  

• Beverley Hughes has outlined plans to spend £9m helping disadvantaged parents get more involved in their children's development. The education minister said the funds, to be targeted at local authorities in the poorest areas, will help parents relate to their children. Parental support for learning will help a child throughout the years of primary education, according to research. Council proposals include giving parents learning diaries and albums for young children so they can discuss progress with professionals, and helping parents use music and singing to encourage their children to speak and listen. A total of 41 local authorities will benefit from the funds, which the government said would build on the success of existing resources such as children's centres.  

Conservatives  

• The idea of getting firms to buy and sell permits to produce alcoholic drinks or fatty foods has been rejected by the Conservative Party. The scheme was floated in January in an interim report from David Cameron's policy group looking at ways to encourage "responsible business". The idea was to encourage, for example, a brewer to lower alcohol content as they could sell their unused "quota". However, a Conservative spokesman said the suggestion would not become policy. He said that while the "vast majority" of the 600 responses to the idea were positive, "there would be no further work to develop it into policy".