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Calls to scrap tax for poor students

Students from deprived areas who use college ­courses as a stepping stone to university are being unfairly penalised because they have to pay council tax, the Scottish Labour Party warned yesterday.

Claire Baker, the party’s lifelong learning spokeswoman, said council tax exemptions should be extended to cover students in this position and she called for cross party support for the proposal.

Labour estimates that up to 2700 students could be helped by the plans.