Local Government Finance Settlement: Transition Grant

Debate between Baroness Williams of Trafford and Lord Christopher

Wednesday 16th March 2016 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Williams of Trafford]

My Lords, I apologise to my noble friend. This is about the transitional grant.

[Lord Christopher (Lab)]

In view of the reduction in business rates, should we assume that there will be a significant increase in council tax?

[Baroness Williams of Trafford]

My Lords, it is up to local areas to determine what they raise in council tax and how that relates to business rate retention. Clearly, there will be some sort of smoothing of that process because we would not want areas to be totally disbenefited by the new system. But generally, councils in the last few years have been extremely responsible in setting their council tax rates, and we expect them to go on being so.

City Regions: Pension Funds

Debate between Baroness Williams of Trafford and Lord Christopher

Tuesday 23rd February 2016 Lords Chamber

[Lord Christopher (Lab)]

My Lords, following what was an accurate answer to the noble Lord, Lord Tugendhat, what arrangements are made when various pension funds pool resources to ensure that the individual potential beneficiaries of the funds are looked after?

[Baroness Williams of Trafford]

My Lords, the noble Lord makes a vital point. The job of a pension fund, first and foremost, is to maximise the returns for its investors—there is absolutely no doubt about that. However, in pooling the resources of a pension fund, for example, you could go to fewer fund managers, which cost a lot of money relatively, and therefore have more efficient pension funds than perhaps we have now in local authority schemes.