Budget Resolutions

Debate between Baroness Laing of Elderslie and Andrew Gwynne

1st reading: House of Commons
Thursday 1st November 2018 Commons Chamber

[Andrew Gwynne]

No. Cuts will be hard-wired—[Interruption.]

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Dame Eleanor Laing)]

Order. I said that we would be fair to everyone and that means Mr Gwynne, too.

[Andrew Gwynne]

Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker.

As I was saying, £1.3 billion of cuts next year are hard-wired into the system—[Interruption.] The Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government can shake his head, but the statistics come from the Tory-led Local Government Association. The cuts will devastate councils that are already struggling. Austerity is certainly not over for local government. Councils were the first and perhaps the easiest target of the coalition Government, and they have had to endure some of the largest cuts across the public sector.