Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Lord Barwell and Lord Pickles(11 years, 10 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text
Gavin Barwell (Croydon Central) (Con)
10. What steps he is taking to help local authorities tackle illegal encampments.
The Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (Mr Eric Pickles)
Councils and the police have a range of strong powers to take action against illegal encampments and unauthorised development. We recently reminded councils of the extensive powers at their disposal to deal with the problems swiftly.
Gavin Barwell
Over the summer, a group of Travellers moved back and forth between several sites in Croydon, costing council tax payers and private landowners thousands of pounds. What else can the Government do to help councils tackle that antisocial behaviour, and in particular, will the Minister look at allowing councils to use their byelaws against encampments on private as well as public land?
Mr Pickles
Significant powers already exist, and the police have powers to deal with people who are causing a public nuisance by consistently making illegal encampments. I draw my hon. Friend’s attention to the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, which gives the police considerable powers to deal with that. In addition, we are consulting on the introduction of a temporary stop notice with immediate effect, which will put considerable powers in the hands of the local council.
Local Government Finance
Debate between Lord Barwell and Lord Pickles
Mr Pickles
I do not know where the hon. Lady looks for her facts. Her council will receive £2,034 per household, which is a cut of 2.8%—slightly above average. To suggest, however, that people in the south-east have been picked out for the most savage cuts is utter bunkum.
Gavin Barwell (Croydon Central) (Con)
My council will warmly welcome the localisation of business rates, but my question is about the distribution systems that the Secretary of State inherited from the previous Government. Ten out of 12 inner-London councils charge less than £1,000 at band D, and 18 of the 20 outer-London councils charge more than £1,000. Does the Secretary of State think that is due to the efficiency of those councils, or the fairness of the distribution system?
Mr Pickles
My hon. Friend and I have had many discussions on that issue, and as I said when replying to another colleague earlier, to a degree some of the inequalities and possible bias towards Labour authorities had to stay within the system because I wanted to deliver stability. I can promise, however, that as we move further away from the old settlement, the more efficiency we will see. Given its entrepreneurial feelings, I have little doubt that Croydon will benefit greatly from the system.
Housing and Planning
Debate between Lord Barwell and Lord Pickles(12 years, 3 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text
Mr Pickles
That is a specific area that I know, and a lot of those spaces around Leeds bring their communities together, which is important. My hon. Friend’s question raises the problems that we have had, because Labour gave planning such a bad name that it has been difficult to regain the British people’s trust in the system over the past two years. I hope that, building on the national planning policy framework, the new measures will lead the British people to understand that planning is on their side.
Gavin Barwell (Croydon Central) (Con)
I warmly welcome what the Secretary of State said about the green belt, town centres and the temporary waiver of unrealistic section 106 agreements. However, if we have done everything we can to remove developers’ excuses for not developing, why does it make sense to allow them to extend the duration of existing planning permissions?
Mr Pickles
We have recognised that section 106 agreements and existing planning permissions are often part of the same thing, and that it takes a bit of time to get work on big sites together. We are expecting an increase in the number of applications anyway, so it would make no sense to increase the number artificially. We therefore took the decision at the beginning of the summer to extend existing permissions, which was a sensible and pragmatic thing to do.
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Lord Barwell and Lord Pickles(13 years, 3 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text
Mr Pickles
The body that thought up the spending power recommendation was the Local Government Association. Indeed, immediately before we announced it, the hon. Member for Derby North (Chris Williamson), who is sat on the Labour Front Bench, endorsed it as the way we should go.
Gavin Barwell (Croydon Central) (Con)
8. What plans he has to designate further enterprise zones.
Local Government Finance
Debate between Lord Barwell and Lord Pickles
Gavin Barwell (Croydon Central) (Con)
Can my right hon. Friend clear up some of the confusion of Opposition Members by confirming that the authorities that will benefit relatively from what he has announced today are not those with a large business rate base or those in particularly affluent areas, but those that will enjoy relatively high economic growth in future? At a time when our country is crying out for economic recovery, surely this is a strong and sensible piece of public policy.
Mr Pickles
My hon. Friend absolutely sums up the case for this change. It will ensure that local authorities enjoy the benefits of growth and that they will be in a position to generate more income directly by their actions.
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Lord Barwell and Lord Pickles(13 years, 11 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text
Gavin Barwell (Croydon Central) (Con)
16. What steps he plans to take to reduce the dependency of local authorities on central Government; and if he will make a statement.
The Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (Mr Eric Pickles)
The Government’s localism and decentralisation agendas are focused on passing powers to the most local level possible. The local growth White Paper set out our plans to enable authorities to retain locally raised business rates and to give councils a real incentive to go for growth. The Localism Bill, which is before Parliament, includes a number of measures that are designed to reduce the dependency of local authorities on central Government, including in particular a general power of competence for local government.
Gavin Barwell
I thank my right hon. Friend for that answer. He will know that my constituency includes the retail and commercial hub of Croydon town centre. Achieving the full localisation of business rates would give the council a very strong stake in the health of the local economy and massively reduce dependency on central Government. Will he look at that idea as part of his long-term review?
Mr Pickles
The Government are clearly looking to ensure that local authorities get the benefit of the economic decisions that they take. The key to that is the localisation of business rates. Clearly, were we to apply that to the City of London, it could pave the pavements with gold, so there must be some way of applying that measure to areas that are not as fortunate as, for example, Croydon, but I look forward to my hon. Friend’s submissions to the review.
Local Government Finance
Debate between Lord Barwell and Lord Pickles
Mr Pickles
Madam Deputy Speaker, you have asked for brevity, so I am happy to say no. A longer answer is: not a chance.
Gavin Barwell (Croydon Central) (Con)
May I warmly welcome my right hon. Friend’s commitment to reforming the fundamentally flawed system that he has inherited? However, does he agree that in the interim, councils such as mine—which, unlike most local authorities, saw real-terms cuts under the previous Labour Government—will have a particularly hard time?
Mr Pickles
I do recognise that, and I apologise to my hon. Friend. I would not have wanted to start from this position; I would have wanted a fairer, more reasonable system. However, I recognise that when we start to move money around the country and change things round, we have to put in floors and ceilings. That would have been more disruptive to local government than what we are doing, which we are at least doing on the basis that we are all in this together and that we have managed to protect the most vulnerable authorities.