London Borough of Tower Hamlets
Debate between Lord Pickles and Andrew Gwynne(10 years, 1 month ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text
Mr Pickles
My hon. Friend has a justified reputation for being knowledgeable about matters relating to elections, and if I have a particular problem in this area, he is the first person I seek out. He outlines the task that awaits the returning officer and the electoral registration officer in Tower Hamlets. I hope that robust schemes are put in to support those two officers, be that through commissioners or through the council, should I decide not to act.
Andrew Gwynne (Denton and Reddish) (Lab)
I thank the Secretary of State and his shadow, my right hon. Friend the Member for Leeds Central (Hilary Benn), for defending the best traditions of local government in England from the Dispatch Box today. Given that this week we have seen a further roll-out of the mayoral model, particularly in Greater Manchester, perhaps now is the time for the Secretary of State to define more closely the roles, responsibilities and expectations of an elected mayor and to uphold the independence of the local civil service in law.
Mr Pickles
I am not sure whether it will be necessary to uphold the local officials, some of whose rights are enshrined in law. I refer the hon. Gentleman to the point I made earlier to the right hon. Member for Greenwich and Woolwich (Mr Raynsford), which is that for the most part local government operates under this system and we do not need to regulate it too closely because everyone operates, and has always done so, for the benefit of the public. The difficulty comes when a council disregards the norm, the rules and the normal give and take that occurs in local authorities. I am not entirely persuaded that we should legislate for all local authorities because one has behaved badly, but I am persuaded that whatever system we operate, be it a cabinet, committee or mayoral system—I do welcome the variety—it must conform to probity, transparency and accountability under the law.
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Lord Pickles and Andrew Gwynne
Andrew Gwynne (Denton and Reddish) (Lab)
T9. Given the financial realities faced by local councils, many valued facilities such as libraries, community centres and swimming pools are being closed. The Localism Act 2011 gives an opportunity for groups to register such facilities as community assets, but that often just buys time, with more obstacles being placed in the way. What assurances can the Secretary of State give to streamline the process of community asset transfer, so that these vital community facilities do not close?
Mr Pickles
I had the opportunity of being briefed by the hon. Gentleman on this local issue. When local councils are transferring an asset it is immensely important that they do not see this as primarily a commercial issue and go for the maximum amount. He has within his constituency a way of ensuring that the two swimming pools are kept open and run efficiently, and that the green belt, which he mentioned earlier, is not threatened. That seems to be a very logical thing to do.
Flooding
Debate between Lord Pickles and Andrew Gwynne(10 years, 10 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text
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Mr Pickles
My right hon. Friend has conducted a long campaign in this regard, and he has made a number of very reasonable points. I think that such decisions must be made on the basis of scientific fact. The rising level of groundwater will continue to cause problems in my right hon. Friend’s constituency, my constituency and, indeed, most constituencies until well into June, even if from now on things start to shine.
Andrew Gwynne (Denton and Reddish) (Lab)
The Environment Agency says that last year it allocated £400,000 for dredging in the Somerset levels, which is the maximum level that Treasury rules permit, but that other Government agencies and partner bodies such as local authorities were not able to “match contribute” towards the £4 million total cost of the scheme. Given the Secretary of State’s leadership role in local government, may I ask when he was made aware of its inability to contribute? May I also ask what representations he made to the Chancellor with the aim of bringing about a change in the Treasury rules?
Mr Pickles
That is why I apologised to the people of Somerset, and that is why the Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, my hon. Friend the Member for North Cornwall (Dan Rogerson), insisted on starting the dredging last autumn in order to demonstrate its efficacy. Sadly, however, the turbulent weather arrived before that excellent study could be completed, but we now know that we shall start to dredge, and we shall start to dredge in earnest.
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Lord Pickles and Andrew Gwynne
Mr Pickles
My hon. Friend’s arguments are very persuasive. Indeed, he has spoken to me about this subject. I am prepared to consider the technicalities of it.
Andrew Gwynne (Denton and Reddish) (Lab)
I am sure that the Secretary of State expects all councils to secure the best return for asset sales. Will he therefore condemn Liberal Democrat-controlled Stockport council, which, in July, flogged off the listed North Reddish schools for a paltry £205,000 only for the new owners to have put the same buildings on the open market in recent weeks for £750,000?
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Lord Pickles and Andrew Gwynne(11 years, 2 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text
Mr Pickles
My hon. Friend will recall that under the previous Government, councils were urged to put up car parking charges and to make it difficult for people to bring cars into town centres. As I said earlier, I know from personal experience that the policy he suggests makes a difference. If we are to protect our town centres, particularly our smaller shops, this is exactly the kind of measure that needs to be introduced, and those councils that do not do so are failing in their duty.
Andrew Gwynne (Denton and Reddish) (Lab)
T3. The Secretary of State’s answer to my hon. Friend the Member for Corby (Andy Sawford) was just not good enough. When more than one in 10 small businesses now say that they spend the same or more on business rates as on rent, why will he not do more to help struggling small businesses on our high streets by implementing a cut and then a freeze worth up to £450 to the average business, as the Opposition would do?
Mr Pickles
The small business discount has trebled under this Government. Also—this is a new thing we have introduced—local authorities now have total discretion over what discount to offer, and we will come up with half the money, so frankly the hon. Gentleman’s council needs to sort itself out.
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Lord Pickles and Andrew Gwynne(11 years, 10 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text
Mr Pickles
My hon. Friend is quite right that I cannot comment on planning, but she has made her point most forcefully.
Andrew Gwynne (Denton and Reddish) (Lab)
The Government’s own research suggests that more than 42% of people affected by the bedroom tax will not be able to make up the financial difference and will instead go into arrears. I asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions this question last Monday and did not get an answer. Perhaps the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government can answer instead. Given the Government’s own research, how many people does his Department expect will now lose their homes?
Mr Pickles
One would think that the Labour party had not been committed to doing precisely this when it was in government, and that it was not prepared to make such sensible decisions. A few moments ago the Under-Secretary of State, my right hon. Friend the Member for Bath (Mr Foster), clearly demonstrated the number of houses that have more than two bedrooms empty and rightly pointed out that exactly the same arrangements existed for the private sector under the Labour Government. We are introducing uniformity between the private and public sectors.
Growth and Infrastructure Bill
Debate between Lord Pickles and Andrew Gwynne
Mr Pickles
I say I will give way for the final time more often than Frank Sinatra said he would be performing for the last time. Therefore, I want to make it clear that, until I have moved off the planning stuff, I will not take any more interventions.
The Bill will make it easier for councils to choose, if they wish, to dispose of surplus land held for planning purposes, thus helping get more brownfield land back into productive use. Councils will also be given more local discretion over when they review the planning conditions for mineral sites, rather than following rigid, centrally-set targets.
The Localism Act 2011 has also given councils more control over local plans to determine where development does, and does not, take place. Some 65% of planning authorities have now published an up-to-date local plan. That is great progress, but the planning system needs to be fair and responsive to applicants and local residents. Alongside tackling the small number of councils whose performance on planning is exceptionally poor, we want to deal with those councils that insist on demanding large amounts of unnecessary paperwork to support planning applications. The Bill will therefore ensure that information requests from councils are genuinely related to planning and proportionate to the scale and nature of the development proposed. The reams of documents demanded have now got out of control. They do not make the planning system more accessible; they achieve quite the reverse. So this practical reform will save everyone time and money.
Planning includes a quasi-judicial process which, of course, puts fairness at its very centre, yet in some cases it is taking far too long for that process to be concluded. Justice delayed is justice denied. Unreasonable delays are unfair to both applicants and local residents because of the uncertainty delays create. The Bill will therefore help speed up planning decisions where councils have a poor record in deciding applications. This will be a help to localised planning, as it will make the worst councils up their game.
The planning system is at times Kafkaesque, with applicants having to wait months, sometimes years, for different pieces of consent from different people. Our proposed change squares with localism. In a quasi-judicial system, there should be minimum standards of due process. That principle is no different from that for the intervention powers that address rare cases of public service failure such as on best value, care homes or education. In the longer term, however, our goal is that no council should find itself in a position where these powers need to be used.
The Bill also contains a series of measures to help local companies grow. We want to help companies introduce a new employment status that gives employees a stake in the company. Employee-owners will benefit from shares in the company worth between £2,000 and £50,000, as well as a different set of UK employment rights than for normal employees. This is particularly aimed at fast-growing small companies and enterprises that will benefit from a flexible work force. We are currently consulting to ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place so people fully understand the consequences of this new type of contract. Only the enemies of aspiration would oppose this modern embrace of co-operative values.
The Bill also provides for tax stability in the business rates system. Business rates are the third biggest outgoing for local firms after rent and staff, but an unpredictable business rate revaluation would be costly to British firms, so this Bill reschedules revaluation to 2017. This will give businesses five years of tax stability and certainty, leaving companies looking to grow and improve the economy free to concentrate on delivering growth. This revaluation comes off the back of Labour’s unsustainable property boom. Rents have been falling, but at any revaluation that would be offset by a soaring multiplier.
There is a popular misconception that postponing the revaluation means delaying falling rate bills. That is not the case. The postponement will be revenue-neutral. It is most important to stop a game of Russian roulette with municipal finances. Initial Valuation Office Agency estimates suggest that the revaluation would see up to 800,000 firms paying more in business rates, with only 300,000 paying less. The decision will avoid local firms and local shops facing unexpected hikes in their business rate bills over the next five years. Places that would be particularly hard hit are small shops, petrol stations and public houses. We cannot know with complete certainty without spending £43 million on a revaluation, but there is a significant risk of the revaluation going very wrong and harming growth. Small and medium-sized firms will be the hardest hit if we do not take action. Without action, there will be massive volatility, which, in itself, could close down businesses and, at the very least, discourage business investment. This reform will provide certainty for business to plan and invest, supporting local economic growth. So these measures complement the local retention of business rates, go hand in hand with the Localism Act’s reforms to small business rate relief and build on the abolition of Labour’s “ports tax”, which threatened to sink Britain’s export trade because of a botched, unfair revaluation.
Andrew Gwynne (Denton and Reddish) (Lab)
I share the Secretary of State’s desire to try to use this mechanism to boost our high streets. However, I get a bit lost by his argument, because many small shops in a town centre such as Denton had their business rates set on the basis of their rents before the recession and would benefit from a revaluation on the basis of the current lower rents.
Mr Pickles
The hon. Gentleman should not be mocked for not understanding this, because the misconception is a common one. If London values went down enormously, we would have to adjust the multiplier to ensure that the same amount of money was in the system as whole. Initial estimates of the multiplier suggest that a massive increase would be required, so those very places that have seen a drop in rents—a drop in rateable values—could find themselves paying much more through this process. That is the very nature of it. He may recall that when a revaluation took place last time the values had gone up so high that there had to be a small reduction in the multiplier to compensate. Our feeling is that the multiplier would be likely to have to go up considerably, which is why we have taken the unusual decision of trying to do the revaluation against a more stable position.
Housing and Planning
Debate between Lord Pickles and Andrew Gwynne(12 years, 3 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text
Mr Pickles
Provided that they work in partnership with the local community, and provided that they ensure that housing needs are met for future generations of people who want to live and work in and enjoy that beautiful county, and whose children want to be able to stay there, the answer is, of course, yes.
Andrew Gwynne (Denton and Reddish) (Lab)
I am not convinced by the Secretary of State’s arguments about the green belt. In many urban areas such as mine, the green belt has been the last buffer protecting open space for urban communities. We have had to fight green-belt encroachment by developers in places such as the Tame valley. Will the Secretary of State explain whether his surplus public land includes playing fields and recreational space?
Mr Pickles
Of course it does not. That hare did not even get off the ground. [Interruption.] I do not know whether Opposition Members are jesting, but a hare is like a large rabbit. We are talking about property owned by Government and land held by my Department, the Ministry of Defence and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. I can safely assure the hon. Gentleman that, on land transfers, we are not looking at local playing fields—do not be ridiculous.
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Lord Pickles and Andrew Gwynne
Mr Pickles
My hon. Friend illustrates my point. I hope those families enjoy their new property and will come to see it as something that a different Government were able to deliver in a different way.
Andrew Gwynne (Denton and Reddish) (Lab)
2. What steps he is taking to encourage use of empty shops not covered by the Portas pilot scheme or the high street innovation fund.
Local Government Finance
Debate between Lord Pickles and Andrew Gwynne
Mr Pickles
I am pleased to be able to give my hon. Friend that assurance, because for precisely the reasons that he suggested, we are retaining the existing formula, to ensure that councils benefit with real economic growth not increased taxation.
Andrew Gwynne (Denton and Reddish) (Lab)
On 20 June I raised with the Secretary of State the potential impact of localising business rates on Tameside, which could see a drop in its funding of 35.7% a year. He tried to assure me that that would not happen—at least not in year one—but can he explain how the system of tariffs and top-ups will work, at no cost to central Government, if prosperous areas are to keep the proceeds but poorer areas are to be fully reimbursed? The maths just does not add up.
Mr Pickles
I suspect that the hon. Gentleman might not have given my initial statement the attention that he perhaps should have, because we made it absolutely clear that no council would lose out in year one—that funding continues—and local councils such as his will be able to enjoy the benefits of growth. Under the current system his local council might get a “Thank you” from the Secretary of State for showing initiative and bringing in new business, but the Government then immediately take the money back. We think that that money should stay with his local authority.
I remember the hon. Gentleman’s previous question, and I said then that I thought he should defect to us. I still think that he should defect to us, but when he has an opportunity to read the submission document, I suspect that we might be able to arrive at a consensus, because what we are doing is not intended to punish his authority; rather, it is intended to unshackle his authority, for all the potential that it has. If you do not mind my saying so, Mr Deputy Speaker, I really do not think that the counsels of despair from the other side of the Chamber are reflective of the dynamism and entrepreneurialism that exist in local authorities.
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Lord Pickles and Andrew Gwynne
Mr Pickles
The short answer is yes. My hon. Friend is a doughty defender of her constituents, but there is irony in the fact that the worse an authority can present itself, the more grant it gets. When I was council leader I often wanted to state what the good reasons for coming to the area were, and I think we have found a system under which councils will be able to do that. Hon. Members should not be under any illusions—the existing system is bust; it is broken. It simply does not deliver and we want a system that will deliver for the richest and the poorest.
Andrew Gwynne (Denton and Reddish) (Lab)
But while the Stockport part of my constituency would broadly break even from localising business rates by raising almost the same amount as it gets in formula grant under the current arrangements, the Tameside part of my constituency would see a massive 35.7% drop—a shortfall of some £30 million funding. Does the Secretary of State understand that coming on top of his front-loaded cuts, such a massive reduction in funding for one of England’s poorest local authorities would be an unacceptable outcome?
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Lord Pickles and Andrew Gwynne
Andrew Gwynne (Denton and Reddish) (Lab)
Given the Secretary of State’s well-publicised comments about “Pravda on the rates” and his desire to stop unnecessary council publications, what message does he have for Liberal Democrat-controlled Stockport council, which continues to publish the “Civic Review”, promoting only Liberal Democrat councillors just weeks before the local elections?
Local Government Finance
Debate between Lord Pickles and Andrew Gwynne
Mr Pickles
I am pleased to report that a number of authorities have gone some considerable way to find savings that can be made. We have already talked about Coventry, and Hammersmith and Fulham, Kensington and Chelsea and Westminster have started to join together to improve things. Birmingham has managed to save £130 million by outsourcing and Suffolk £40 million by divesting services. In the west midlands, asset rationalisation has achieved a £640 million saving. There is a very long list, which I shall not read out, but it is immensely important that authorities recognise that they can protect front-line services by shifting resources from the centre to the most vulnerable.
Andrew Gwynne (Denton and Reddish) (Lab)
No matter what the Secretary of State says, the fact is that Tameside council is preparing for massive spending reductions over the next four years. Given that he has said that the changes are fair and sustainable, how does he square that situation for a borough ranked the 56th most deprived local authority area in England?
Mr Pickles
Tameside is enjoying considerable protection because of the three steps that I have announced, which I will not repeat. There are additional ways in which Tameside could improve its financial position, including through the regional development fund and such like. In fact, I have just been told that Tameside has a reduction in spending of 6.2%, which hardly figures with what the hon. Gentleman has just said, so I shall look forward to finding a nice thank you note from him on the board tonight.
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Lord Pickles and Andrew Gwynne
Mr Pickles
I recall hearing our former colleague John Prescott say from this Dispatch Box that the green belt was a great achievement of the Labour party and that it intended to build on it. That indeed seems to have been the case.
Andrew Gwynne (Denton and Reddish) (Lab)
I understand fully the concerns about garden grabbing, but I urge the Secretary of State to adopt a careful approach to how he intends to tackle the issue, because some infill is absolutely necessary in urban areas. Can he assure me that planning policy will be flexible enough to assist and not to detract from urban renewal in constituencies such as mine?
Mr Pickles
I very much welcome the hon. Gentleman’s support of the coalition’s policy, and I thank him for being part of that consensus. He should understand that these matters will now be decided locally, and the Government think that the most sensible people to decide matters of density and particular applications are the local communities that must bear the consequences of those developments.