Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Lord Pickles and Nadhim Zahawi(13 years, 2 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text
Nadhim Zahawi (Stratford-on-Avon) (Con)
7. What the timetable is for the implementation of local retention of business rates.
The Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (Mr Eric Pickles)
The Government have published proposals to allow local retention of business rates and are seeking views by 24 October. The plans give councils a strong financial incentive to drive economic growth, as well as providing protections for places in need of additional support. Subject to the outcome of the consultation, we intend to introduce business rates retention by April 2013.
Mr Pickles
My hon. Friend makes a reasonable point, and I can assure her that part of the consultation makes it clear that local authorities will have the ability to bring business rates down, but not to put them up.
Nadhim Zahawi
In my constituency, the local enterprise partnership is moving swiftly to create business growth across both Warwickshire and Coventry. Can the Secretary of State explain which mechanisms will allow LEPs to receive funding from business rates where they, working with the local authority or alone, have been responsible for economic growth in the area?
Mr Pickles
LEPs are a partnership between local authorities and business, and we will be encouraging, though we will not be prescribing, local authorities to pool the business rates. I know that a number of authorities around Greater Manchester, west Yorkshire and particularly London are actively considering pooling arrangements, which has the advantage that poorer areas can benefit from richer areas.
Amendment of the Law
Debate between Lord Pickles and Nadhim Zahawi(13 years, 8 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Mr Pickles
In a moment.
I am proud to say that we are able to set aside £3 billion to support councils with a freeze on spending, and that is despite the mess that the Labour Government made of our nation’s finances. It sounds as though some on the Opposition Benches would like to wash away the past few years and drown out their bitter legacy: record national debt; unsustainable public spending; and a crushing burden on ordinary families.
The Opposition do not like to admit that their Labour Government planned spending cuts of £44 billion by 2015. Labour’s cuts were to be front-loaded cuts, with £14 billion of cuts falling this April, and Labour’s spending plans would have made bigger cuts to housing, regeneration and local government.
On Saturday, the Leader of the Opposition should have told the crowds the extent of Labour’s cuts. That would have been much more convincing, as hon. Friends have said, than comparing himself to Martin Luther King or, more bizarrely, to Emily Pankhurst.
Nadhim Zahawi (Stratford-on-Avon) (Con)
Will my right hon. Friend give way?
Mr Pickles
In a moment. I am sure that my hon. Friend would like to hear this point.
Perhaps that omission prompted the right hon. and learned Member for Camberwell and Peckham (Ms Harman) to say today on “The Daily Politics” that a Labour Government would have employed fewer people in the public sector. I have obtained a transcript of the interview, and the interviewer said:
“Some of the people on that march, some of those people listening to Ed Miliband, would have lost their jobs under a Labour Government. Yes or no?”
The right hon. and learned Lady was wise enough not to give a yes or no answer, and said:
“Well, I think that basically we would see, err yes, fewer people employed in the public sector.”
[Hon. Members: “Ah!”] Yes. I think “err yes” neatly covers the point.
Nadhim Zahawi
Does my right hon. Friend not think it bizarre that the Leader of the Opposition chose to compare his party’s struggle to that of apartheid?
Mr Pickles
Well, I suppose there comes an occasion, you turn up, there’s a lot of people there—and you just start to talk. These things happen, and we should be in a forgiving mood. I mean, anybody can compare themselves to Martin Luther King.
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Lord Pickles and Nadhim Zahawi
Nadhim Zahawi (Stratford-on-Avon) (Con)
T8. May I take my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State back to the issue of illegal Traveller sites? I face a real problem with such sites in my constituency of Stratford-on-Avon. I was pleased to hear him confirm that he will consider legislation to give councils more power to deal with that blight. May I push him a little further, and ask when the people of Stratford-on-Avon can expect that legislation?
Mr Pickles
Of course, the main proposals will be in the localism Bill, which we hope to bring before the House this calendar year. We will, of course, also look carefully at planning guidance, but as I am sure that you will appreciate, Mr Speaker, I want to try to tackle the issues together in one go, rather than in a piecemeal way.