Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Lord Pickles and Simon Danczuk
Simon Danczuk (Rochdale) (Lab)
Rochdale council’s leadership has only postponed its decision to increase some chief officers’ pay by over 30% and intends to bring it back. Does the Secretary of State share my view that such an inflated increase in pay is not acceptable at this time?
Mr Pickles
I am embarrassed that my Chief Whip is present when I want to compliment the hon. Gentleman and say that he is almost a lone voice for sanity on this matter. These clearly considerable sums of money, notwithstanding the increased responsibility, are entirely wrong and I would expect the decision to be taken to a full council for a recorded vote. Let the people decide who is most sensible in running their council.
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Lord Pickles and Simon Danczuk
Mr Pickles
This is a matter for the Welsh Assembly. We have taken regulations within England that say basically that the use by senior officers of libel provisions should be a shield and not a sword and that, should a chief executive or senior member seek to initiate an action, the full permission of the council is needed before embarking on such an event. The case also illustrates the need to ensure that new technology should be allowed in the council chamber.
Simon Danczuk (Rochdale) (Lab)
I have been contacted by a Rochdale retailer who has just two instalments to pay on his business rates and should get until the end of the month to pay them. The council has involved the courts and the bailiffs are banging on the door, threatening to close the business down. Is this any way for a council to act to improve the high streets? Will the Minister have a look at this?
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Lord Pickles and Simon Danczuk(11 years, 9 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text
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.
Simon Danczuk (Rochdale) (Lab)
12. What steps he is taking to increase the number of housing starts; and if he will make a statement.
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Lord Pickles and Simon Danczuk(12 years, 2 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text
The Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (Mr Eric Pickles)
The green belt is an important protection against urban sprawl, providing a green lung around towns and cities. The national planning policy framework delivers the coalition’s agreement to safeguard the green belt. Inappropriate development should not be approved in the green belt, and boundaries should be altered only in exceptional circumstances.
Simon Danczuk
As we all know, Rochdale is surrounded by some of the most beautiful countryside in the United Kingdom—[Interruption.] Can the Secretary of State assure me and residents of Rochdale that we will not have to swap some of our green-belt land for house building?
Mr Pickles
For a moment I thought the hon. Gentleman was going to put that to the vote; I would have been on his side.
The Planning Inspectorate looked at Rochdale metropolitan borough council’s core strategy, and as the hon. Gentleman will know, consultation ends next Monday. It was extended to allow consideration of the proposed release of 55 hectares of green-belt land on the South Heywood development, but that has now been excluded from the core strategy. The inspector looked at the proposed removal of that area from the green belt, tested the council and found that plans for making such an exception were not sufficiently robust. If hon. Members have any doubts about the importance of the green belt, they should see the hon. Gentleman, who can testify to the policy’s stringent nature.
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Lord Pickles and Simon Danczuk
Simon Danczuk (Rochdale) (Lab)
Everybody knows that Rochdale is the birthplace of co-operation and has been at the forefront of retail innovation. Once again, it has the potential to create a fantastic town centre. Does the Secretary of State agree that Rochdale is right to work towards being a Mary Portas pioneer?
Mr Pickles
The Rochdale pioneers were of course immensely important in retailing. If I may confide in the hon. Gentleman, I can tell him that Rochdale is the apple of my eye in the north-west. I hope, if only for the sake of romance, that it can put up a very good case. Nothing would give me greater pleasure than to award the pilot scheme to Rochdale.
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Lord Pickles and Simon Danczuk
Simon Danczuk (Rochdale) (Lab)
Controversially, developers in Rochdale wish to build 600 houses on the site of what was the world’s biggest asbestos factory. Will the Under-Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, the hon. Member for Hazel Grove (Andrew Stunell), say why, during a recent party political visit to Rochdale, he held a private meeting at the site with the council’s head of planning, which excluded everyone else, including long-standing local community campaigners?
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Lord Pickles and Simon Danczuk(13 years, 10 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text
Mr Pickles
It is certainly our intention to review the formula and to try to place it on a fair basis. When I had the opportunity of dealing with it, one of the relatively small things I was able to do was to move the relative needs component up to 83% from 73%. That is why the settlement has been so progressive this time.
Simon Danczuk (Rochdale) (Lab)
T4. The Save Spodden Valley campaign in Rochdale has spent the past six years fighting a planning application to build 600 homes on the former site of the world’s largest asbestos factory. Last week, the council rejected the application, not least because of Save Spodden Valley’s excellent campaigning, to which I pay tribute. Given that planning aid is to lose Government grant, is the Minister confident that local groups will be able to stand up to multi-million pound planning applications on their own?
Local Government Finance
Debate between Lord Pickles and Simon Danczuk(13 years, 11 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text
Mr Pickles
I can confirm to my hon. Friend that that will be the case. The present formula is very difficult to operate. In developing it I had worries with regard to balancing need against sparsity. It is always difficult to do that. We had to move extra money across from my Department in order to protect certain vulnerable districts that are not benefiting from the increase in spending in respect of adult social care and the extra help being offered in conjunction with PCTs.
Simon Danczuk (Rochdale) (Lab)
Although the Secretary of State clearly has the stomach for these terrible cuts, that is not the case in local government. In Rochdale, the Liberal-Conservative coalition council has collapsed under the weight of the Government’s unfair front-loaded cuts. Today the eighth Lib Dem councillor resigned from their party. Will the Secretary of State join me in congratulating Rochdale’s Labour councillors, who have put lead in their pencils and taken minority control to create a compassionate council that cares about local people?
Mr Pickles
The hon. Gentleman had clearly prepared his speech before I delivered my statement. How can 8.9% extra help to Rochdale—to his council—and the following year a 4.3% drop in spending power be regarded as front loading? We have gone out of our way to help Rochdale. We have offered more help than the Labour party would have done. The hon. Gentleman’s council would be a lot worse off if we had applied Labour’s formula. This is a progressive settlement which protects the vulnerable, and the hon. Gentleman does himself no good by not recognising that fact.
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Lord Pickles and Simon Danczuk
Mr Pickles
We are trying to achieve a balanced approach. The last policy was unrealistic. To hit the 2011 targets set by the last Government, we would have to wait for a further 18 years because we are so far behind. I believe that that policy was predicated on conflict, whereas we want to ensure that there is firm action on retrospective planning applications and enforcement. We will end the continuous process of appeal on application, subsequent application and stop notice, but at the same time we hope to introduce mainstream provision for Travellers by including provisional sites in the new homes bonus.
Simon Danczuk (Rochdale) (Lab)
3. What representations he has received from local authorities on likely changes to funding from his Department since the publication of the comprehensive spending review.
The Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (Mr Eric Pickles)
I have received a number of representations about the challenging but fair settlement for local government. We will shortly announce details of our proposals for funding local authorities in the provisional local government finance settlement.
Simon Danczuk
The Secretary of State’s failure to stand up for councils in the CSR is having a devastating impact on jobs and services in Rochdale. Provision for the homeless, community centres, adult care and many other services are being cut. The situation is so bad that six Liberal Democrat councillors resigned last week, and yesterday the Liberal council leader stood down. Because of the Secretary of State’s cuts, the local authority is in turmoil. When will he stand up for local government?
Mr Pickles
I should have thought that the hon. Gentleman would congratulate the coalition Government. We recognise that a number of authorities are more dependent on grant than others. We face a particularly difficult task in relation to Rochdale, as we must bridge just short of £6 million that the Labour Government took from the working neighbourhoods fund, but we will certainly seek to provide that cushion. My advice to the hon. Gentleman is “Go back to Rochdale, put a bit of lead in their pencil, and let them get on with protecting front-line services rather than fighting among themselves.”