Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Mark Francois and Nigel Evans(9 years, 3 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text
Mr Francois
I do not agree. Burnley has an area spending power of £2,112 per household, which remains above the national average. In 2013-14, 2014-15 and 2015-16, we provided Burnley council with a £1.9 million efficiency support grant—equivalent to more than 10% of its spending power—to support long-term changes to bring costs down while continuing to deliver the services that Burnley’s citizens expect. That is nearly £6 million of additional resources, so, given what some other councils have done, the hon. Lady perhaps doth protest too much.
Mr Nigel Evans (Ribble Valley) (Con)
Lancashire County Council tells me its grant is so inadequate that the discretion it used to have in assisting youngsters to go to schools of their choice has now been withdrawn. If a pupil passes a school to get to the school they want to attend, they will be asked to pay £550 for school transport. This is nothing other than a back-door means of raising council tax on hard-working families in Lancashire. Will the Minister look into what is going on, which is an abuse of the discretion system, and ensure that parents can get their youngsters into the school of their choice?
Mr Francois
I know that my hon. Friend has pursued this issue on several occasions, including in a Westminster Hall debate. It is a complicated issue, and local authorities have sometimes had to take difficult decisions on the prioritisation of school transport. There is no easy answer, but he will no doubt continue doggedly to pursue it in the House, as he has today.
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Mark Francois and Nigel Evans
Mr Nigel Evans (Ribble Valley) (Con)
6. What recent discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Education on the provision of free school transport by local authorities.
The Minister for Communities and Resilience (Mr Mark Francois)
Ministers regularly meet colleagues in Government Departments to discuss a variety of topics. Local authorities have discretionary powers to provide free home to school transport beyond their statutory duties and are best placed to balance local priorities against the funding they have available.
Mr Evans
They do have that discretion, but increasingly they are not using it. People who want to send their children to a faith-based school, a grammar school or just the school they want them to go to, not far from the nearest school, are being charged about £500 a time. That is nothing more than a supplement to the council tax. Will the Minister please look into that abuse and stop it?
Mr Francois
I understand that my hon. Friend secured a Westminster Hall debate on this very subject only last Thursday, where he discussed it in considerable detail. He also raised a number of constituency cases and gave examples as he went. I reiterate the point made by my hon. Friend the Minister for Schools in responding to that debate: local authorities need to adopt a reasonable approach, especially in the application of their discretionary powers.