Funding for Local Authorities

Andrew Bingham Excerpts

Thursday 10th October 2013 Commons Chamber

[Andrew Bingham (High Peak) (Con)]

The Minister is aware of the work that was done by the Conservatives in High Peak borough council when I served on it. It shares a chief executive and a senior management team, and I am delighted that the Government have now recognised that and given the local authority some money as well.

[Neil Parish]

My hon. Friend makes a good point. A council in my constituency, East Devon, shares a chief executive with South Somerset. Even though it is a sort of coalition, because one is Liberal Democrat-controlled and the other is Conservative-controlled, it works at officer level. Even though adjacent councils may be of different political persuasions, they can share resources. If it is possible to share administrative resources and cut expenses, it is possible to deliver a far better up-front service. That is what local government finance is for—to give people services, not to be gobbled up in administration. I have believed that all my political life.

More importantly, the local government settlement for 2014-15 is being frozen until 2020. As a result, the current disparity in funding between urban and rural local authorities will be entrenched, locking in past inequalities. The Government set up the review to settle that disparity, but we now have a damping and a freezing—back to square one for another five years. What is the Minister going to do about it, and how are we going to settle this so that we can transfer funds and have a fair deal?