Local Government Finance

Andrew Rosindell Excerpts

Wednesday 5th February 2025 Commons Chamber

[Jim McMahon]

I take my hon. Friend’s points entirely. I credit him for much of the work that was done when he chaired the Select Committee, which he did for a long time, and I attribute to his intervention the credibility that it is due. We are focusing today on our immediate fiscal response to support councils over the current financial year, but we accept that to bring about long-term structural reform, such matters as addressing a council’s ability to raise local tax through business rates and council tax must be taken into account, alongside, of course, the cost of delivering public services, including the cost of rural service delivery. We are absolutely committed to taking all those factors into account.

[Andrew Rosindell (Romford) (Con)]

rose—

[Wendy Morton (Aldridge-Brownhills) (Con)]

rose—

--- Later in debate ---

[Andrew Rosindell]

Will the Minister give way?

[Jim McMahon]

I will make some progress, but I will take more interventions later.

Councils know that the current system is riddled with inefficiency and is poorly targeted at meeting need. It is vital that we get this right, and we want to hear from all parts of the sector to better understand the drivers of need, including deprivation, the ability to raise tax locally and the impact on service delivery in rural areas. The consultation on these reforms runs until 12 February, and we welcome representations from all who have a stake in this agenda. We are listening to the sector and, through this settlement, responding to the real drivers of cost, especially the spiralling demand in areas such as social care. Importantly, we are taking into account the ability of councils to raise funding locally.

[Andrew Rosindell]

What does the Minister say to residents of the London borough of Havering, who have had a very poor settlement over many decades under all Governments? We have one of the oldest populations in London and also one of the youngest populations in London, so the settlements never take into account the factors that I have outlined. Will he please look at the outer London boroughs? It seems to me that all the money goes to inner London, and we do not get very much in places such as Romford.

[Jim McMahon]

Where we can agree is that we accept that the old perspective that there are inner-London pressures that do not feature in the outer-London boroughs might have held in the past but it does not address the complexity that there is today, because a number of pressures have moved outwards into those outer boroughs. I think that that is accepted and appreciated. I said that this might not be a perfect settlement, but it is a good settlement. The hon. Gentleman’s council has a 6.5% increase in its core spending power. So there is room there—this is not a flat cash settlement—and we hope that the local authority will make the necessary decisions.

We are not interested in scoring party political points or pitting one council against another. We know that councils of all political stripes are struggling, and we want to work together, through the later reforms that we are looking at as part of the more structural review we are undertaking, to make sure that we genuinely address that. We hope that when Members across the House look at the rationale and the evidence base—whether they agree with the quantum is a separate issue—they can at least say that it holds. That is the work that we are undertaking today, and we encourage Members to contribute to the process.