East Midlands: Local Authorities and Economic Growth

Andrew Rosindell Excerpts

Monday 7th April 2025 Commons Chamber

[Michael Payne]

My hon. Friend is a good friend and a powerful advocate for his constituents. He is right that devolution in the east midlands needs to go further and faster, because areas such as Greater Manchester and the west midlands are much further ahead on their journey. Giving the East Midlands mayoral authority trailblazer status would see a turbocharged approach to skills, investment and growth in our area. Giving Mayor Claire Ward an integrated funding settlement across local growth, place, transport, skills, housing and more to work with local authorities such as mine in Gedling would really get our economy moving. That approach has been proven elsewhere.

We should not need to wait any longer in the east midlands for power over our own future, but mayors and combined authorities are only one part of local government across the east midlands. Borough, county and unitary councils often do the overlooked, often-ignored hard yards that provide growth in our communities. The Government recognise that to grow the economy, they must work hand in hand with business, but they also have to work hand in hand with local government. Public services are essential for social and economic security. Vital services such as education, housing, healthcare and transport contribute to the economic productivity of the region, and local authorities provide the best investment in local areas.

The Local Government Association found that councils in the east midlands contribute directly to 20% of local GDP through projects that promote business growth, job creation and regional investment. Local authorities are key enablers for the Government’s promises around transport, housing, skills and growth. The Government are rightly reforming the planning system to allow council planners to do their job, but every single one of the 1.5 million houses built under this Government will have been approved by a council planner. Local authority workers will be instrumental in the roll-out of free breakfast clubs across schools. We have seen the impact on growth and economic confidence if simple things such as our bin collections go wrong.

Our local government workers keep our communities and this country ticking. They are all heroes. My plea to the Government is simple: do not ignore local government, local government finances or local government staff, and continue to invest in those areas.

[Andrew Rosindell (Romford) (Con)]

I commend the hon. Member for what he is saying. The east midlands are a vital region of our country, but I caution him slightly about wanting a regional mayor to take power upwards. In Greater London, our experience is that power in local authorities is actually better. We want local money spent on local people’s priorities. With a regional mayor, the hon. Gentleman may find that the money is not spent on the priorities he hopes for, but that it goes up to one bureaucracy and the priorities of local people are often ignored. That is our experience in the London borough of Havering.

[Michael Payne]

I thank the hon. Member for sharing his view with me, but I must say that it is not a view we share in the east midlands. We have a partnership approach with our Labour Mayor of the East Midlands, Claire Ward, working with brilliant local Labour councils. I would have a slight degree of sympathy for him if he had not been coming here for the last 14 years and voting for cuts to local councils in the east midlands, taking 60p out of every £1 of their budgets.

Ultimately, where we have good, soundly managed local authorities, with boundaries that local people understand and prefer, such as in my borough of Gedling, do we really want local authority staff to be focused on a multi-year reorganisation process, or do we want them to be getting on with the job and growing their local economies? The Government have rightly pointed out that certainty is essential to economic growth, so may I be so bold as to suggest that certainty in local government—whether it is a planner knowing that they have a job in the future or a local authority knowing that it will exist in two years’ time—is also essential? My constituents have told me loud and clear that they do not want to see a change to their local council. It is important to me that my constituents’ voices are heard and listened to in this Chamber, including in this debate. I share their pride in having a well-run local council in Gedling borough council, with low council tax, low levels of debt and decent, delivered public services, and I will argue for that to the hilt.

It would be remiss of me to speak in this debate without highlighting some local examples of how things can go terribly wrong, and how they affect my constituents. Conservative-controlled Nottinghamshire county council might be the worst council in the country for road repairs. Over 25% of Nottinghamshire’s minor roads required repairs last year, yet Nottinghamshire county council only got around to repairing 2.3% of them. Out of every 10 potholes, Conservatives in Nottinghamshire managed to fix less than one. If we need drivers for any future moon landing, the residents of Nottinghamshire may well volunteer to be first; with the number of craters that we have to dodge on our local roads just to get about our daily lives, everyone in Nottinghamshire is an expert in dodging potholes. Navigating the pothole-ridden roads of Nottinghamshire has gone beyond a joke. It is a daily misery for the people of Gedling, who I serve, but it also impacts our economy.