Baroness Keeley
Main Page: Baroness Keeley (Labour - Life peer)
Mr Pickles
Absolutely. What was going to happen to local government was well showcased. It was clear from the previous Chancellor’s statement in autumn 2009 and the Budget earlier this year, before the general election, that at least £5 billion was coming out of local authorities and that that would be front-loaded. I would therefore expect prudent local authorities and prudent chief executives to have taken the necessary precautions.
Barbara Keeley (Worsley and Eccles South) (Lab)
The worst aspect of these cuts to local authority budgets, which amount to 28% in real terms over the next four years, is that they are front-loaded. The hardest hit councils are facing reductions in their grants next year of 14%, 18%, 20% or even more. That means they have to plan their service cuts and redundancies now, so may I urge the Secretary of State to think again about the scale of these cuts or to alter their phasing so that councils are not forced to take what will be very damaging crisis measures?
Mr Pickles
“As we look forward”, regeneration spending is
“not the biggest priority we face”
as there are “other competing priorities.” I apologise: perhaps I should have made it clear that those were the words of the now Leader of the Opposition, speaking on the Radio 4 “Today” programme on 12 April, just before the general election. That is the dilemma. The Opposition have a blank piece of paper. They oppose everything when they know, as we know, that they were going to impose £5 billion of front-loaded cuts on local authorities.