Local Government Finance

Baroness Primarolo Excerpts

Thursday 18th December 2014 Commons Chamber

[Kris Hopkins]

I am really disappointed with the right hon. Gentleman’s tone. There was no sense of guilt or shame about the situation we were left in when we came to power. Let me mention two speeches that were made last week. In one, my right hon. Friend the Chancellor talked about the requirement and need for us to live within our means and to grow our economy in order to be able to support public services. The other speech was about how the deficit was the big test for Labour, and we can see from the right hon. Gentleman’s response today that the Opposition have no chance of meeting that test. They have failed at the first attempt, wanting to borrow and spend more money.

The Government are confident that councils can respond to the challenging economic circumstances that we inherited, and they are responding. The NAO says that many councils are dealing with that; they have been able to fix and deliver a budget, and to respond to economic emergencies as they have come about. The reality is that all councils need to respond and transform their delivery, and despite the right hon. Gentleman’s words, the authorities are doing thaton the ground. The Labour authorities in Manchester, Sheffield and Sunderland have faced difficult choices but are transforming their services. They are more open-minded than the Labour team on the Front Bench, ensuring that they care about delivering good services where it is important to people and that they will deal with the circumstances they are left. In answer to his question, we are delivering a reduction of 1.8% this year—if we add the transformation challenge fund moneys in, the figure drops to 1.6%. Given the economic circumstances that this Government picked up four years ago, that represents considerable movement in the right direction.

The right hon. Gentleman talked about the most deprived authorities. The 10% most deprived authorities will continue to receive 40% more than the least deprived areas, and that is important. It is a standard that we have set and we will continue to do it. However, this is not just about grant; it has to be about promoting businesses. It is about increasing growth within a particular area. That is why this Government have set about, through city challenge, growth deals and the retention of business rates, giving councils the opportunities to grow the moneys in their community. There is no greater amount than that from house building, so the new homes bonus, worth £1.2 billion, is really important.

However, there are difficult challenges to address. The better care fund is there to address one of the fundamental challenges to public services which for generations councils and health authorities have failed to address—£5 billion to be used to work with local authorities, clinical commissioning groups and acute hospitals to deliver care for the most vulnerable people. Labour Members, the Labour Government and the House historically have failed to address that. We are facing up to this problem, and getting those social workers, doctors, health workers in the same place so that they can deliver services. That is the right thing to do.

We appreciate that welfare provision is important to people, so we are identifying the spending this year in next year’s money so that users of services and people who may want to call upon that money can understand how much money has been spent historically in this area. It will be up to the local council to set those priorities and make sure that that money is available.

The right hon. Gentleman talked about counties not being included in some of the devolution, but this Government are completely open-minded on devolution and look forward to all areas coming forward with ideas about how we can devolve powers. [Interruption.]

Finally, there was an ask about women’s refuges. The Prime Minister himself thinks that this is extremely important and intervened on the issue of women’s refuges and domestic violence and saw that an extra £10 million was put in. [Interruption.] Despite the fact that this country faced an economic disaster in 2010, we are delivering a fair budget for local authorities, making sure that they can set the priorities they believe are important to them. [Interruption.]

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Dame Dawn Primarolo)]

Order. As we progress through this statement, it would be really helpful if the Secretary of State stopped shouting and gesticulating across the Chamber, and if Mr Sawford you stopped as well, so that we can hear the questions and the answers. Mr Docherty, I do not need you saying, “Shame”, as you chatter through just about everything. Perhaps we can make progress now.

[Mark Pawsey (Rugby) (Con)]

Households across the country will be pleased that the Government are making funds available for an unprecedented fifth year to enable a freeze in council tax. The Minister will be aware that Conservative-controlled Rugby borough council has gone further in the current year, by giving council tax payers a rebate of 3%. However, given the increasing satisfaction with the services provided by local government as shown in surveys, does the Minister agree that councils have risen to the challenge and shown themselves to be very effective at doing more with less?