Local Government Budgets

Bob Ainsworth Excerpts

Wednesday 12th January 2011 Westminster Hall

[Mr Bob Ainsworth (Coventry North East) (Lab)]

I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Coventry South (Mr Cunningham) for getting the debate and for allowing me to speak. I want to talk about two issues—localism and fairness. I have been most struck by one phrase so far in the debate: the one used by the hon. Member for Nuneaton (Mr Jones) when he accused my hon. Friend of synthetic rage. I am certain that there are huge differences in political outlook between the hon. Gentleman and my hon. Friend, but I will tell the hon. Gentleman one thing: he will find out in time that there is little that is synthetic about my hon. Friend’s feelings on local government. They are genuine and heartfelt. There are people in all parties in this House who genuinely believe in local government and localism. My hon. Friend is one of them, and he has a record of many years of defending the rights and autonomies of local government. I hope that the hon. Member for Nuneaton will come to regret the accusation of synthetic rage as he gets to know my hon. Friend better over the years.

The claim of synthetic rage echoes what we heard from Conservative councillors in the council chamber in Coventry, who, when the redundancy notices were being dished out, accused Labour councillors of scaremongering. We are going to lose hundreds of jobs because of the grant settlement in Coventry, and that loss will come on top of the fact that we shall have 1,000 fewer policemen in the west midlands and 1,200 or thereabouts fewer back office staff serving the police. People think that they do not do anything, but the police are under-resourced in their back-up, not over-resourced, as anyone who ever has to deal with them will recognise. The job losses will also come on top of the losses that have been inflicted on the city by the closure of organisations such as the learning and skills councils and by the demolition of our bid for Building Schools for the Future. They will be a very heavy blow. The words of those who say that people are scaremongering about the consequences or indulging in synthetic rage will come back to bite them as the consequences of the decisions—not yet felt, but soon to be so—become apparent to the electorate in many areas.

The other thing that the hon. Member for Nuneaton said—I am sure the Minister is about to say it as well—is that all that is happening would have happened in any case: the cuts were inevitable. This is where I want to move on to my second theme, fairness. My hon. Friend the Member for Coventry North West (Mr Robinson) has just been touching on exactly that. It does not matter what kind of organisation we talk about—a business, a Department, the Government overall or the nation—when there are difficult times, it is surely important that those who address the difficulties should be seen to do it fairly and properly. If people feel, as the Prime Minister tries to tell them, that we are all in this together and we all have to take our share of the pain, that pain becomes a lot more acceptable. People pull together and try to get the organisation in question through its difficulties. However, as my hon. Friend has just graphically exposed, that is not what is happening with the local government settlement grant—and nor was it with the police formula funding. Coventry is losing £19 million in formula grant and £17 million in other grant. It has lost in its entirety the area grant funding, and we are going to lose an additional £8 million due to the damping mechanism being introduced as a result of the Government’s formula.

Damping, in principle, as has been said, is of course right. When shocks are delivered to the system it is right that they should be damped and spread, and that for a period those who are less affected should help those more affected. Who could argue with that? However, the people who are to gain from the damping mechanism appear to be in areas of the country that are a lot better off and better able to face the situation than communities such as the ones I and my hon. Friends represent. West Sussex, Wokingham, Richmond and Buckinghamshire all gain from the damping mechanism. While Coventry loses 7.2% of its formula grant, Dorset—I love Dorset and do not want to do anything to it; I hasten to say, with you in the Chair, Mrs Brooke, that it is a marvellous part of the country where I would spend more time, given the opportunity—gains 0.25%. Surrey, that underprivileged part of Britain, loses 0.31%. Coventry—not the most deprived part of the country, but certainly a lot poorer than those areas—loses 7.21%.

I fear that we are being invited to participate in a pretty cynical exercise. My hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham, Northfield (Richard Burden) touched on that matter. The Government’s rhetoric about localism is convincing many people and organisations that they genuinely believe in a devolution of power. There are people in the Conservative party who do believe in it, as do people in the Liberal and Labour parties. I hope I am one of them. I have always believed in more power for local government and local areas, as against central Government. Wherever it is sensible to take decisions at a local level, that is where they should be taken. However, I fear that local government is being set up and that we are announcing more powers and freedoms for local government, so that we can blame it for the massive cuts in its ability to serve the communities it is elected to represent, which the Government have brought in at the same time. That is a cynical manoeuvre. It will take people some time to see through it, but I am certain they will, as they see through claims of scaremongering from Tory councillors on Coventry city council, and of synthetic anger, from the hon. Member for Nuneaton.