Brandon Lewis
Main Page: Brandon Lewis (Conservative - Great Yarmouth)
Mike Kane (Wythenshawe and Sale East) (Lab)
1. What representations he has received from local authorities on the local administration of the crisis loan and community care grant elements of the discretionary social fund.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (Brandon Lewis)
Crisis loans and community care grants were abolished in the Welfare Reform Act 2012 because they were failing to help those most in need. The Department for Work and Pensions has passed the funding to councils to help provide assistance for vulnerable people in their area, and they have held numerous discussions about this.
Mike Kane
Manchester city council has stated that the removal of local welfare allowance funding by the Government in 2015-16 will disproportionately impact on the most deprived. It will also break the new burdens principle for local authorities. What advice would the Minister give to struggling families who rely on this vital lifeline?
Brandon Lewis
Some local authorities are in fact underspending this year. Centrepoint’s research, which is often referred to, shows that many authorities are spending less than half their allocations. The research does not say that anyone has suffered at any time as a result of the current situation.
Paul Maynard (Blackpool North and Cleveleys) (Con)
The Minister rightly points out that many councils are underspending, but I am sure he is aware that in councils such as Blackpool, this measure has driven efficiency and innovation in the provision of services to the most vulnerable. Deleting this line from the local government settlement risks ending that innovation and harming the most vulnerable in my constituency. May I ask him to think again about this change, please?
Brandon Lewis
My hon. Friend makes a good point about how councils are working efficiently to look at new ways of delivering. In doing that, they are transforming services to ensure that the most vulnerable are the most protected, through the wide range of support that is available through local authorities.
Kate Green (Stretford and Urmston) (Lab)
Trafford Council’s “Trafford Assist” programme has been very successful in bringing together sources of support and sources of advice, but the council is worried about how it will be able to sustain the service when the funding closes at the end of the year. Will the Minister have urgent conversations with the Department for Work and Pensions to ensure that the two Departments between them can make sure that this lifeline funding will continue?
Brandon Lewis
I have met various local authorities through the consultation on this year’s settlement, and I will meet them again next year. The DWP has also spoken to local authorities. We must ensure that we do not replicate the previous, poorly targeted system. There is a whole range of support out there, and local authorities are doing very well in pulling together that support to ensure that the most vulnerable have the right care for them.
Heidi Alexander (Lewisham East) (Lab)
2. What plans he has to increase the supply of social rented housing.
Mrs Emma Lewell-Buck (South Shields) (Lab)
7. What assessment he has made of the effect on local authorities of recent changes in the proportion of local authority funding that comes from revenue support grants.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (Brandon Lewis)
Revenue support grant is provided to councils in addition to retained business rates. Authorities now keep nearly £11 billion in business rates, and a share of growth in business rates in their area. This provides a direct financial incentive to help deliver growth, in contrast to the old system.
Gavin Shuker
The Minister likes to talk about these changes in terms of benefiting councils, but the reality on the ground is that many local authorities find themselves losing out. His focus on spending power per dwelling hides the fact that many places have large families living in large occupancy dwellings. Will he explain why Luton borough council is having its spending power cut by a half?
Brandon Lewis
Let us look at the hon. Gentleman’s local authority directly. Average spending power per household in this country is £2,089 whereas in Luton it is £2,211. That is above the average, so I suggest to the residents of Luton that they elect a council that can run things efficiently and effectively.
Mrs Lewell-Buck
Despite having higher levels of deprivation, local authorities such as my own are seeing deeper cuts than those in the well-off areas. By 2016, spending per household in the north-east will have fallen by £296 compared with the average of £233. Does the Minister not recognise that that will mean that existing inequalities between the regions will be even worse?
Brandon Lewis
I dispute that directly, because the hon. Lady’s local authority’s spending power is £2,355 per household per year, which is well above the national average of £2,089, so it comes from a much higher position which recognises its local needs.
Andrew Bridgen (North West Leicestershire) (Con)
Will my hon. Friend confirm that despite cuts in central Government funding many Conservative-controlled councils, such as my own North West Leicestershire district council, have continued to freeze or indeed cut council tax?
Brandon Lewis
My hon. Friend makes a good point. Some excellent councils across the country have even cut council tax this year, and the council tax freeze means that those areas have, under this Government over the past four years, seen a real-terms cut in council tax of about 11%.
Stephen Mosley (City of Chester) (Con)
In the north-west, Cheshire West and Chester council is working with Labour councils such as those in Knowsley, Halton and Wirral to share services in order to reduce costs and improve the services offered to local people. Is working with other councils not one way in which some councils that we have heard about today can improve their services and reduce costs?
Brandon Lewis
My hon. Friend gives a very good example of how authorities can work together, and we are seeing that around the country. Another Labour authority in High Peak is sharing with Conservative-led Staffordshire Moorlands, under an arrangement set up under the Conservative administration. That is another one of many examples of authorities sharing management and sharing chief executives, and saving about £600,000 a year. That is a substantial percentage of the money for those local authorities and this is a good way forward. The transformation network and community budgets show that this can be done.
Andy Sawford (Corby) (Lab/Co-op)
Newcastle has four times as many looked-after children as Wokingham, but because of the unfair way in which this Government have distributed the cuts, even on the Minister’s own measure of spending power per household, Newcastle will have less funding than Wokingham by the end of this Parliament. How can he tell us that that is fair?
Brandon Lewis
I remind the hon. Gentleman that the 10% most deprived authorities have an average spending power of £3,026 whereas the figure for the least deprived 10% is only £1,952. That demonstrates clearly that the areas with the need actually have the money they need to look after their local requirements.
Nick de Bois (Enfield North) (Con)
4. What steps he is taking to help shops in England and Enfield with their business rate bills.
Laura Sandys (South Thanet) (Con)
6. What estimate he has made of local authority revenues from the sale of recyclate in the last year for which figures are available.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (Brandon Lewis)
We do not hold this information centrally, but there are clear opportunities for councils to make money from selling recycled materials. The industry is now worth about £11 billion, and this income could be used to keep council tax down or to support more regular rubbish and recycling collections.
Laura Sandys
Will my hon. Friend further encourage local authorities to declare on their council tax bills how much money they make from selling their recyclate, not only to incentivise more recycling but to get local authorities to be much smarter with their waste?
Brandon Lewis
My hon. Friend has rightly run a superb campaign to push this agenda, and she makes a good point. Councils can already declare on their council tax bills how much they make from selling their recyclate. Transparency can incentivise more recycling among residents when they see how their recycling is used, and encourage local authorities to seek better deals on recycling.
Grahame M. Morris (Easington) (Lab)
8. If he will grant additional planning protection for pubs that are listed as assets of community value.
Kerry McCarthy (Bristol East) (Lab)
14. What recent estimate he has made of the cost to local authorities of their public health responsibilities.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (Brandon Lewis)
English local authorities receive the public health grant, which is now £2.79 billion for 2014-15. Public health is a key part of the Government’s broader work promoting integrated health and care services, which includes the new £3.8 billion for the better care fund.
Kerry McCarthy
I trust the Minister is aware of a recent British Medical Journal report called “Raiding the public budget”. It reported that local authorities are diverting public health funds to meet shortfalls in other council budgets. Has the Minister discussed this with local authorities and with his colleagues in the Department of Health, and does he share the concerns of the former south-west director of public health that this is “robbing Peter to pay Paul”?
Brandon Lewis
Local authorities across the country know what this is about. They have a vested interest in getting it right, and some of the examples out there are a salutary lesson to every authority that such behaviour would not be tolerated.
Julie Hilling (Bolton West) (Lab)
16. What assessment he has made of the effect of recent changes in local authority spending on youth work budgets.
Justin Tomlinson (North Swindon) (Con)
22. What steps the Government are taking to support community pubs.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (Brandon Lewis)
We are providing £200,000 of funding to help communities diversify and own their pubs through Pub is the Hub and the Plunkett Foundation, both of which do fantastic work. The Right to Bid also provides protection for pubs as community assets. We have doubled the small business rate relief until 2015, scrapped the previous Government’s beer and alcohol duty escalators and cider duty proposal, and reduced beer duty in successive Budgets for the first time.
Justin Tomlinson
Will the Minister join me in thanking Arkell’s Brewery for fully passing on the beer duty cuts to landlords and customers, helping to protect the 52 pubs and 1,412 jobs in my constituency?
Brandon Lewis
My hon. Friend makes an excellent point. Across the industry, that duty cut has been passed on to the consumer, and that is a really good thing for the industry to do. I encourage all people to visit their good local pubs and enjoy the benefits.
Bridget Phillipson (Houghton and Sunderland South) (Lab)
T1. If he will make a statement on his departmental responsibilities.
Alison Seabeck (Plymouth, Moor View) (Lab)
T7. I recently visited Crownhill fire station and members of its watch would like a Minister to answer a question about the tapering arrangements for their pension scheme. One firefighter has served since he was 18 years old. He is now 39 and will miss out because the scheme starts for those aged 40, so he will have to work for 42 years rather than 30 years. The watch want to know whether any consideration has been given to the scheme in operation for the police, which takes into account length of service rather than age.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (Brandon Lewis)
My understanding is that, at the time that arrangement was made with the police, the Fire Brigades Union did not go down that road. More firefighters are protected by the scheme we have put in place than any other scheme in the public sector, and conversations with the FBU remain ongoing.
Margot James (Stourbridge) (Con)
In a written answer, my right hon. Friend stated that 60 local authorities had used the powers available to them under the Localism Act 2011 and granted business rate relief last year. Those authorities included Birmingham city council, which granted relief of £438,000, but none of the four local authorities in the black country—just half a mile away—have used the powers. What can the Minister do to encourage local authorities to use the powers available to them to encourage local businesses?
Brandon Lewis
My hon. Friend makes a very good point, and in directly asking the question she has done a good job in highlighting this issue to such authorities. All local authorities have the power to do this: on top of the £1 billion business rate package put forward in the autumn statement and confirmed in the Budget, it is a good opportunity for local authorities to support local business and to develop local business growth, particularly around high streets and town centres.
Mr Andy Slaughter (Hammersmith) (Lab)
If a council gave planning permission for 2,600 homes on sites with a £10 billion development value and not one was an additional home for social rent, while selling off council homes on the open market when they became vacant, with more than 10,000 families in housing need in the borough, would that worry the Secretary of State?