Clive Betts
Main Page: Clive Betts (Labour - Sheffield South East)
Kris Hopkins
I congratulate Rugby borough council on its excellent work. I have been there myself and seen the quality of the services it is delivering. It is also setting out wider plans to deliver more houses and to promote business growth. It has also frozen its council tax, which means that residents will benefit from the fact that they have not had to pay that £1,075 over the past five years.
Mr Clive Betts (Sheffield South East) (Lab)
The Minister said in his statement that no council will face a loss of more than 6.4% in its spending power next year, the lowest level in this Parliament. Why does he think that that is a matter for self-congratulation? Will he confirm that the percentage cut that local councils will face in the next year will be bigger than the cut faced by all central Government Departments throughout the whole of this Parliament?
Kris Hopkins
It is the lowest level of this Parliament. We can achieve that because we are in a far better economic situation than we were when we came to power. More money may have been taken from this particular area of public service, but the fact is it represents a quarter of all public service, which is significant. I do not relish the idea of taking money off councils, especially as people are working extremely hard to deliver quality services. I say to the hon. Gentleman that he served in a Government who crashed the economy and we are picking up the pieces. We want to support local councils, and I would be proud to work with them to deliver quality services.