Local Government Finance

Heather Wheeler Excerpts

Monday 8th February 2016 Commons Chamber

[Greg Clark]

I will indeed. The provisional settlement, as I said in my statement, made a particular response to the acknowledged pressures on adult social care across the country. All tiers of local government cited this as the important priority. The decision to establish the social care precept and the addition to the better care fund were an extremely important step in recognising what has been building up for many years as particular pressures on authorities, and Leicestershire, well run though it is, feels those pressures particularly acutely.

[Heather Wheeler (South Derbyshire) (Con)]

I congratulate my right hon. Friend on listening, with all his Ministers, to the pleas from Derbyshire and South Derbyshire in particular. We are very grateful for the amelioration of the arrangements, but will my right hon. Friend go a little further and think about the changes to the new homes bonus and to business rates, so that although fast-growing districts will get more money in the future, they are not penalised in the short term ?