Funding for Local Authorities

Debate between Ian Mearns and Annette Brooke

Thursday 10th October 2013 Commons Chamber

[Annette Brooke (Mid Dorset and North Poole) (LD)]

I find myself agreeing with the hon. Member for Sheffield South East (Mr Betts) on a large number of his points. I am particularly pleased that he likes local income tax and the mansion tax. We clearly have a lot in common. Perhaps future campaigns will be a little different.

I have a quote on local government: “Local government is looking over a precipice. We will only be able to run statutory services such as adult social care and waste services.” That comes from a Liberal Democrat council leader, but it could have come from a local council leader of any party. We must consider that view—from the precipice or cliff—against the view that it is scaremongering. We need clarity. What is the true position? Every hon. Member who has spoken has identified the lack of transparency in the system, and I shall return to that point.

As hon. Members know, local government accounts for around 25% of all public expenditure. Given that the budget deficit had to be tackled, that was always going to take a big hit from cuts to public expenditure—I am on message now. Local government has shown great skill in reducing budgets. Committed local authorities under all parties have protected front-line services. I should like to put on the record that that is a credit to many councillors throughout the country, particularly given that satisfaction in council services has increased. Many hon. Members were surprised to hear the result of the research reported on the BBC showing that most voters believe that schools, bus services, parks, libraries and bin collections have improved in the past five years even as budgets have been reduced. Credit must be given where it is due.

Many hon. Members have mentioned bus services. I remind the House that I represent a constituency that has every type of council within it—there is a unitary authority in an urban area, and a county council and several district councils in the rural part—so I find it difficult to argue that one area needs more money than another for specific services; it is a difficult situation. Currently, the county council is consulting on the future of bus services, and it is possible that some of my constituents in villages will not be able to get to work or to access health or leisure services. The price of school transport has rocketed in price for the over-16s. That is compounded by the rising age of participation. I shall keep making the point on the Floor of the House that relatively poor hard-working families in the rural areas in my constituency are faced with bills of £450 or £750 per year for their 17-year-old to get to school. Members on both sides of the House have been remiss in allowing the age of participation to increase without putting finance in place for bus services. I urge all Departments— the Department for Education, the Department for Communities and Local Government and the Department for Transport—to talk about that together because it is so important.

Apart from cuts to rural bus services, I am faced with cuts in the urban area on routes where the buses are well used. The bus companies simply take the decision to cut the routes off without consultation, which is shocking. There seems to be no accountability. As far as I can tell, bus grants have been maintained. Some decisions are a ploy to ask for money from the local authority, but some are taken because the bus companies are not there to provide a service for my constituents.

[Ian Mearns]

The hon. Lady makes telling points, but I remind her that, in debates prior to the abolition of the education maintenance allowance, we warned Government Members that there could be implications down the line for people in rural areas.

[Annette Brooke]

The hon. Gentleman might recall that I spoke against scrapping the EMA because I was concerned about the impact on sixth-form choice when there is insufficient help from other services. That needs to be addressed. We have bursaries, but I thought the EMA should be reformed. I do not believe that there is enough support, particularly given the increase in the age of participation. I certainly welcome the fact that the Government reviewed the situation and put extra money into schools and colleges to help the most needy, but there is not enough money to cover the current situation, especially in rural areas.

In June, the spending round announced a further 10% real-terms reduction in core local government grant funding. The LGA analysis of the subsequent consultation covering the settlement funding assessment showed that money received up front will be reduced by 15% in real terms. The Government frequently use the figure of a 2.3% cut for 2015-16. They give the impression of a certain level of cuts, but it is all much more complex. We are told that local government will get extra money for health and social care, but then we discover that that is not all new money. We know there is top-slicing and the extra top-slicing. Councils have the opportunity to bid for lots of different pots of money, but that causes great uncertainty at a time of financial difficulties.

We have had some good news, which I notice Opposition Members have so far not mentioned, such as city deals and growth regions, which will put extra money and opportunities into the core cities outside London. That is exciting decentralisation work, and we must give credit for that important work.

Local government faces both opportunities and threats, although some opportunities can also be seen as threats. The freeze in council tax, and the extra money from the Government to support that, has been an opportunity for local councils in some respects, and I welcome the fact that residents in some of the councils I represent have benefited from the council tax freeze. On the other hand, the freeze removes democratic freedom, which is not a good thing.

A further big opportunity can be found in the merging of health and social care budgets, which is an enormous step forward of which the Government can be really proud. But no council knows how much money it will get back for social care. How can councils plan or operate in a business-like fashion if they do not have that certainty? One of the biggest threats has to be the escalating cost of adult social services. I represent an area with an ageing population, and local government has to be given enough support to bring health and social care budgets together to innovate. Local government has not been backwards in innovating over time—I think it has been the most innovative part of government—but the Government should work with local government to ensure that we bring out all the opportunities that are available.

I agree with hon. Members that top-slicing the new homes bonus is a threat. Allocating that money to a local enterprise partnership is an issue. I am quite in favour of LEPs, but they do not have any democratic foundation. If an LEP covers an area with several councils—a county council and two unitaries, for example—the small district councils that will lose their new homes bonus do not have a seat on the board, because they cannot all have seats on the board. I would like the Minister to address that problem. We have opportunities and we have threats, but it is the Government’s role to support councils in getting achievements from those opportunities.

The rural fair share campaign has been mentioned. I support the campaign and I know the struggles my small district councils have in order to survive, but it has to be part of a bigger re-examination of local government finance. However, it was great to get some movement and support on the problems we can all identify, regarding the extra costs of running a rural authority.

Localism Bill

Debate between Ian Mearns and Annette Brooke

Wednesday 18th May 2011 Commons Chamber

[Ian Mearns]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for making that point, with which I wholeheartedly concur. I was going to come on to that. It is mainly cyclists, pedestrians and local residents who have to negotiate their way through the mess that is left. This selfish, antisocial and irresponsible activity must be curtailed.

In London, the power to tackle littering from vehicles was recently introduced by the London Local Authorities Act 2007. Section 24 gives a London borough council the power to serve a penalty charge notice on the registered keeper of a vehicle if any passenger throws litter from it. In that case, the use of a penalty charge notice rather than a fixed penalty notice means that that is a civil offence rather than a criminal one. Furthermore, due to defective drafting, the 2007 Act is not active until amending legislation has been given Royal Assent. I propose that the enforcement section of the Localism Bill should be amended to include a reference to vehicle related litter. That would follow on from the commitment to finding a solution to the problem made by Lord Henley, the Minister responsible for local environmental quality, at the national litter convention in December last year.

New clause 23 has legislative precedent and is in line with the legislation on other road traffic investigation and fly-tipping offences and the approach taken to littering from vehicles in the 2007 Act. The Government have a chance today to do something about the problem and I hope that they will do so. I am convinced that the vast majority of the public whom we serve would not regard new clause 23 as contentious in any respect whatsoever.

[Annette Brooke (Mid Dorset and North Poole) (LD)]

I shall be very brief, as I wish my colleagues to have time to make their quite important contributions. We have some concerns about the issues raised this afternoon.

Let me start with new clause 26, tabled in my name and those of my hon. Friends. I was pleased with the Minister’s response. The clause aims to free small fully mutual housing co-operatives from burdensome regulation and significant costs that they cannot and really should not have to shoulder in the same way as private landlords. This would obviously help to provide a more conducive environment for new housing co-operatives and would not cost the Government much money. I know it fits in well with the coalition Government’s agenda for community self help and a mutual approach. That and other innovative schemes will, I hope, emerge from the Bill.

I also want to endorse the amendments on arm’s length management organisations. I, too, urge the Minister to consider a ballot if there is a question of bringing things in house, whatever the circumstances. Poole Housing Partnership, which is an excellent and outstanding ALMO, has provided a lot for our local communities over and beyond good housing stock. I want to put that on the record.

Let me turn now to the key issues we have discussed this afternoon. Is there a place for flexible tenancies? We must ask that question. I think there is a place for flexible tenancies, but is there a case for two-year flexible tenancies? That question really needs to be addressed in the other place. I would hate to see the churn that might happen. I also think that the idea of a mix of tenancies, from a minimum of, say, five years through to secure tenancies, probably has quite a lot to offer. We should not need to be prescriptive from the centre. We ought to be enabling local authorities, but obviously some alarming information has been put before us today and that means that the regulatory side will have to be very secure.