Local Government Finance

Jim Cunningham Excerpts

Thursday 18th December 2014 Commons Chamber

[Kris Hopkins]

I thank my hon. Friend for his comments and obviously I know the areas he is talking about. All the Labour children’s centres are being protected and all the Conservative ones are being closed. The fact that he has raised this in Parliament—[Interruption.] Centres in Labour wards are being protected and centres in Conservative wards are being closed. The public have heard that and will make a judgment on it.

[Mr Jim Cunningham (Coventry South) (Lab)]

I was rather surprised that the Secretary of State did not make today’s statement, given that a quarter of the Government’s budget is spent by local government. He did the same thing the other day on the fire brigade.

This announcement will not help anybody in Coventry to participate. We need to find another £65 million for the libraries, for instance, and the welfare budget will affect a lot of people from among the worst-off. Equally, we have bed blocking because we cannot get social workers, which affects University hospital Coventry. The settlement is an utter disgrace and it is no good the Minister blaming the previous Labour Government when he and I know that it was the bankers he is apologising for.

[Kris Hopkins]

I wondered how long it would take for the bankers to come up in this conversation. The Minister responsible for local government makes the local government finance settlement announcement, and I am pleased to do so today. If the hon. Gentleman wants to grow his local economy, rather than coming here, not wanting to talk about his failures as part of the Labour Administration, he needs to go back to Coventry and think about ways in which to grow the business base and encourage more housing. That will create better outcomes for the people he alleges to represent.