Birmingham City Council
Debate between Jim McMahon and Wendy Morton(2 days, 23 hours ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Wendy Morton (Aldridge-Brownhills) (Con)
When the Minister describes this as a local matter, it is clear to me that his Government are washing their hands of the problem. That is not good enough. The residents of Aldridge-Brownhills, which is on the edge of Birmingham, see and hear what is going on and we do not want the problem coming over to us—we do not want the squeaky blinders in Aldridge-Brownhills. What we do want is the Minister to get this problem sorted out and get those bins emptied for residents. It is quite simple.
Jim McMahon
I said that this is a partnership. Of course, Birmingham city council, as the employer in this trade union dispute, has to negotiate with the trade unions and the workforce to get those services back. That is a statement of fact, not an opinion. The question is then: what can we do, as a national Government, to support local government to achieve that? We have maintained support. The commissioners, appointed by the previous Government, are in place. We have provided additional financial support—not just to Birmingham—with £5 billion of new investment in local government, bringing the total settlement to £69 billion.
As I said before, £40 million alone was for the recovery grant for Birmingham, so I feel the Government are doing as much as we can, but we always stand ready to do more if needed.
Local Government Finance
Debate between Jim McMahon and Wendy Morton(1 month, 4 weeks ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Jim McMahon
I am going to make a bit of progress. I am mindful of time, and I believe we are guillotined at 7 pm.
The Budget will deliver more than £5 billion of new funding for local services over and above council tax income. There are no slogans and no gimmicks. This is real action—£5 billion-worth of real action—and I can confirm that £20 million more will be made available for the children’s social care prevention grant, putting prevention and reform at the heart of the recovery. After hearing representations from the councils affected, we can also announce an additional £2 million of support for councils with internal drainage board levy pressures. That is on top of what was announced in December’s provisional settlement, so the grant is now worth £5 million in total.
We will set aside almost £60 million for the coming financial year to ensure that local leaders have the vital capacity to get their financial house in order, so that councils can be effectively supported to better understand their spending and, equally, so that they can be held to account for it by their electorate, which is a vital part of the democratic process. The funding that we are providing includes £515 million to help local government with the increase in employer national insurance contributions.
Wendy Morton
My understanding is that employer national insurance contributions are not being fully funded by the Government. I would be delighted to hear that I am wrong, because that is really worrying me, having spoken to my local council. On that basis, does the Minister not accept that by imposing this extra burden on local authorities, ultimately it is working people who will be affected? There will be fewer public services, less money going into social care, and pressure on council tax.
Jim McMahon
This is not a perfect settlement, but it is my honest belief that it is a good settlement. We are keen to make sure that the money goes to local authorities in a way that is transparent, with an evidence base that can be scrutinised. Councils are sick and tired of the system being manipulated by Governments of different types over different periods in a way that is not fair.
Jim McMahon
I will make some progress, but to answer the right hon. Lady’s question on employer national insurance contributions directly, the funding is based on service expenditure costs. The reason is that that allows councils to make a decision about whether the money will cover in-house provision, or whether they will have contractual pressures further along in the system that show up in their service expenditure budgets. That is the approach that we have taken, and the Institute for Fiscal Studies has come out and said that it is a fair way of doing things. As I say, there is no perfect way to deal with this issue in the time that we have, but we have arrived at a good way to do it that gets the money out of the door to the places that need it.