Oral Answers to Questions

John Pugh Excerpts

Tuesday 25th June 2013 Commons Chamber

[Sajid Javid]

My hon. Friend has raised the issue of interest rates. If we had not had a credible policy to deal with the record budget deficit that the previous Government left behind, interest rates would be a lot higher. In fact, in the last Budget delivered by them, interest payments on Government debt would have been £30 billion higher in this Parliament. If interest rates were just 1% higher, mortgages would rise by almost £1,000 a year for the average household.

[John Pugh (Southport) (LD)]

13. What assessment he has made of the role of community budgets in improving the efficiency of public expenditure; and if he will make a statement.

[The Chief Secretary to the Treasury (Danny Alexander)]

I am a strong supporter of community budgets because, by joining up public services locally, we can save money and get better outcomes for our constituents. The troubled families programme is using the community budgets approach to turn around the lives of 120,000 families by 2015. Building on its success, I announced yesterday that the Government would put £200 million towards expanding the programme to work with a further 400,000 families from 2015.

[John Pugh]

Ernst and Young estimates that between £9 billion and £20 billion can be saved by the national roll-out of community budgets. Given that the pressure is on us, should that roll-out be sooner rather than later?

[Danny Alexander]

Yes, it certainly should, and I urge my hon. Friend to listen carefully to the Chancellor’s statement tomorrow.