English Devolution and Local Government

Jonathan Brash Excerpts

Wednesday 5th February 2025 Commons Chamber

[Angela Rayner]

Again, I acknowledge the situation in Surrey. We have said that we want to work with Surrey to deliver. That is why we are bringing this forward. As I say, it is a short-term delay; democracy comes to us all eventually.

[Mr Jonathan Brash (Hartlepool) (Lab)]

Mayors can make a huge difference to local communities. Indeed, we have seen that in Greater Manchester, where public control of bus services has made a massive difference to residents. I want public control of bus services in Hartlepool, where services are not good enough. Does my right hon. Friend share my disappointment that the Conservative Mayor of Tees Valley has ruled out public control of buses? When mayors do not use their powers, what can we do to force them to do so?

[Angela Rayner]

I welcome what Greater Manchester buses have delivered for my constituents in Tameside—better services all round. We want the same for Hartlepool. I gently encourage all Members from the Teesside area to work with the mayor to unleash all the powers I mentioned in my statement, in order to deliver better transport and connectivity. That is how we will unlock growth in all our regional areas, which is what we want to see across Hartlepool, Teesside and the whole of England.

Local Government Finance

Jonathan Brash Excerpts

Wednesday 5th February 2025 Commons Chamber

[Jim McMahon]

I thank my hon. Friend for that question and pay tribute to Salford for its leadership in the work it is doing in many areas of public sector reform in Salford and across Greater Manchester. In the end, if all we do is pay at the back end for a system that, frankly, is broken, we will be paying more and more every single year for a system that is delivering worse outcomes for service users. That is bad for service users and bad for taxpayers, so we must have a more fundamental response and we fully intend to do that.

The multi-year settlements are essential to ensure local leaders have the time and space to plan their budgets. But we will not stop there. We are introducing a fairer system to give councils the certainty and stability they need to go from costly crisis management to long-term prevention and the root-and-branch reform of local public services. Crucially, I can now confirm that core spending power for the sector will be more than £69 billion for 2025-26, a 6.8% cash terms increase on this year. I can confirm that, despite some very difficult choices—there have been choices and trade-offs to make, as there always are—this settlement will mean that no local authority will see a reduction in its core spending power.

[Mr Jonathan Brash (Hartlepool) (Lab)]

I welcome the settlement, which sees a reversal of the past 14 years for Hartlepool, where cumulatively we lost £235 million in a decade. This year, additional grant funding is going up by £10 million, which is hugely welcome. However, there remains the problem of the council tax system itself. In Hartlepool, if you are in a band H property you pay more than £3,000 more than you do if you are here in Westminster. Surely the Minister can agree with me that that is inherently unfair? Will he engage with me and the all-party parliamentary group on council tax reform, which I lead, to bring fairness to towns such as Hartlepool?

[Jim McMahon]

There are, understandably, many criticisms of council tax. It is accepted that it is a fairly regressive tax in terms of the relationship between the ability of a household to pay versus a property’s value, but in the end it is a reliable tax that is understood by the taxpaying public. The framework of council tax will be maintained, in the same way as business rates, but that does not mean that we cannot do more to make it fairer. The best way to make it fairer in this settlement is for the Government to play their part. What we have seen over the past 14 years is that, despite an acceleration in council tax increases, councils have still found themselves impoverished: they cannot raise enough money locally, whatever they do, to fund the demand for local public services. We clearly see the role of the Government as an equaliser to the system. Taking into account the ability to raise tax at a local level, by providing a top-up the Government can ensure that every area gets decent local public services, and we can begin to get some fairness into the system. I take my hon. Friend’s point entirely, however, and I look forward to the work of the all-party parliamentary group.

Community Engagement Principles and Extremism Definition

Jonathan Brash Excerpts

Tuesday 21st January 2025 Commons Chamber

[Alex Norris]

I agree with a lot of what the hon. Lady’s says about earlier interventions and tackling isolation at its root. As she says, local authorities are really important partners in that endeavour. That is why we will ensure that whatever comes out of our communities and recovery steering group leans into the partnership with local authorities and local law enforcement, where possible, to ensure that the right resources and support are in place.

The hon. Lady asks about engagement and ensuring that we have a contribution from those affected across our faith communities. My noble Friend from the other place, Lord Khan, the Faith Minister, has met representatives of all faiths and will continue to do so. The Government will keep having that important dialogue with different faith groups to ensure that the ideas that we bring forward will be effective and are rooted in real life, but we will also promote inter-faith work, which she mentioned. I know from my own community that when we have had challenges, the best thing we have had to lean on to tackle hate, wherever it might emerge, is the inter-faith relationship.

[Mr Jonathan Brash (Hartlepool) (Lab)]

There is real division in our communities, and extremism is changing at great speed. Although the vast majority of Members in this House treat such division as a tragedy and as something that needs to be solved calmly, there are some, sadly, who appear to view it as a political opportunity. Does the Minister agree that Members need to be calm in their dialogue on this issue, and that when they are not, they should be called out by all political parties?

[Alex Norris]

I have always felt that there were two types of politician. There are those who seek to move things forward politically by bringing people together, and those who seek to exploit division. It is up to individual hon. and right hon. Members to decide which is their personal approach. When there is divisive—or bordering on hateful—language in political parties, we would expect them to resolve that in their normal ways. With regard to leadership in this country, we are certainly the luckiest people in the country. We get to come here every day and tackle these issues head-on in the interests of our communities and our country. Almost exclusively, Members use that platform for good. We have important distinctions and differences, and that is great in a democracy, but we want to bring the country together and move it forward together. That is certainly the approach that I will be using.

Local Government Reorganisation

Jonathan Brash Excerpts

Wednesday 15th January 2025 Commons Chamber

[Jim McMahon]

Agreeing to write off £2 billion of debt at the Dispatch Box would be quite career-limiting, I would say. I can say, however, that the scale of the financial challenge in some areas is absolutely understood and we will work to try and find a solution. We are not yet at the point of announcing that, however.

[Mr Jonathan Brash (Hartlepool) (Lab)]

In Hartlepool, 75% of every penny spent by the council is spent on social care. That is contributing to a burden on council taxpayers in Hartlepool that is far too high. Does the Minister agree that in the wider local government reorganisation, consideration needs to be given to regional collaboration on social care or, indeed, removing social care from local government altogether to ease the burden on council tax payers?

[Jim McMahon]

My hon. Friend will be aware that Dame Louise Casey is conducting a broader review of adult social care for reasons that are well understood by the House. On whether the matter should or should not sit with local government, I will say that where local government really excels is in being local and rooted in the community, in being the deliverer of a public service and in being able to organise at a place level. That does make a difference, and we should not underestimate the impact when done well. We need to make sure that social services are adequately funded for the work they have to do to provide a good level of service for local people.

Oral Answers to Questions

Jonathan Brash Excerpts

Monday 28th October 2024 Commons Chamber

[Jim McMahon]

We always say that local government is paid for one way or the other: either we pay at the front-end through fair funding being fairly distributed across the country, or we pay at the back-end because eventually the system falls over and we must repair the damage. If we take ourselves back to the coalition years, when austerity first came in, the cruelty was that we did not reform public services, repairing them from the ground up, to get ahead of those system changes. That was a wasted opportunity.

[Mr Jonathan Brash (Hartlepool) (Lab)]

This year, Hartlepool borough council is set to overspend on children’s social care by some £5 million, due in no small part to the outrageous charges levied by private sector children’s homes. What can the Minister do to cap those providers’ charges to ensure that local government can continue to deliver its statutory obligations?

[Jim McMahon]

I recognise that, in large part, children’s services are the funding pressures that are driving council budgets. We cannot forget, though, that behind every one of those numbers is a child who often is not getting the outcomes they need. Far too often what we are seeing in the system is that high costs are not just sending councils to the point of bankruptcy, but delivering worse outcomes for young people. We want to see far more resilience built back into the system, and there are examples today of councils that are building that public sector provision back into the marketplace.

Employment Rights Bill

Jonathan Brash Excerpts

2nd reading
Monday 21st October 2024 Commons Chamber

[Mr Jonathan Brash (Hartlepool) (Lab)]

As many Members have done, I proudly register my membership of the GMB and Unison, and that I am a co-owner of a small business.

One of the consequences of the last 14 years is insecurity in every part of British life. Hartlepool people, who I represent, are insecure in their communities, in their homes and in their jobs. That is why I welcome the Bill, which has security at its heart, banning exploitative zero-hours contracts, ending fire and rehire, and providing day one rights. Listening to Opposition Members—maybe the shadow Minister could reflect on this in his wind-up speech—I would like to know on what day the Conservative party believes it suddenly becomes not okay to unfairly dismiss somebody. What is that time? If it is anything other than day one, then quite frankly they are abandoning the workers of this country.

The Bill does more than give security to workers. It gives people dignity: the dignity to grieve without having to ask permission; the dignity to choose to become a parent without having to worry if it will affect their opportunities in the workplace; the dignity of knowing that they can afford to be ill; and the dignity of knowing that they can turn up to work and be safe. Security and dignity are what British workers, including in Hartlepool, deserve. When people have security and dignity in the workplace, they get opportunity: the opportunity to grow, to develop, to train, to become better at what they do and to become more productive.

In recent days, I have heard people on the right of politics suggest that the Bill is somehow an attack on the “wealth creators” of our country. What nonsense. Let us be absolutely clear: the wealth of this country is created by its workers. Through the dignity, security and opportunity that the Bill provides, we will grow our economy and give respect to every worker in my constituency and beyond.

City and Town Centres: Regeneration

Jonathan Brash Excerpts

Wednesday 16th October 2024 Westminster Hall

[Catherine Atkinson]

My hon. Friend is a great friend to her local high street businesses. The Government have made a commitment on the community right to buy, and the Co-op party makes a strong case for devolved community ownership funds. I thank my hon. Friend for her intervention.

I turn to the scourge of vacant properties, which we need a particular focus on. Derbyshire Live estimated in May that more than 80 shops in Derby city centre were currently up for sale or to let—an increase of about 60% on two years previously, when it carried out the same survey of the major shopping streets. In the last few months, we have seen green shoots, with about 30 new businesses opening in Derby city centre and I have high hopes for the effect of the regeneration we have planned. We have some stunning architecture, but unused buildings fall into rack and ruin. Empty units are such a blight on town and city centres that I want to call today for a specific Government strategy on vacant shops.

[Mr Jonathan Brash (Hartlepool) (Lab)]

My hon. Friend is making an excellent case for our high streets. In Hartlepool derelict commercial properties are a similar problem. Just in the last few days the old Odeon building in Hartlepool was the victim of arson and is being demolished as I speak. Do we not need to give far greater powers to local authorities, as has already been mentioned, particularly around compulsory purchase, to get these buildings out of the hands of private developers who, frankly, are not interested in the pride and community of our high streets that we are arguing for today?

[Catherine Atkinson]

That is certainly one option that we must explore. I know that my hon. Friend has been a strong advocate for investment in Hartlepool.

Fairly or unfairly, many people will judge how well the economy does on whether the number of empty shops in their local town or city centre noticeably rises or falls.