Local Government Finance (Rural Authorities)

Lord Beith Excerpts

Monday 11th February 2013 Commons Chamber

[Neil Parish]

I thank my hon. Friend for his intervention, because I was going to say how much I thank him for his support. He chairs the Rural Fair Share campaign, and I thank him for pursuing this issue with Ministers with such tenacity and for helping to secure this debate. I agree with him entirely that the current situation just is not fair. We are not here to rob urban authorities of their money, but we are saying clearly to the Government that there are inequalities and they must be put right.

[Sir Alan Beith (Berwick-upon-Tweed) (LD)]

Does the damping system not make the matter worse? It says to rural authorities, “You deserve more but we are not going to give it to you until at least 2020. We are going to give it to authorities that will kick up a fuss if we don’t give it to them.”

[Neil Parish]

I shall go on to mention the damping, but it seems to have achieved the worst of all worlds. The funding issue was looked into, and the Government listened to rural authorities and said that they would move money across, but the so-called damping process has been added to the system and it seems to have made the settlement even worse than it would have been without it. That is where the Government must look again.