Lord Blunkett
Main Page: Lord Blunkett (Labour - Life peer)
Robert Neill
The hon. Gentleman, who is experienced in these matters, well knows the dire financial straits the country is in and the need for all sectors to save money. However, he ought to put that in the context of what we have had to do because of the legacy of his party’s Government. We have taken steps to protect formula grant, to un-ring-fence a good deal of grant to give local authorities more financial flexibility and to remove burdens such as the expensive comprehensive area assessment inspection regime.
Mr David Blunkett (Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough) (Lab)
If the Government cut external funding based specifically on local authorities’ levels of deprivation—external funding available to Witney in Oxfordshire at 1.7% but to the city of Sheffield at 18.5%, for example—is it not inevitable that those in greatest need will take the biggest cuts?
Robert Neill
Those in greatest need ultimately bear the burden of paying off the debt which this country has been left—[Interruption.]