Provisional Local Government Finance Settlement

Debate between Lord Jackson of Peterborough and Baroness Taylor of Stevenage

Thursday 19th December 2024 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

The noble Baroness makes a very good point. I pay tribute to my colleagues in local government, who do an amazing job of continuing to deliver some non-statutory services in spite of the incredible financial pressures they have been under. For example, we still managed to keep a theatre open in my area. That happens all across the country, so all credit to local government for the work it does on this. The noble Baroness mentioned constant rounds of bidding for pots of funding. We think that is wasteful and unnecessary. It just sets authorities up against one another in competing for pots of funding. We will do our very best to get rid of that approach. As we develop the spending review proposals, we will build what local authorities need for the future into core funding.

[Lord Jackson of Peterborough (Con)]

My Lords, because the Minister is a very experienced and knowledgeable former local authority leader, she will know, in all fairness, that Covid, inflation, energy costs and demographic change were also issues that the previous Government had to face. Her Government will have to face some of them as well. On the specific pots of money to be bid for, I ask her to alight on the issue of planners. Is there any possibility that the Government might look to provide bespoke funding to enable local authorities to recruit and retain planners so that they can build the houses that are necessary, particularly for young working people, and that they can take forward very important regeneration projects in their local areas?

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

I thank the noble Lord for his kind comments. I do understand that a few issues arose in recent years, but an awful lot of money seemed to be wasted during Covid that might have been better spent delivering local services. On funding for planning, we announced alongside the NPPF announcement that additional funding is available to support local authorities’ capacity for planners. We recognise that, with an absolutely key mission on growth, the planning capacity in local authorities needs to be strengthened. Our colleagues in the Department for Education are working on skills and repurposing the apprenticeship levy into a skills and growth levy, and there is some direct funding support for local authorities. We hope that will attract around 300 new planners. I know you cannot go and pick them off trees, but that will help to support the planning that will need to be done to support the growth we need in our country.