Local Government Funding

Marcus Jones Excerpts

Wednesday 28th March 2018 Commons Chamber

[Andrew Gwynne]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. Of course, part of the reason—two sides of the same coin—is that there have been eight years of cuts from this place to local councils, meaning that council budgets have shrunk. It is also this place that has allowed councils to increase council tax. This year it increased the limit by a further 1%, which means that it is merely shifting the blame on to local councillors of all political persuasions—and this is not a party political point.

[Mr Marcus Jones (Nuneaton) (Con)]

Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

[Andrew Gwynne]

I will give way in a moment, but I am responding to my hon. Friend the Member for Ilford North (Wes Streeting).

That is why it is so unfair: the Government have devolved the cuts and devolved the blame. They have sought to distance themselves from decisions for which each and every Member on the Conservative Benches is directly responsible.

[Mr Jones]

I remind the hon. Gentleman that council tax is less in real terms than it was in 2010. Does he not believe he should think about his party’s own record? Between 1997 and 2010 council tax doubled.

[Andrew Gwynne]

And I remind the hon. Gentleman that council spending has been less in real terms since 2010. In the decade to 2020, my own local authority of Tameside will have lost close to £200 million of Government funding. That is unsustainable and he has some responsibility for that because of his votes.

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[Andrew Gwynne]

Because it is a fact that the local government finance settlement went nowhere near the gaps that have been created by the hon. Lady’s party in local government. We do not support ongoing austerity. We want to ensure that we reinvest in our public services, and that is why I hope she will join us in the Lobby tonight. If she believes in defending public services and wants to see more money for our local councils, she can support our motion tonight, and I look forward to her being in our Lobby.

House building has fallen to its lowest rate since the 1920s and homelessness is rising. The number of people sleeping rough on our streets has more than doubled since 2010—[Interruption.] The Secretary of State can chunter, but I do not think that doubling the number of rough sleepers is a record for the Housing Secretary to be proud of. Older people are not living with the dignity and comfort that they deserve because of the cuts to social care. The outsourcing of public services has led to one scandal after another, and the collapse of private outsourcing companies such as Carillion has put services at further risk. Demand for children’s services is placing growing pressure on all councils. Central Government funding to support children and their families has been cut by 55% since the Conservatives came to office.

[Mr Marcus Jones]

Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

[Andrew Gwynne]

Well, if the hon. Gentleman can say where the extra £1.7 billion that has been cut from children’s services will be made up from, I look forward to hearing his suggestion.

[Mr Jones]

The hon. Gentleman is critical of outsourcing, but can he say whether he ever supported or endorsed private finance initiative contracts or outsourcing during his time as a councillor?

[Andrew Gwynne]

The fact is that—[Hon. Members: “Yes or no?”] The fact is that the privatisation of our council services has been a catastrophic failure. I can tell the hon. Gentleman that the next Labour Government will introduce new rules to allow councils that want to to fully in-source their services without let or hindrance by the Government, because we support publicly owned, publicly accountable public services.

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[Sajid Javid]

If the hon. Gentleman listens to the rest of my speech, perhaps he will appreciate the issues and challenges on financing and how they are being addressed.

I referred a moment ago to some of the changes that councils are bringing about in their structure, and it is important in all those cases that the changes are led from the ground up. Where that is the case, we will not hesitate to work with those councils and to take them seriously.

[Mr Marcus Jones]

The quantum of local government finance and fair funding across the system is extremely important, but does the Secretary of State agree that how money is spent is also extremely important? I use the example of the appallingly run Labour Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council, which has overspent by £1.5 million on setting up a council depot. Does not money have to be spent in a better way?

[Sajid Javid]

Typically, my hon. Friend makes an excellent point. He speaks from his years of experience as a Local Government Minister, and he cites the excellent example of misspending by Nuneaton. Further up the road from Nuneaton, he could equally have picked Birmingham City Council, which has been in a shambles because of repeated mismanagement by a Labour administration. We shall see what the verdict of the electorate is in a few weeks’ time.