Local Government Finance

Mark Field Excerpts

Wednesday 9th February 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Pickles]

My hon. Friend is of course perfectly right. The Opposition seem to think that it is magic money, but it would actually come out of people’s pockets through business rates or income tax. The reason why we are in this position is that the guilty people on the Labour Benches allowed things to get out of hand.

[Mr Mark Field (Cities of London and Westminster) (Con)]

Will my right hon. Friend go into some detail for the benefit of the House about his commitment to the vulnerable through the transition grant allocations? I have had a cursory look at them, and they seem reasonably generous and seem to take account of the need to look after some of the most vulnerable parts of the country.

[Mr Pickles]

We have done three significant things. First, we moved the relative needs threshold to 83% from 73%, which makes a considerable difference and is far more than the Labour Government ever offered poorer communities. We then divided up authorities based on their level of funding, from the most dependent on grant to the least dependent, and ensured that the most dependent received smaller cuts. Then we managed to find an additional transitional amount to ensure that no authority loses more than 8.9%. I will have a further announcement to make about that.