Fuel Prices

Debate between Michael McCann and Sheila Gilmore

Tuesday 15th November 2011 Commons Chamber

[Sheila Gilmore (Edinburgh East) (Lab)]

Like the hon. Member for Truro and Falmouth (Sarah Newton), I want to talk about some of the issues that affect people in my constituency. I feel a little out of place in this debate: so many Members from rural constituencies have talked about either the rural idyll or the rural hell that I feel, as I represent an urban constituency, that I should perhaps not venture into the discussion. However, fuel prices do of course affect urban as well as rural areas.

I wish to develop points about issues such as community transport, which is essential for a lot of elderly people to be able get to activities such as lunch clubs, and to get out of their own homes instead of being housebound. The local organisation in my area is struggling because of the reductions in grants, which are a result of local government cuts. Its core funding, which allows it to be run and administered, has been cut, and at the same time fuel prices are increasing. If it increased its charges to the organisations that use it, that would just bounce the problem on to another set of voluntary organisations—the ones that provide lunch clubs and other activities.

[Mr McCann]

Does my hon. Friend accept that as well as the austerity cuts in the United Kingdom Parliament, with the Government going too far, too fast, which is having a disproportionate effect, the Scottish National party Administration in Scotland are making unsustainable spending decisions? They are placing the burden on local government, which in turn has to make tough decisions about local spending.