Levelling Up Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
Mick Whitley
Main Page: Mick Whitley (Labour - Birkenhead)Department Debates - View all Mick Whitley's debates with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
Levelling Up
Mick Whitley Excerpts(2 years, 9 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Michael Gove
Absolutely. I enjoyed visiting Grimsby and Cleethorpes earlier this week. North-east Lincolnshire is great. It is time I visited north Lincolnshire as well.
Mick Whitley (Birkenhead) (Lab)
Wirral Council is facing a budget black hole of more than £20 million. I have pledged to do whatever I can to save the fantastic public services that so many of my constituents rely on, and I am grateful to the Secretary of State for kindly agreeing to meet me and my hon. Friends from the Wirral to discuss this very serious situation. Levelling up will remain nothing more than an empty catchphrase as long as local authorities such as mine are forced to consider closing libraries, leisure centres and swimming pools. Ahead of our meeting, can he tell me if he thinks this White Paper comes anywhere close to undoing the enormous damage done to local authorities’ finances since 2010?
Michael Gove
I am looking forward to a meeting. I recognise that there are real issues in the Wirral, which I hope we can work together to resolve.