Oral Answers to Questions

Natasha Irons Excerpts

Monday 2nd September 2024 Commons Chamber

[Clive Jones (Wokingham) (LD)]

15. What recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of council funding.

[Natasha Irons (Croydon East) (Lab)]

16. What steps she is taking with local authorities to help ensure that they have adequate resources to fund local services.

[The Minister for Local Government and English Devolution (Jim McMahon)]

I know at first hand how hard councils work to deliver essential public services, and we want to thank councillors, council officials and council workers for the hard work that they do all year round. The Government are under no illusions about the challenges facing local authorities. It is our priority to reset the relationship between local and central Government, and to end the politics that has seen Westminster hoard far too much power, holding back our towns, cities and villages from realising their full potential. We will provide more stability for councils through multi-year funding settlements, ending the competitive bidding process and reforming the broken audit system. Future local authority funding decisions are of course a matter for the spending review and the local government finance settlement, in which we are fully engaged.

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[Jim McMahon]

Any fair funding formula of course has to address the range of challenges that local authorities face, whether that is their local tax base, and how much they can realistically generate from their local communities and businesses, or the cost of service delivery and the demand within a local community. We will ensure that the fair funding formula, of which multi-year settlements are a part, is done with that rigour.

[Natasha Irons]

There can be no way of fixing the foundations of this country without fixing the foundations of local government, so I am pleased to hear that this council—sorry, this Government—are looking to reset the relationship with local councils; as a local councillor, I am stuck in the habit. Will the Minister please outline what specific support will be given to councils that have had to issue section 114 notices, to ensure that they can deliver on this Government’s aims throughout the country?

[Jim McMahon]

Local councils are central to delivering on this Government’s missions, and to changing this country for the better, but we know that many of them are on a cliff edge financially, and many of them will be fearful for their budget going forward. We will work in partnership with my hon. Friend. The Department’s door is always open to local authorities that need to have conversations.