Amendment of the Law

Penny Mordaunt Excerpts

Monday 26th March 2012 Commons Chamber

[Penny Mordaunt (Portsmouth North) (Con)]

My constituents welcome many measures in the Budget, particularly the raising of the personal allowance. The average wage in my city is less than the benefit cap, and it is the very people who were clobbered by Labour’s abolition of the 10p rate who will benefit most from that measure. The news of £100 million for service accommodation improvements and other welfare measures for armed forces personnel in theatre is especially welcome in the home of the Royal Navy. Today, however—with my hat as co-chairman of the all-party parliamentary group for ageing and older people firmly on—I want to focus on the Budget measures that relate specifically to that demographic.

This April, pensioners will receive the largest ever cash increase in the basic state pension, and the complex means-testing system will be reformed to create a new single-tier system set above the means test for future pensioners. That is great news. Many of us have campaigned for such a reform for a long time. I was a critic of pension credit because of the massive “under-take-up” caused by its obscurity and bureaucracy, as a result of which thousands of pensioners in my city are living in poverty. It is better to have a bigger state pension for all.

The second measure that I welcomed was the move towards a simple single-person allowance regardless of age. Half of those pensioners pay no tax, and a high proportion of those who do, do not make use of this allowance. In that respect, the situation is like that of the flawed pension credit. This move will ultimately mean 150,000 pensioners no longer have to fill in self-assessment forms. The Institute for Fiscal Studies argued that this was reasonable and that pensioners had been protected from benefits cuts and tax increases and had lost considerably less than any other demographic group. I accept that.

What I have found harder to swallow is the inter-generational comparisons drawn in the media. We cannot expect younger generations to bear the burden of the economic crisis into which Labour spent us. That burden has to be shared, of course, but the notion that pensioners’ incomes are excessive because they exceed those of younger workers is bizarre. Our attitude towards pensioners is critical, not just in how we deal with the current crisis, but in how we inspire younger generations to make provision for their older age. I think we are also sometimes in danger of missing the opportunities that a greater focus on the aspirations of older people could bring. Historically, the Treasury and many other Departments have been guilty of that.

Local authorities, too, have not protected budgets for older people. They have not been focused on unmet need, and they have not been smart about advising people to pre-empt the exhaustion of older people’s assets by helping them to plan for the costs of care.

It is not just in these more obvious areas that older people are disadvantaged, however. Let us consider, for example, the everyday frustrations of ordinary businesses applying for credit in the current straitened times, and then imagine how much more difficult it is for a grey entrepreneur with a brilliant idea for a second career, but who encounters ageism from the local bank manager. Meeting older people’s unmet needs and aspirations will not just benefit today’s senior citizens: it will make a contribution to getting UK plc back on its feet, lessen the burden on the public purse, and lighten the load for younger generations.

So how can we ensure that the Treasury is firmly focused on these opportunities? Earlier this Session, I helped the Grey Pride campaign deliver a petition with 140,000 signatures to Downing street. It asked for a Minister for older people. In my opinion, that should be not another name on the Government payroll, but a new responsibility allocated to a Minister already enjoying the view both from the Treasury and the Cabinet table. I appreciate that the Chancellor has quite enough to do clearing up after his predecessor but one, so I think that the Chief Secretary to the Treasury should assume this additional role. He might relish the savings for the national health service from a reduction in hospital admissions, the increase in capital mobility through targeted equity release schemes, and the substantial additional tax receipts from successful older workers.

We are used to hearing about sending for the men in grey suits, but now is the time for us all to listen more closely to the people with grey, or greying, hair, and there is a delicious irony in the fact that the current Chief Secretary is both the youngest Cabinet Minister and certainly the least grey-haired. I shall propose this for debate at the next Backbench Business Committee meeting.

Budget Leak Inquiry

Penny Mordaunt Excerpts

Thursday 22nd March 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Gauke]

I have absolutely no evidence that the Treasury briefed on the 7% stamp duty announcement, but none the less an announcement was made in the morning, and the measure came into effect at midnight last night. We also ought to make the point that that measure, on stamp duty land tax, is going to get more money out of the wealthy, and much more successfully, than the Labour party managed with its failed 50p rate.

[Penny Mordaunt (Portsmouth North) (Con)]

Does the Minister agree that the fact that the Opposition have tabled an urgent question today on media management is further evidence that the Budget was a good Budget and Labour has nothing to say on growth or jobs?

[Mr Gauke]

I agree. The focus on process not substance is very revealing.

Scottish Football (Tax Liabilities)

Penny Mordaunt Excerpts

Wednesday 29th February 2012 Westminster Hall

[Thomas Docherty]

The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right. I see that the hon. Member for Portsmouth North (Penny Mordaunt) is in the Chamber. She has championed that model for Portsmouth FC, so perhaps she will be tempted to contribute to the debate. There are some good examples of that model in Scotland. I referred earlier to Brechin City which, as hon. Members may know, had on its board Mr David Will, the FIFA vice-president for the British Isles, and a local lawyer, steeped in Brechin City. There are successful models of clubs, both large and small, where the shareholders are the fans. I hope that the Treasury will look at ways of trying to ensure that a fit and proper person test means not only that liars such as Mr Whyte are not put in charge of clubs, but that we can all have comfort in club finances for the future.

[Penny Mordaunt (Portsmouth North) (Con)]

I congratulate the hon. Gentleman on securing the debate, which I am attending as a Pompey supporter, so I share his pain and that of other hon. Members. We too have been badly let down, but I hope that the supporters’ trust will soon have a financial stake in the club.

Does the hon. Gentleman agree that when Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs deals with clubs in such situations, it is important that it considers the club as a distinct entity, and does not tar it with the sins of the whole football community going back over many years? That has been my experience of the way that HMRC dealt with Portsmouth, and I would like to put on the record my thanks to HMRC staff, and to the Minister for facilitating dialogue. I hope that Rangers and other clubs have similar success.

[Thomas Docherty]

I am grateful to the hon. Lady for those comments. She has been a staunch champion of Pompey’s interests, and I know that she badgered the Minister on more than one occasion to ensure that the club got a fair hearing. She is right to say that each club needs to be considered on its own merits, and I will perhaps return to that point during my remarks.

Thanks to the Scottish press, which has been assiduous in trying to get to the truth of this sorry affair, it has been particularly disturbing to discover in recent weeks that HMRC has been engaged in a long-standing battle with Rangers over what the Treasury believes, and I believe, is a tax-avoidance scam instigated by David Murray. If Rangers lose this ongoing court case, it has been estimated that the club will owe HMRC somewhere in the region of £45 million in unpaid taxes from over the past decade.

On 9 January 2012, shares in Rangers were suspended from trading on the PLUS stock exchange for failure to submit audited accounts—alarm bells should have rung at that point. Mr Whyte, however, dismissed it as unimportant because he was by then, he argued, the dominant shareholder. On 5 February, Rangers were knocked out of the Scottish cup by Dundee United at Ibrox. On 11 February, Dunfermline hosted Rangers in the Scottish premier league. Finally, after months of speculation, on Monday 13 February, Rangers lodged their intention to enter administration at the Court of Session. Mr Whyte told reporters that, in his estimation, the club’s final tax bill could amount to £75 million—an astonishing amount. The following day, the club appointed Duff and Phelps as administrators. The SPL deducted 10 points from Rangers, which left them 14 points behind Celtic.

Rangers entering administration has not simply changed the dynamic of the title race but has had a devastating impact on three groups of people: first, the staff—both playing and non-playing—of Rangers FC; secondly, the companies that are owed money by Rangers as creditors; and thirdly, the other 11 members of the Scottish premier league, which is the group that I wish to raise with the Minister today.

No one should have anything other than sympathy for those who face losing their jobs at Ibrox, in particular those who work behind the scenes and are not millionaires, and who will not easily find employment in the current economic climate.

There are two distinct yet equally important categories of club. Two clubs in the SPL have claimed that they are owed money by Rangers for ticket sales, and I will explain their situation for the benefit of the House. Under the rules of the Scottish Football Association and the SPL, the total gate receipt for a league game belongs to the home club. It is standard operating practice for the away club to sell tickets for their end of the ground, but under the rules of the league, that money must be paid to the home team within seven days of the fixture taking place, minus any pre-agreed handling fee. The money is not the property of the away team, which is merely the handling agent.

For games in the Scottish cup, however, ticket sales for the whole ground are split equally between the two clubs, minus any operating costs, and the home team get to keep any proceeds from hospitality, refreshments, or programme sales. Under SFA rules, the two teams that have sold tickets do not have any right to count those ticket sales on their balance sheets, as they are merely holding agents and the money is to be put into the pool of gate receipts for the cup tie as a whole. In other words, the two clubs are merely acting as agents; it is not their money.

When Rangers entered administration, the club and its administrators, Duff and Phelps, refused point blank to hand either amount of money to Dundee United or Dunfermline, arguing that it should go into the pot of credited money. Let me be clear and send a message to Rangers’ administrators: that money does not belong—and has never belonged—to Rangers. Holding on to it is not only morally wrong, it is nothing short of theft.

What makes matters worse is that members of the Rangers board of directors were in the directors lounge at East End Park on the Saturday in question. They looked their counterparts in the eye, and told them that on Monday the money would be transferred to Dunfermline Athletic by BACS payment. It is utterly inconceivable that on that Saturday afternoon, the board of directors, which included Mr Ali Russell, did not know that on Monday afternoon they would be filing papers with the Court of Session. For the two clubs involved, despite the support of the SPL and the SFA, it will probably take months to recover the money to which they are legally and morally entitled from Duff and Phelps.

The second category of club involves any club in Scotland—or elsewhere—that has entered into financial transactions with Rangers, for example over the transfer of players. We know that at least one club, Heart of Midlothian, stated that it is owed close to £1 million for the transfer of a player to Rangers. It is in a more complicated situation—one that you will be familiar with, Mr Betts—concerning the rule of football first creditors. As I understand it, Scotland does not have the same rules as England about football first creditors, but that is an issue of ongoing legal dispute between the clubs, HMRC and the creditors.

It is more than likely—in fact, I have been led to believe—that other clubs, which I will not name because they have not asked to be named, are also owed money for various transactions and are in a similar situation to Hearts. As you will see, Mr Betts, these are not insignificant sums, particularly given the parlous state of Scottish football as a whole. Scottish football faces several months of uncertainty and disruption while the financial affairs of Rangers are sorted out.

Before I set out what HMRC should be doing going forward, it is worth reflecting on its role in allowing the situation to occur in the first place. In recent months, every Member of the House will have been visited by the owners of local businesses, asking for assistance in working with HMRC to deal with short-term cash flow challenges. The sums involved are often not large. However, HMRC is not exactly known for adopting a sympathetic or flexible approach to assisting local companies with problems.

Indeed, the Minister will probably recall correspondence between him and me before Christmas about one of my local businesses, which despite many years without a single missed or late payment, had experienced a short-term problem and found HMRC to be unbending and—dare I say it?—uninterested in its problem. People can imagine the surprise felt by those businesses, many of which have contacted me in recent days, when we learned that HMRC had not received any payment from Rangers for pay-as-you-earn or, apparently, VAT since last May and that the sums for PAYE and VAT have now reached, according to the Scottish press, some £15 million.

I am not criticising HMRC per se for the decision not to require payment from Rangers. I do, however, believe that it is wrong that the club has been treated differently from not only any other club in the league, but thousands of small and medium-sized businesses in Scotland. There are serious questions that require proper answers, and I hope that the Minister can provide some of them today.

First, it is inconceivable to everyone, frankly, given the sums and the time period involved, that HMRC allowed this situation to develop unilaterally. Can the Minister confirm to the House whether any UK Ministers were aware of the size and severity of the non-payment by Rangers, and whether any discussions took place among UK Ministers and between Ministers and HMRC about possible courses of action? Will the Minister also confirm whether any representations have been received from the Scottish Government, either before or after Rangers went into administration, on the issue of its tax liabilities?

As I said, I do not criticise the decision of HMRC not to force payment of moneys due. However, I believe that given the knock-on effects on the other 11 clubs and the fact that the integrity of the Scottish premier league season itself is now at risk, HMRC must take proactive steps to support the other 11 clubs. In short, I would like HMRC to carry out the following actions, and I would be grateful for the Minister’s confirmation that HMRC will indeed do so. HMRC should now proactively contact the other 11 clubs to establish what financial liabilities they have as a result of Rangers going into administration. HMRC should then work constructively and sensitively with the clubs and the SPL to ensure that none of the other clubs is unable temporarily to meet their obligations to the taxpayer.

To be clear, I believe that it is right and proper that by the end of the season, all 12 clubs should meet all their financial obligations to HMRC and the taxpayer, but they need to be given the breathing space to sort out the sorry mess created by Mr Craig Whyte. I urge the Government to ensure that all the other 11 clubs pay in full the sums owed to HMRC by the time of the last whistle at the end of the season, but that individual packages of payments can be tailored so that financial penalties are not incurred by them as a result of the actions of another—indeed, the largest—club.

I would be grateful if the Minister could also set out what contact he has had, if any, from the Scottish Government since Rangers went into administration to offer assistance to the clubs or to the SPL to meet their obligations. I would be grateful if the Minister could meet me in the coming days if there are any questions that he feels unable to answer in a public forum, so that we can further discuss the crisis in Scottish football.

Connecting Europe Facility

Penny Mordaunt Excerpts

Thursday 19th January 2012 Commons Chamber

[Penny Mordaunt (Portsmouth North) (Con)]

I welcome the Government’s approach to this and connected issues. I agree that large increases in EU spending are not acceptable at present, and that they jar with the necessary and tough measures required by member states to tackle their deficits. Measures that would impose substantial bureaucracy and associated costs on member states, and on our local authorities and businesses, are both unwelcome and unnecessary. Allowing such decisions to remain with member states would not erect a barrier to the progress of schemes that would benefit the single market.

It will come as no surprise to many Members who are present, particularly the Minister of State, Department for Transport, my right hon. Friend the Member for Chipping Barnet (Mrs Villiers), that I intend to speak mainly about funds for the core and comprehensive transport networks, as I never need much excuse to start talking about trains. The main purpose of the funds is to promote co-operation and co-ordination. We need only look back to the early days of rail to see that that is very important. In the 1870s, the Great Western Railway was busily laying a gauge of 7 feet while every other company was busily laying gauges of 4 feet 8 inches, and better planning would certainly have saved Brunel and his contemporaries a lot of grief, but such co-operation does not require us to pay into a centrally administered fund. We should spend the money on projects that benefit the UK directly, which would not preclude co-operation.

Transport spending must be directed towards projects that will support growth and investment in member states, but that should be a matter for individual member states. The Government are prioritising new projects that will yield a substantial return on investment, such as High Speed 2, Crossrail, Thameslink and, in order to make faster journeys possible, the electrification of key routes such as the First Great Western service between London and Cardiff, the First TransPennine Express route from York, Leeds and Manchester, and services between Liverpool, Preston and Manchester. Many of the schemes are controversial, and following consultation the Government have made changes. What chance would our citizens have to influence such schemes if the decisions were not made by the Governments of member states?

As well as yielding a good return on investment, the Government’s schemes will reduce the impact on the environment, and the aim will be to keep pace with public demand in terms of both capacity and quality. Other member states should be doing likewise. I am concerned about the idea of the UK’s paying into a fund and receiving very little back, in the form of either infrastructure or benefit from a scheme in another member state. I think that that is true of any member state, but our geography makes it doubly true of us.

According to my quick and dirty assessment, given the focus on the missing border links scheme and other measures intended to support growth in the single market, many schemes favoured by the UK would be very low in the pecking order were the Commission’s proposal to proceed. Moreover, member states would be given no incentive to put their own houses in order and prioritise spending, because some of the criteria for the operation of the fund would be skewed towards states that had continually failed to get to grips with balancing their books and controlling their spending.

As Ministers will know, my hobby horse extends beyond greener and faster transport to comfort standards and the opportunity presented by rail franchises. The Financial Secretary to the Treasury, who is a neighbour of mine, will know of the campaign to prevent South West Trains from continually replacing rolling stock that it should be using for main line services with substandard suburban stock. Those issues are not as high-profile or sexy as the issue of new routes, but they are very important to the public, and they affect the viability of particular modes of passenger transport as much as new routes.

In a short space of time, franchise agreements and many other factors will present us with real opportunities. We need to seize those opportunities, and given that they will be time-sensitive, the more healthy our financial position and the more flexibility we have in making decisions and attracting investors, the better. I am firmly in favour of member states retaining as much control as possible over these investment funds.

Autumn Statement

Penny Mordaunt Excerpts

Tuesday 29th November 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Osborne]

I explained that, pound for pound and in each year, we were paying for infrastructure spending with savings in current spending or underspend, so the position is absolutely consistent with the plan that I set out before. On jobs, I have not put a figure on the total number of jobs created by all this infrastructure—I do not want to over-promise and under-deliver. It will create jobs, but we do not have a figure. We are dramatically expanding the number of apprenticeships. I want to ensure that they are in the construction sector, and I would certainly hope that large firms taking part in Government infrastructure investment projects—and, indeed, firms in our small business scheme—are also taking on apprentices.

[Penny Mordaunt (Portsmouth North) (Con)]

May I welcome the Chancellor’s vote of confidence in the space sector today? I hope that Portsmouth, via Astrium, might benefit directly from that investment, but wherever the money goes, can he confirm that this Government will be—if he will forgive the expression—a “launch customer” and that our procurement will support those companies in massively increasing their exports?

[Mr Osborne]

We are giving specific support to new satellite manufacturing, which is a real success story in Britain—it is one of those untold stories. I know that the sector is particularly successful in the area that my hon. Friend represents. From memory—I will certainly correct the record if I have got this wrong—we are providing £25 million to support the development of new satellites, as a result bringing, we think, an additional £150 million of private sector investment into the small satellites sector, which I think is also taking place in the area that she represents. That is a good example of the Government trying to encourage the private sector and get jobs across the country.

Eurozone Crisis

Penny Mordaunt Excerpts

Thursday 27th October 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Osborne]

I could not agree more with my hon. Friend. The European single market has helped the UK economy over the last couple of decades. We want to see it completed further and we want to see the services directive properly implemented. Competition has brought great benefits not just to the economy, but to European consumers, including those in this country. To my mind, that is what the European Union exists to do. It should make its contribution to growth across the continent.

[Penny Mordaunt (Portsmouth North) (Con)]

Will my right hon. Friend assure my constituents that the euro preparations unit has been abolished and that under this Government it will never be re-established?

[Mr Osborne]

That is an easy assurance for me to give to my hon. Friend’s constituents. There was a euro preparations unit in the Treasury when I arrived. It was shut down and it will not be reopened.

Eurozone

Penny Mordaunt Excerpts

Monday 10th October 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Osborne]

I have made it a policy not to comment on the value of sterling and I do not intend to break that policy right now.

[Penny Mordaunt (Portsmouth North) (Con)]

Many of my constituents do not want the UK to be part of any new, permanent EU bail-out mechanism. Will the Chancellor confirm that under this Government we will not be part of such a mechanism?

[Mr Osborne]

I certainly can confirm that, and it is down to the hard negotiating effort of the Prime Minister at the European Council where it was agreed to wind down the temporary EU27 fund and that the permanent bail-out fund would not include Britain.

Finance (No. 3) Bill

Penny Mordaunt Excerpts

Tuesday 3rd May 2011 Commons Chamber

[Justine Greening]

No, we have heard enough from Labour Members.

We had to take decisions to support motorists in spite of the catastrophic state of public finances that Labour handed over. We have made sure that there are no fuel duty increases this year by deferring the inflation-only increase that was planned for April to 1 January 2012. This is real help for families and for businesses. As of 1 April, average pump prices are approximately 6p per litre lower than if we had continued with the previous Government’s escalator.

[Penny Mordaunt (Portsmouth North) (Con)]

I have listened to this debate with great interest, because I was previously spokesman for the Freight Transport Association and I remember that one year into the Labour Government’s stewardship of the fuel duty escalator hauliers were on the streets of London on a go-slow programme because of the way that they approached taxation.

[Justine Greening]

My hon. Friend is right to refer to the response of hauliers to the previous Government’s policy.

The hon. Member for York Central called the action that the Government have taken for hauliers in the Budget “slight”. Actually, the average haulier will benefit by approximately £1,700 in 2010-11 as a result of those measures compared with what they would otherwise have faced. I also draw his attention to the remaining part of the package for motorists, which includes freezing vehicle excise duty on HGVs, providing further help to hauliers. The package is even broader than that, because for motorists who are required to use their own vehicle for work, the approved mileage allowance payments rate, which had not been increased by the previous Government since 2002, was increased from 40p to 45p per mile for the first 10,000 miles. An average AMAPs user claiming for 2,500 miles a year will benefit by £125 a year.

Bank Bonuses

Penny Mordaunt Excerpts

Tuesday 11th January 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Osborne]

The apology should start with the previous Labour Government. Unemployment is high in the right hon. Gentleman’s constituency because it rose under the previous Labour Government and we are having to deal with welfare costs because they soared under the previous Labour Government. When it comes to student fees, I believe that he was the Minister responsible for higher education who commissioned Lord Browne to do his report. Frankly, opportunism and the Labour party go hand in hand these days.

[Penny Mordaunt (Portsmouth North) (Con)]

When my constituents complain about bankers’ bonuses, it is usually in the same breath as highlighting poor banking practices such as overcharging as well as issues with their ability to get credit for their business. What assurances can the Chancellor give that those poor practices will stop?

[Mr Osborne]

It is explicitly those sorts of practices that are part of the discussions we are having with the banks. We want to ensure that they treat customers, including small businesses and households, more fairly, to look at the overcharging issue and to make sure that families and business are given good advance warning of the need to renegotiate terms. That is all part of what we seek to renegotiate. As I have said, we have heard absolutely no positive proposals from anyone in opposition. That says a great deal.

Cabinet Office

Penny Mordaunt Excerpts

Tuesday 21st December 2010 Commons Chamber

[Penny Mordaunt (Portsmouth North) (Con)]

The third sector makes a huge contribution to the quality of life of everyone in my constituency, and given the opportunity it could do even more. In Portsmouth, we are particularly indebted to Community First, which has done so much to support charities and community organisations.

However, there are some very real threats to the sector’s capacity to expand, and even maintain, its current work in the community. Local authorities are faced with reduced grants from central Government. In the economic circumstances, it would be a naive council that thought that it would be protected from the consequences of a massive deficit, but it would be a lazy council that responded to the challenge of a reduced budget by cutting funding to third sector organisations.

If local authorities use this spending round as a cover for a retreat to the comfort of central provision, they will not be thanked and nor will they be acting responsibly. I am sure that everyone in the House understands, and can give many examples from their own constituencies, of how the third sector delivers better value for money and the most client-focused services, raises additional funds and inspires more good will than its public and private sector counterparts. It is said that the people do not know what the big society is, but people do know that and the third sector has been laying the foundations for years. It is big state local authorities that are refusing planning permission for the next stage.

I have identified four key concerns in Portsmouth. First, local authorities must harness the power of the third sector rather than stifling it and running it down. There is a lacuna in service commissioners’ understanding of what the sector can offer and an unwillingness to fill it. The Government have done and are doing much to level up the playing field, but unless commitment is continued at a local level where powers are being pushed, we will not succeed in empowering charities and community groups to become providers or set up sustainable services.

Take a service such as Motiv8, for young people in Portsmouth. The enormous amount of money that it saves the public purse in the long term is well documented and there is no doubt that such services are required. Yet unless it can be sure of transition funding, some of its activities might have to stop. There is no doubt that the ill effects of its absence will be keenly felt and, in time, the council will need to re-establish similar provision—but this time, probably council-provided. That is a complete waste of money and the same could be said for other services such as Pompey Stars, Off The Record and Enable Ability, which already deliver very good returns on investment.

To shut such services in spring purely to reinvent them in the summer, following the loss of staff, premises and good will, seems a crazy thing to do, especially as these services are often able to attract considerable additional funding if they are given enough time to do so.

This small-mindedness is further represented by the lack of a commissioning framework in Portsmouth. That makes it extremely difficult for organisations such as the Alzheimer’s Society to plug into the service needs of the population. Work is under way to streamline and standardise commissioning in Portsmouth, but I am very sceptical about whether that will create a level playing field for small voluntary organisations.

There is much to be done on the demand side of commissioning, too. If we are really to tackle the considerable unmet need that exists in Alzheimer’s and dementia care, we must be focused on that need and find ways to meet it. Portsmouth city council must cut its backroom costs and find ways of making every pound spent on these services lever in more funding and volunteers. It should be increasing provision, not shutting services in the north of the city such as those provided at the Patey centre.

[Mr Bone]

My hon. Friend has made a powerful case when mentioning her local council. What she says is absolutely true and applies across the country. My council in particular could learn from it as well.

[Penny Mordaunt]

I thank my hon. Friend; I am sure that everyone can give examples of such things happening on their own patch.

Another example of how the sector could support the commissioning and design of services can be seen in the work of the wonderful Beneficial Foundation, which provides not only training and life skills teaching for people with learning disabilities, but a fantastic business recycling scheme that provides arts and crafts materials for so many organisations. At a time when the council is seeking to introduce a business recycling scheme, would a conversation with the Beneficial Foundation not be worth while?

Thirdly, there is a refusal to maximise our community assets. The Stamshaw and Tipner leisure centre, which has been threatened with closure and demolition on more than one occasion, is due to be made structurally sound next year, but there is no funding to bring the interior up to a standard that would guarantee a sustainable number of bookings from community groups. In response, members of the community have stepped forward to do it themselves—time, tools, materials and donations have been offered. But it has been very difficult to engage with the local authority on simple matters such as the building schedule and getting approval for the work to be done. How much good will is lost when the local authority is not responsive to such offers?

In my patch, many community assets have been neglected for years, and—one suspects—earmarked for demolition, to be replaced by housing. In Cosham, for example, there is the Moat club and the amazing Wymering manor, which is even mentioned in the Domesday Book. I am delighted that at long last the Hilsea lido has been transferred as a community asset. The Pool for the People group is legendary for its hard work and dedication to restoring this wonderful community facility to its former glory. I have every confidence that we will be able to retain these assets and that in the not-too-distant future, generations of Portsmouthians will be able to enjoy the manor and the lido again. However, we have to make it as easy as possible for communities to help themselves.

The final obstacle that I have identified in Portsmouth is the lack of financial transparency at Portsmouth city council. If you go to the council’s website and look for information related to its expenditure, you will find this statement:

“We believe transparency is a key condition and driver for the delivery of our services. As a publicly funded organisation, we have a duty to our residents to be transparent in our business operations and outcomes.”

Unfortunately, that is it. There is no information about what it does spend the money on, and it is one of the only councils in the country not to have published its expenditure online. The north of the city has been scandalously underfunded for decades. The council must move to publish all its expenditure online, so that people in my constituency can see what they are owed and what has been spent—exactly what has been spent on Alzheimer’s and dementia care, for example, and what is going into our community assets.

I also want my local authority to set up a modest transition fund—of tens of thousands of pounds, not hundreds of thousands—to ensure that services whose external funding is not secure by the time of the Budget can continue until the end of summer, when statutory or other funding will be in place. The Cabinet Office needs to work closely with the Department of Communities and Local Government—and, I would argue, directly with Portsmouth city council.