Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Rishi Sunak and Philip Hollobone(2 months, 3 weeks ago)
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The Prime Minister
We will continue to take a robust and proactive approach towards our relationship with China, rooted in the UK’s national interest and values. The National Security Act 2023 brings together vital new measures to protect our national security. That includes creating a foreign influence registration scheme through the Act specifically to tackle covert influence in the UK. We will continue to take all possible powers to keep the country safe.
Mr Philip Hollobone (Kettering) (Con)
The Prime Minister
I thank my hon. Friend for highlighting this exciting initiative, and commend Beccy and Lindsey for their campaigning. He will know that our £150 million community ownership fund is there specifically to help to safeguard small but much-loved local assets. Our cultural development fund, which he mentions, is there to support further cultural projects as well. I will ensure that he gets a meeting with the relevant Minister to discuss the plans further, and wish him and his constituents all the best with this redevelopment project.
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Rishi Sunak and Philip Hollobone(5 months ago)
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The Prime Minister
The entire energy grid infrastructure in this country is integrated, which brings benefits to people in every part of our United Kingdom. When it comes to supporting people with energy bills, earlier this year we increased benefits to the highest rate on record. It is why we provided cost of living payments worth £900 on top of regular support. It was right not to wait until the last moment to give people that support; we gave it to them earlier this year so that they would have the security they need going into winter—as I said, on top of the money for pensioners. When there are cold snaps, we have cold weather payments that kick in and the warm home discount, which provides an extra £150 to the most vulnerable households. All that is the most considerable action taken by any Government to help people with their energy bills.
Mr Philip Hollobone (Kettering) (Con)
The Prime Minister
I thank my hon. Friend for continuing to champion the new hospital in Kettering. We are absolutely committed to delivering the scheme for Kettering General Hospital. As my hon. Friend will be aware, the new energy centre is vital to the delivery of the new hospital, and we expect that work to begin in the first quarter of next year. The new hospital programme is working closely with the trust to ensure that the plans are deliverable.
NATO Summit
Debate between Rishi Sunak and Philip Hollobone(9 months, 3 weeks ago)
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The Prime Minister
I spent a lot of my time talking with our joint expeditionary force allies. As the hon. Gentleman will know, because of the geographic location of JEF, in which we are the leading framework nation, we talk regularly about the security of the high north and the Arctic. I discussed that with some of my counterparts over the last two days, and it will be a focus of our discussions at the JEF summit towards the end of the year. He should rest assured that it is an area we pay increasing attention to, not just from an intelligence perspective but with our military capabilities.
Mr Philip Hollobone (Kettering) (Con)
I thank the Prime Minister for his tireless efforts leading from the front in NATO’s support for Ukraine. The United Kingdom is NATO’s largest European defence spender, spending more than 20 other NATO allies combined. We are meeting our 2% commitment, but far too many are not. When does the Prime Minister expect all NATO allies to have met the 2% floor?
The Prime Minister
As soon as possible is what I would like to say. Hopefully, next year we will see very significant progress in the number of countries in the alliance meeting the 2% target—forecast to be almost two thirds next year on a rising trajectory. It is important that we keep the pressure on. The threats that we face are only growing in their scale and complexity, and we need to invest more to protect ourselves against them.
Illegal Immigration
Debate between Rishi Sunak and Philip Hollobone(1 year, 4 months ago)
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The Prime Minister
The hon. Gentleman is right: what will solve the problem is stopping people coming here illegally in the first place. That is how we will solve the hotel problem. That is what our new legislation will deliver, and I hope he will support it.
Mr Philip Hollobone (Kettering) (Con)
I warmly welcome the Prime Minister’s action plan to tackle the problem of small boat crossings and thank him for being true to his word in prioritising this issue. The big issue in Kettering is that the Royal Hotel, which is slap bang in the middle of town, has been designated as an asylum hotel; it is one of the most inappropriate settings imaginable. Will the Prime Minister reassure my constituents in Kettering that the plan he has announced today will be the quickest way to end the use of such hotel accommodation?
The Prime Minister
I thank my hon. Friend, and he is absolutely right to stand up for his constituents, but he is also absolutely right to highlight that our approach is the best way to relieve the pressure on local services, including the use of hotels, so that we can return them back to their everyday use. We will do that fastest by providing alternative sites, which we are working on, and also by stopping the flow of small boats, and that is what our plan will deliver.
Unavoidably Small Hospitals
Debate between Rishi Sunak and Philip Hollobone(1 year, 7 months ago)
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Rishi Sunak (Richmond (Yorks) (Con)
It is a pleasure to speak under your chairmanship, Mr Hollobone, and thank you for accommodating me at a late stage in the debate. I had not planned on speaking, but this morning I saw the Order Paper and it turned out that I had more time on my hands than I had anticipated! It is a pleasure to be here with my hon. Friend the Member for Isle of Wight (Bob Seely) to discuss this very important topic.
I am here to speak about the Friarage Hospital in Northallerton, in North Yorkshire, which is in my constituency. It is one of the smallest district general hospitals in the country, serving a rural population of over 100,000 people and covering an area of a thousand square miles, stretching from the North York Moors at one end to the central Pennines at the other, bordered by York in the south and Darlington in the north. When I was first elected in 2015 and when I was campaigning before that, I told my constituents that the hospital would be my No.1 priority.
The reason for that is simple. Of course the NHS is the country’s most prized public service but, as we have heard in all the contributions from hon. Members today, the accessibility of healthcare in rural areas specifically is an issue of acute anxiety and the pattern over several years had been in a negative direction. Indeed, as I was being elected, my local hospital had lost its consultant-led maternity unit. Shortly to follow was the loss of paediatrics. That had an enormous impact on the local community. They feared for the very future of our beloved local hospital and I committed to do everything I could to reverse the flow of services away from it to ensure a bright future for the Friarage.
As my constituency neighbour, my hon. Friend the Member for Thirsk and Malton (Kevin Hollinrake), rightly pointed out, when healthcare organisations look at such things they tend to think about centralisation, because it looks very efficient on a spreadsheet wherever they might be sitting, but it does not work for our constituents. One thing I will say to the Minister is that she should send a strong message to trusts, particularly those that cover large urban centres and smaller rural hospitals in the same area, to always think about accessibility when they make their plans, which I do not believe they always do as well as they could. Secondly, I echo my hon. Friend’s recommendation about booking appointments. That is a simple, practical thing and trusts can do a good job of it when members of the public have the option to travel to smaller hospitals nearby or to others further away and to get the timing of those appointments right. That has an enormous impact on people’s ability to access the healthcare that they need.
Shortly after I was elected, I had to deal with a challenge that we have already heard about today—the downgrading of our A&E. However, that marked a turning point and I say to the Minister that what followed can serve as an example of what the future of small rural hospitals can look like. Under the leadership of Dr James Dunbar and his team, at the Friarage we pioneered an innovative new model of an urgent treatment centre that is open 24 hours a day and is consultant-led, with a clinical decisions unit. That means that it can provide a far greater range of healthcare to my constituents, including far more care for children than would typically be found. The unit is staffed superbly by nurse practitioners. It is working brilliantly and all I will say to the Department of Health and indeed to trusts where there is a similar challenge is to look at the model and see how it can be replicated around the country because, as I say, it is working brilliantly and has saved the loss of all emergency services at our hospital.
My other recommendation to the Minister and the Department is on recruitment and staffing issues, which we have heard a lot about already. It was clear during the work that I did that often the guidance from the royal colleges exacerbates some of the issues that we have heard about. My hon. Friend the Member for Thirsk and Malton said that anaesthetists are a case in point. A specialisation has occurred over decades, whereby anaesthetists used to be generalists and now we have sub-specialties. It is very difficult for small hospitals to accommodate those sub-specialties, and we need to look with the royal colleges at what safe staffing models might work to ensure the sustainability of our services.
I must commend the South Tees trust, because after repeated efforts from my hon. Friend the Member for Thirsk and Malton and me, it has focused fully on ensuring the future of the Friarage. I thank Simon Stevens for visiting the hospital in his previous capacity and understanding the challenges, and the pervious Health Secretary, my right hon. Friend the Member for West Suffolk (Matt Hancock). Since then, thanks to the philanthropy of the late Sir Robert Ogden, we have a new Macmillan cancer centre, which is providing fantastic care, a new diagnostic centre, an MRI scanner, a dialysis unit and an ophthalmology unit, all of which save my constituents a round trip of up to four hours to the much larger James Cook hospital. They are all delivering fantastic care closer to home.
I will give the Minister another example of innovation from the local team. James Dunbar came up with a new ambulatory care unit, which means that we can do emergency treatment on the same day. In the first year of its operation, it saved over 4,000 overnight stays, so it is not just a model for rural hospitals but a beacon for how the NHS can work more broadly to reduce the pressure on our bed capacity.
Most recently, I am delighted that the Government and the Minister responded to my long-running campaign to get new investment in our operating theatres. They date back to the second world war and are in urgent need of refurbishment, so I am delighted that the Government have said that they will provide £30 million of investment to refurbish all the operating theatres to the latest and greatest standards. That will have several benefits. Most importantly, it will send a very strong signal to my community about the future of the Friarage. It is very clear that the Friarage is not going anywhere and people can have confidence in its future, which helps with recruitment and retention, as we have heard. People are attracted towards working at smaller hospitals when they know that their career will be something they can bank on and that there is interesting work to do. This investment will absolutely secure that and ensure that we can attract the nurses, doctors and other staff that we need.
The Friarage also serves as a model for how we will tackle the backlogs more generally, because the hospital will be a new surgical hub with all the associated auxiliary services that are required. That means that we can now double the amount of elective surgery and do it closer to people’s homes. In the scheme of what the NHS spends, that investment will provide a very high rate of return by increasing the amount of surgical throughput. The doctors and nurses I saw just the other day—chief medical officer Dr Mike Stewart, chief surgeon Matt Clarke, and theatre nurse Sarah Baker—are all incredibly invigorated by what they can now do for our community, and that will help more broadly serve us to get the backlogs down faster, which I know is a Government priority.
I say to the Minister that it is important that small hospitals are recognised, which is something that is said very clearly in the five-year plan. It is important that the NHS continues to deliver on that. My experience locally is that that is happening, and I ask her to take on board some of my suggestions. I will close by paying tribute to the incredible doctors, nurses and staff at the Friarage, and to the Friends of the Friarage charity. I said to them when I was first elected that they would be my No. 1 priority, and they will continue to have my full support.
Mr Philip Hollobone (in the Chair)
We now come to the Front-Bench speeches. I call Feryal Clark for Her Majesty’s Opposition.
Economic Update
Debate between Rishi Sunak and Philip Hollobone(2 years, 2 months ago)
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Rishi Sunak
Around 4 million households have prepayment meters, and about 40% of those will be able to receive the rebate on bills automatically because of the nature of their prepayment meter. For the remaining 60%, we will have to do something more manual and there are various ways we can do that, whether by sending barcodes or QR codes through the post or by email—[Interruption.] Before the Opposition say anything, that is exactly how we already deliver the warm home discount to those people, and we did exactly the same thing in a similar measure in 2012 under the coalition. This affects less than 9% of all households, but we have a plan for them. We will work with the energy companies to ensure that all those on prepayment meters benefit in exactly the same way.
Mr Philip Hollobone (Kettering) (Con)
Residents in the Kettering constituency will warmly welcome the assistance that the Chancellor has announced to help them with their rising energy bills. As well as the measures he has announced today, there is an additional £1.8 billion of support out there in unclaimed pension credit. One million pensioners are eligible and not claiming, including 4,500 in north Northamptonshire. Just as we reached out to pensioners to come forward to get their vaccination, please can we reach out to those people who are not claiming, because some of them have the highest energy bills?
Rishi Sunak
My hon. Friend makes an excellent point, which he also made the other day in Treasury questions, when we committed to looking at how best we could take up his suggestions. I think I am right in saying—the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, my right hon. Friend the Member for Spelthorne (Kwasi Kwarteng) will correct me if I am wrong—that the warm home discount is already moving to a more automatic system for that rebate for those on pension credit, but we will of course take his suggestions on board and figure out how best to improve what we do.
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Rishi Sunak and Philip Hollobone(4 years, 1 month ago)
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Rishi Sunak
1 am very grateful to the hon. Member for his warm words; I appreciate them. We are looking at pace at what support can be provided. The fact is that the universe of 5 million that we are dealing with contains such a wide variety of different people that we are unable to target support. That is the challenge in designing something that gets to the people who we want to help, while at the same time being affordable and not having to benefit absolutely everybody. That is proving to be problematic, but we are hard at work on it.
In terms of delivery, it is almost certainly going to be the case that we would have to build another brand-new system to deliver any support. I am sure that hon. Members on both sides of the House would agree that, in terms of prioritising system design, the scheme that we have set up for 90% of the workforce who are employed should be delivered first and quickly, and that is what we have committed to do, ideally by the end of April. We are looking at how we can do these things in sequence or in parallel, but I take the hon. Member’s point: people are anxious. That is why we deferred the self-assessment tax return that is due shortly to provide some cash-flow benefit. We have also deferred VAT to a significant degree, which will help with cash-flow benefit, and many self-employed people will benefit from the business interruption loans, which are also interest-free.
Mr Philip Hollobone (Kettering) (Con)
Economic Update
Debate between Rishi Sunak and Philip Hollobone(4 years, 1 month ago)
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Rishi Sunak
We have outlined a package of measures to support small businesses specifically. Indeed, 700,000 of our smallest businesses will now be receiving a £10,000 grant. I suggest that the hon. Lady’s constituent Andy contacts his local authority for further support, either on business rates or local council tax support, where we are injecting an extra half a billion pounds into the system.
Mr Philip Hollobone (Kettering) (Con)
I declare my interest as a member of Kettering Borough Council. I commend the Chancellor for coming up with a £350 billion business support package in record time. That will be welcomed by many small businesses in Kettering. Billing authorities such as Kettering Borough Council are already at their busiest time of year, sending out council tax bills. Can the Chancellor explain what role they will play in getting business support to local businesses and what extra support they will get to enable that to happen?
Rishi Sunak
My hon. Friend makes an excellent point. He is right to highlight the capacity of local authorities to execute this plan. The Communities Secretary is working closely with them and they will be provided with extra resource funding to deal with the extra administration they will now have to undertake on our behalf. But I know and have confidence that they will do that job extremely well.
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Rishi Sunak and Philip Hollobone(4 years, 10 months ago)
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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government (Rishi Sunak)
Following the meeting I had with my hon. Friend, we were pleased to facilitate meetings for the chief executives of the various councils and health bodies with officials from the Department of Health and Social Care and my Department. Those conversations have been very constructive, and I am pleased to tell my hon. Friend that the Social Care Minister and I would both be delighted to meet him and other MPs once the proposals have been fleshed out in detail.
Mr Hollobone
I declare my interest as a member of Kettering Borough Council. There are still far too many patients in Kettering General Hospital and Northampton General Hospital who are classified as delayed transfers of care. They are mainly elderly patients whose medical treatment has been completed, but who face delays being put into the social care system. Does my hon. Friend agree that the reorganisation of local government in Northamptonshire presents a wonderful opportunity to create a social care and health pilot to combine these two services?
Rishi Sunak
My hon. Friend is spot on. Delayed transfers of care undermine patients’ dignity while putting pressure on beds and costing the taxpayer money. Although we have seen fantastic progress nationally with delayed transfers of care halving since the peak, Northamptonshire is obviously not in that place. My hon. Friend is absolutely right to highlight the opportunity that greater integrated care could bring, and we are delighted to work with him and others to make that a reality.
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Rishi Sunak and Philip Hollobone(5 years ago)
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Mr Philip Hollobone (Kettering) (Con)
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government (Rishi Sunak)
I thank my hon. Friend for his engagement with the process of reorganising local government in Northamptonshire. I am pleased to tell him that the Department’s consultation on this matter has now closed. The Secretary of State is considering the responses and he intends to announce his decision to the House as soon as is practical.
Local Government Funding: Merseyside
Debate between Rishi Sunak and Philip Hollobone(5 years, 6 months ago)
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Mr Philip Hollobone (in the Chair)
Order. We do not really want sledging in the Chamber. The hon. Member for Wallasey (Ms Eagle) is sitting opposite the Minister and he must be heard with courtesy. Her side of the House was heard with courtesy during all its contributions. I know that the hon. Lady’s attempt to intervene was not accepted by the Minister, but she could have another go. However, she is more likely to be successful if she does not keep shouting across the Chamber.
Rishi Sunak
Thank you, Mr Hollobone. I think the hon. Lady was being snide about the fact that Merseyside is a business rates retention pilot. I am sure that the £54 million that Merseyside will keep this year in additional funding as a result of the pilot is nothing to be snide about, and will make an enormous difference on the ground, helping the people I know she cares about. Many other local authorities across the country would be happy to be one of the pilot areas, so if she thinks that Merseyside would rather not be one and would give up the opportunity to others, I would be happy to talk to her afterwards.
Mr Howarth
On a point of order Mr Hollobone. I want to place it on record that, had he been here, my hon. Friend the Member for Halton (Derek Twigg) would have made a significant contribution, but he is, in fact, not here.
Mr Philip Hollobone (in the Chair)
Thank you for that point of clarification. It will be on the record.
Rishi Sunak
I apologise to the hon. Member for Liverpool, West Derby (Stephen Twigg), who mentioned the importance of early intervention. I thank the right hon. Gentleman for the point of order. That great work in the last year builds on three successive years of reductions in referrals to children’s services.
We talked about the importance of local authorities in building strong communities and the Government back that, whether through the funds for Liverpool City Council from the controlling migration fund, ensuring that communities are connected through the roads fund that was announced yesterday, or bringing high streets together and creating pocket parks—something that Liverpool has benefited from. Whether through building economic growth, supporting communities or helping the vulnerable, the Government are determined to recognise the role that local government plays and to back it with what it needs.
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Rishi Sunak and Philip Hollobone(5 years, 10 months ago)
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Rishi Sunak
I thank the hon. Lady for raising this important topic. She will know that in the past I have spoken about greater provision of Changing Places in this House. Building regulations set the access requirements for new buildings, while the Equality Act requires providers to make reasonable adjustments. If someone feels they have been discriminated against, there are several means of redress, and the Equality Advisory Support Service can provide help and support in that process.
Mr Philip Hollobone (Kettering) (Con)
Somerset County Council: Unitary Status
Debate between Rishi Sunak and Philip Hollobone(5 years, 11 months ago)
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Rishi Sunak
I am afraid I cannot give my hon. Friend a specific quantitative mechanism or definition that needs to be met. I re-emphasise the guidance, which states that a good deal of local support is needed. I have tried my best to elaborate on how that will be interpreted by the Secretary of State when he considers proposals in the round, along with all the other criteria that he has to balance.
I am keen to give my hon. Friend the Member for Bridgwater and West Somerset a minute or two to wind up the debate, so in conclusion—[Interruption.]
Mr Philip Hollobone (in the Chair)
Order. In a half-hour debate, Ministers do not have the prerogative to give the Member who brought the debate time to wind up. The Minister has almost four minutes to go.
Rishi Sunak
Thank you, Mr Hollobone. I was not aware of that; I appreciate the extra time.
It is important that the councils of Somerset think long and hard about how best to serve their communities and about how to deliver the public services that people rely on, whether adult social care, children’s services, strategic planning or transport. It may well be that innovation and re-organisation will help to deliver for the people of Somerset, but it is crucial to note that that decision should be taken by the people of Somerset themselves. It will not be for the Government to impose a top-down solution.
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Rishi Sunak and Philip Hollobone(6 years ago)
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Rishi Sunak
I gently remind the hon. Gentleman of my earlier answer, which was that council reserves are some £20 billion across the country and are actually higher today than they were when we came into office. Councils will be able to increase spending on social care in real terms every year up to the end of this Parliament, and we are already seeing the results in action: delayed transfers of care are down by 34% in England. This is a Government who are delivering for people across the country.
Mr Philip Hollobone (Kettering) (Con)
Of the 575 beds in Kettering General Hospital, about 200 are occupied by patients, many of them elderly, who have completed their treatment but await transfer to social and other care. What can be done when the local county council simply is not up to the job of making sure that social care assessments are done in a timely way?
Rishi Sunak
I am sure my hon. Friend will forgive me for not being drawn on Northamptonshire specifically, given the circumstances there and the decision to be made. In general, he is absolutely right to highlight the importance of getting people swiftly transferred to appropriate social care. That has been a focus of the funding that the Government have put in, and the better care fund is ensuring that joined-up care is happening. As I have said, delayed transfers of care are down by almost a third in the past year.
Mr Philip Hollobone (Kettering) (Con)
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government (Rishi Sunak)
My hon. Friend raises an absolutely excellent point. I know that he will welcome the Government’s increased funding for pothole remediation after the winter that we have had, but I will take his point on board and ensure that local authorities are deploying those funds as quickly as possible.
Public Service Delivery: Northamptonshire
Debate between Rishi Sunak and Philip Hollobone(6 years, 2 months ago)
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Urgent Questions are proposed each morning by backbench MPs, and up to two may be selected each day by the Speaker. Chosen Urgent Questions are announced 30 minutes before Parliament sits each day.
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Mr Philip Hollobone (Kettering) (Con)
(Urgent Question): To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government what are the implications for public service delivery in Northamptonshire of the issuance by Northamptonshire County Council of a section 114 notice.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government (Rishi Sunak)
I thank my hon. Friend for his question on a topic that he and his Northamptonshire parliamentary colleagues have consistently raised on behalf of their constituents.
As Members will be aware, on Friday 2 February, Northamptonshire County Council’s finance director issued a section 114 notice to stop new spending and put in place a process for the council to meet within a specified time to consider the financial situation. It is important to note that a section 114 notice does not automatically mean that existing services will stop. Northamptonshire’s finance director has confirmed that statutory services to safeguard vulnerable people will continue to be delivered and that council staff will continue to be paid.
Local authorities have a legal duty to balance their budget, and section 114 notices are part of the accountability framework that guards against irresponsible financial management. It is for the council to decide what steps it needs to take to balance its budget. I understand that the full council will meet on 22 February to consider the situation.
Local government is, of course, independent of central Government, but, that said, the Government have been aware of concerns about Northamptonshire County Council’s finances and governance for some time, which was why the Secretary of State appointed an inspector to undertake an independent best-value inspection on 9 January. That independent inspection is due to report on 16 March, and as the Secretary of State made clear in the written ministerial statement of 9 January, it would be inappropriate for the Government to comment while the inspection is under way, specifically to avoid prejudicing its outcome. The Government will address the wider issue of funding for local government in tomorrow’s debate on the local government finance settlement.
Issuing a section 114 notice is a serious step. I understand that this development will be causing some concern in my hon. Friend’s constituency and across the county. However, it is also a sign that the council is taking its responsibility seriously. The Secretary of State and I will take a keen interest in the steps that the council takes to resolve these matters and ensure that it continues to deliver for the communities that it serves.
Mr Hollobone
Thank you, Mr Speaker, for granting this urgent question. May I declare an interest as a member of Kettering Borough Council, and may I welcome other Northamptonshire MPs who are also in the Chamber to ask questions?
It gives me no pleasure to say that, with the issue of this section 114 notice, Northamptonshire County Council becomes the worst-run local authority in the country. There are undoubtedly huge pressures on the social care budget, which are exacerbated by Northamptonshire’s fast-growing elderly population. The Government’s fairer funding review is welcome, but will, I am afraid, come too late for Northamptonshire County Council. This whole situation has been exacerbated by poor leadership by the cabinet at the county council, in which all seven Northamptonshire MPs now have no confidence. We echo the concerns of September’s peer review by the Local Government Association, which concluded that financial information is not presented clearly and transparently and that there is not a sensible budget going forward.
What happens if the county council cannot set a legal budget at its meeting later this month? What will happen to services—statutory or otherwise—to do with adult social services, children’s services, schools and highways? The Government have sent in a best-value inspector, which is good, and he is due to report by 16 March. Can—or will—the Secretary of State request of him an urgent interim assessment with some preliminary findings, because I believe that the Government need to be informed?
What is the total debt of the county council? I understand that it owes more than £700 million. Does the section 114 notice have the implication that lending institutions might foreclose on their lending to the authority? Can the Minister assure me that Northamptonshire’s bad situation with delayed discharges from our two local hospitals will not be made worse by this section 114 notice? We have a 10% delayed discharge rate. On any one day, 100 people are waiting in the two hospitals. They have completed their treatment, but because Northamptonshire County Council is not getting them into care homes quickly enough, they are not leaving the hospitals. May I urge the inspector to look at the opaque accountancy in the local government shared services model at the county council, which is where a lot of the problems may lie?
Will the Government prevent the county council from selling its new, very recently opened Angel Square offices? While that could bring in £50 million, it could leave a 25-year rental liability for any successor authorities. Will the Minister make sure that the transfer of the fire service out of the county council to the police commissioner is not held up by the financial crisis at the county council? I do not want the fire service to go down with the local authority.
It is clear that Northamptonshire County Council is in a huge mess. We look to the Government inspector to report quickly, and, in the view of all seven Northamptonshire MPs, the sooner that Lords Commissioners are sent in to sort out this mess, the better.
Rishi Sunak
I thank my hon. Friend for his questions. I know that this is something that he is thinking about deeply on behalf of his constituents. Let me take in turn the points that he raised. With regard to the fire service, he will hopefully be aware that the Home Office is considering that application and will make its decision in due course. On his points about the financial situation, he is right to say that there are a range of issues that were highlighted in both the independent audit reports and the LGA peer review, which, as he rightly pointed out, cited both culture and governance issues at the council.
On the process from here, Ministers do not have direct contact with the inspector—he is rightly independent—so it is not possible to direct him to report earlier. I would point out that the 16 March deadline means that this inspection will conclude in much less time than was allowed for the Tower Hamlets and Rotherham inspections, which, hopefully, should give my hon. Friend some comfort regarding a rapid resolution.
Finally, if the council meeting is not successful, the finance director has the option of issuing a further section 114 notice. However, it is important to note that he, as the statutory official, has the flexibility today and in the future to authorise any payments that he sees fit and for which there is a sensible case, including, as he has guaranteed, to safeguard vulnerable people. At the point at which the council is ready to make formal representations to my Department for anything that it might require, we stand ready to engage with it.
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Rishi Sunak and Philip Hollobone(6 years, 3 months ago)
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Rishi Sunak
I gently point out to the hon. Lady that core spending power per dwelling in the 10% most deprived local authorities is actually 23% higher than that in the least deprived, and indeed in her local authority, it is 11% higher than the national average.
Mr Hollobone
I welcome the Government’s best value inspection of Northamptonshire County Council. Will the Minister ensure that the transfer of the fire service out of the council to the police and crime commissioner is not delayed by this inspection?
Rishi Sunak
As my hon. Friend knows, the Secretary of State has asked Max Caller to look at the authority, and we await his findings eagerly. It is difficult for me to comment further at this time, as I am sure my hon. Friend appreciates.