Robert Neill
Main Page: Robert Neill (Conservative - Bromley and Chislehurst)
Nic Dakin (Scunthorpe) (Lab)
14. What assessment he has made of the likely effects of reductions in Government funding on the number of people employed by local authorities in 2011-12.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (Robert Neill)
The Department makes no such centralised estimates for the good reason that it is for individual councils to make their own decisions about how their local work forces are organised and managed to ensure the efficient delivery of services for local taxpayers.
Nic Dakin
The Tory-led Local Government Association has made the estimate, however, that 140,000 jobs will go as a result of these policies. PricewaterhouseCoopers has said that for every job lost in the public sector, one will go in the private sector. That makes almost 300,000 jobs. How on earth can that help the recovery?
Robert Neill
That is because the Government are committed to reducing the deficit to enable a proper and sustainable private sector-led recovery. That is no doubt why the Office for Budget Responsibility has demonstrated that there will be an increase in private sector jobs of 1.3 million over the same period. That is nearly four times the figure quoted by the hon. Gentleman.
Charlie Elphicke (Dover) (Con)
Is it not the case that if councils used their reserves more effectively, unlike Manchester city council, and did not keep sending officers out of the door at half a million a pop, like Nottingham city council, so many jobs would not have to be lost?
Robert Neill
My hon. Friend is quite right. The Government have made it abundantly clear that significant sums are held by local authorities in reserves, much of which is not allocated. Sensible use of those funds at a time of financial crisis would enable councils to protect their front-line services.
Alec Shelbrooke (Elmet and Rothwell) (Con)
16. What recent representations he has received on local authority funding for leisure facilities.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (Robert Neill)
We have received four parliamentary questions and a number of letters that included references to local leisure facilities.
Alec Shelbrooke
May I urge the Minister to take a closer look at Labour-led Leeds city council, which is cutting funding to Garforth leisure centre in my constituency yet continues to waste taxpayers’ money, such as £6 million on new furniture?
Robert Neill
I hope the council did not go to the same suppliers that gave our Department the sofas and the peace pod. I note that Leeds city council has £32 million in its reserves, and I hope that it might consider a use for that money to support facilities in my hon. Friend’s constituency.
Mr David Ruffley (Bury St Edmunds) (Con)
17. What recent representations he has received on the levels of remuneration for local government executives.
Tim Farron (Westmorland and Lonsdale) (LD)
T2. Because of mistakes made by Cumbria county council in its single status process, Cumbria’s outstanding teaching assistants face a 30% drop in pay and deprofessionalisation. Will the Minister meet me, representatives of Cumbria’s teaching assistants and the county council to find a solution to this impasse so that Cumbria’s teaching assistants can be fairly rewarded and Cumbria’s children can be properly supported?
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (Robert Neill)
I am always happy to meet my hon. Friend, but I am sure he will understand that the role of central Government in relation to local government pay and work force issues is extremely limited because they are rightly for local councillors to decide in local circumstances.
John Mann (Bassetlaw) (Lab)
T3. Planning applications for wind farms, Travellers’ sites and new housing—which of those will parish councils be given a veto over and when?
Robert Neill
I suggest that the hon. Gentleman awaits the publication of the details of our national planning policy framework, which will set out the parameters within which all local plans will be drawn up.
Tony Baldry (Banbury) (Con)
T4. Parish councils are an important part of the structure of local government, but they often feel that they have to take an unfair and disproportionate regulatory burden, the latest of which is that they will all be obliged to employ their parish clerks, with all that entails, such as making national insurance contributions, although many such clerks get only an honorarium, which they could easily declare in their annual personal tax return. Does my right hon. Friend agree?