Local Government Finance (Rural Authorities)

Roger Williams Excerpts

Monday 11th February 2013 Commons Chamber

[Neil Parish]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right, and there should be rural weighting. We are talking not only about the distances between villages and hamlets, but the distances between schools and the number of small schools in rural areas that are the heart of the village. If the local schools were to be destroyed, the village itself could be destroyed, so there is an awful lot to play for here.

[Roger Williams (Brecon and Radnorshire) (LD)]

Does my hon. Friend agree that in rural areas there are often a lot of self-employed people who are reluctant to apply for benefits such as free school meals, which are sometimes a measure of deprivation? Rural areas therefore lose out in that way as well.

[Neil Parish]

My hon. Friend raises an interesting point about how we define the rural population and how we define depravity— [Interruption.] Perhaps I should refer to those who are deprived, rather than to depravity. I still want to make a serious point, because there is a problem with how the statistics are compiled and how judgment is made on rural areas. We in rural areas are all supposed to be wealthy and are asked to pay a great deal more of overall local government spending in our council tax.