English Devolution and Local Government
Rupert Lowe Excerpts(2 weeks, 3 days ago)
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Angela Rayner
Absolutely. I congratulate my hon. Friend on always seeing the potential of Nuneaton, and this Government want to work to release the opportunities there. But we also recognise that the 14 years of Conservative failure have left many councils and local areas without the funding and support they need. That is why we are putting a cash-terms real increase of 6.8% into local government—£69 billion—and we will continue to work with local areas to unleash the full potential of all areas of England.
Rupert Lowe (Great Yarmouth) (Reform)
Given the Secretary of State’s statement, I remind her that proper functioning democracy costs money. My constituents in Great Yarmouth do not like being represented by unelected councillors, so can she give a copper-bottomed guarantee that the new Norfolk and Suffolk homunculus council will have its elections in May 2026?
Angela Rayner
I have been consistently clear on the elections. Elections do cost money, but how can we justify having an election to then have another election within 12 months, which will cost huge sums of money for taxpayers? I gently say to the hon. Member that councillors were elected and that we are working with local councillors to deliver for local people.
Local Government Reorganisation
Rupert Lowe Excerpts(1 month, 1 week ago)
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Jim McMahon
I can absolutely assure my hon. Friend of that. Let me just say that in 2019, 11 district council elections were cancelled to allow reorganisations to take place, and so were seven in 2020. In 2021, the elections of three county councils and three district councils were cancelled to allow reorganisation. I say that because we cannot allow people to think that this is, in any sense, something new that has come out of nowhere. This is the day-to-day business of reorganisation done in the right place, in the right way, with full public consultation.
Rupert Lowe (Great Yarmouth) (Reform)
Given the abject failure of devolution in both Scotland and Wales and the fact that the Americans fought a war of independence on the slogan “No taxation without representation”, my constituents of Great Yarmouth would like an answer to two questions. First, why should they continue to pay their council tax beyond May, when they will not be represented by elected people? And secondly, by what name do they call these unelected councillors after May?
Jim McMahon
We need to be clear that the members who will discharge the functions of the council and the executive have been elected. The idea that they are not elected is not accurate, and we need to be careful about the language that we use. I believe—I am sure the hon. Member believes—that most councillors are good public servants and go into local government for the right reasons to represent their community, and we should not be targeting them unnecessarily. To be clear, they were elected, and we might take the view that, if they meet the criteria, their period of office should be extended to allow election to a new shadow unitary authority. On that basis, I hope that local people will support it.