Local Government Finance

Simon Danczuk Excerpts

Monday 13th December 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mr Pickles]

I can confirm to my hon. Friend that that will be the case. The present formula is very difficult to operate. In developing it I had worries with regard to balancing need against sparsity. It is always difficult to do that. We had to move extra money across from my Department in order to protect certain vulnerable districts that are not benefiting from the increase in spending in respect of adult social care and the extra help being offered in conjunction with PCTs.

[Simon Danczuk (Rochdale) (Lab)]

Although the Secretary of State clearly has the stomach for these terrible cuts, that is not the case in local government. In Rochdale, the Liberal-Conservative coalition council has collapsed under the weight of the Government’s unfair front-loaded cuts. Today the eighth Lib Dem councillor resigned from their party. Will the Secretary of State join me in congratulating Rochdale’s Labour councillors, who have put lead in their pencils and taken minority control to create a compassionate council that cares about local people?

[Mr Pickles]

The hon. Gentleman had clearly prepared his speech before I delivered my statement. How can 8.9% extra help to Rochdale—to his council—and the following year a 4.3% drop in spending power be regarded as front loading? We have gone out of our way to help Rochdale. We have offered more help than the Labour party would have done. The hon. Gentleman’s council would be a lot worse off if we had applied Labour’s formula. This is a progressive settlement which protects the vulnerable, and the hon. Gentleman does himself no good by not recognising that fact.