Corporate Governance

Debate between Simon Hoare and Greg Clark

1st reading: House of Commons
Tuesday 29th November 2016 Commons Chamber

[Greg Clark]

I will look at my hon. Friend’s proposal carefully. It is in all our interests, including those of our constituents, that people should be able to have jobs in which what they contribute and what they produce is of sufficiently high value that they are able to have a prosperous future. Part of our reforms, which have come through the industrial strategy and what the Chancellor said in his statement last week, were to raise the earning potential of people right across the country.

[Simon Hoare (North Dorset) (Con)]

We all know that small and medium-sized enterprises are, in essence, the backbone of British employability and our corporate world. In welcoming the Green Paper, may I invite my right hon. Friend to confirm this afternoon that, throughout the whole of this process, he and his ministerial team will ensure that we do not add to any burdens of either reporting or officialdom for those vital SMEs?

[Greg Clark]

I can confirm that. We had it in mind that small businesses will be the beneficiary of these reforms, because, as suppliers to big companies, they are a group whose important voice should be reflected. That point was made in our conversations with small business organisations, which is why small suppliers are specifically referenced in the proposals on which we are consulting.

Local Government Finance (England)

Debate between Simon Hoare and Greg Clark

Wednesday 10th February 2016 Commons Chamber

[Greg Clark]

It is very straightforward. The amount of transitional relief is in proportion to the reduction in revenue support grant, and so Staffordshire had less than Surrey. That is purely mathematical. I should have thought that the addition of nearly £3 million to the council’s budget would have been welcomed by council tax payers. In fact, I know that it has been.

[Simon Hoare (North Dorset) (Con)]

As my right hon. Friend knows, I welcome the statement wholeheartedly. May I take him back to what he has said about certainty? That is welcome, from a district and county council perspective. Will he give further consideration over the coming weeks to providing certainty to town councils that they will be exempt from having their precept capped? They are trying to work in greater concert with district councils, and that parallel certainty will help them to forge such deals.

[Greg Clark]

There is a lively debate as to whether the bigger town and parish councils should be part of the capping regime. I have resisted drawing them into that, but I look to parish and town councils to exercise economy, recognising that the services that they provide are much valued but that they are paid for by council tax payers. If those councils continue to operate in an economical way, they may not give rise to the question on which my hon. Friend seeks certainty.

Local Government Finance

Debate between Simon Hoare and Greg Clark

Monday 8th February 2016 Commons Chamber

[Greg Clark]

The social care precept is recognised across all parties and different types of authorities, even those, including district councils, that do not receive it. Their residents are residents of counties and of metropolitan boroughs, and it is important that funding is there. The combination of the precept and the better care fund provides up to £3.5 billion. I repeat what I have said: the representations that I received before the spending review from the Local Government Association and directors of social services was that they needed £2.9 billion. We have provided £3.5 billion.

[Simon Hoare (North Dorset) (Con)]

May I thank my right hon. Friend for his patience and courtesy, and ministerial colleagues and indeed officials at the Department for Communities and Local Government for theirs in their dealings with colleagues from Dorset, including the leader of the county council and me? It is appreciated, and I welcome wholeheartedly today’s announcement from my right hon. Friend. If it was parliamentary, I am sure that rural local government would plant a big, wet kiss on the cheek of the Secretary of State—but I am not entirely sure that that is parliamentary.

Will my right hon. Friend give further details of the transitional funding for Dorset that he has announced? The devil is in the detail, as always, so will he set out further information on the timing of the welcome review of the assessment of needs? The sooner we can get that sorted out, the better for rural local government.