Stephen Mosley
Main Page: Stephen Mosley (Conservative - City of Chester)
Brandon Lewis
My hon. Friend makes a good point. Some excellent councils across the country have even cut council tax this year, and the council tax freeze means that those areas have, under this Government over the past four years, seen a real-terms cut in council tax of about 11%.
Stephen Mosley (City of Chester) (Con)
In the north-west, Cheshire West and Chester council is working with Labour councils such as those in Knowsley, Halton and Wirral to share services in order to reduce costs and improve the services offered to local people. Is working with other councils not one way in which some councils that we have heard about today can improve their services and reduce costs?
Brandon Lewis
My hon. Friend gives a very good example of how authorities can work together, and we are seeing that around the country. Another Labour authority in High Peak is sharing with Conservative-led Staffordshire Moorlands, under an arrangement set up under the Conservative administration. That is another one of many examples of authorities sharing management and sharing chief executives, and saving about £600,000 a year. That is a substantial percentage of the money for those local authorities and this is a good way forward. The transformation network and community budgets show that this can be done.