Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Stephen Mosley and Brandon Lewis
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.
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Stephen Mosley and Brandon Lewis
Brandon Lewis
Again, I would say to the hon. Gentleman that if the local authority in his area is making bad decisions about where its funding goes, he should put pressure on it, and I am very happy to help him to do so.
Stephen Mosley (City of Chester) (Con)
Cheshire West and Chester’s adoption and fostering services have recently been rated the best in the north-west. The council has achieved that by working and combining resources with two Labour councils, Halton and Knowsley. Does that not show that if councils work together to reduce costs, they can improve services as well?
Brandon Lewis
My hon. Friend gives a very good example not just of cross-party work, but of bringing different agencies and authorities together with the kind of shared, structural approach that delivers a much better service for less. That is exactly what residents want, and it is the right way to spend taxpayers’ money.
Local Government Finance
Debate between Stephen Mosley and Brandon Lewis(11 years, 1 month ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text
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Brandon Lewis
The hon. Lady’s argument falls completely flat for a couple of reasons. First, we are helping the hardest-hit councils, such as Pendle, Hastings, Great Yarmouth and Hyndburn, whereas the last Government left them with a black hole to fall into in 2010. Secondly, the hon. Lady is living in the past, because this year the Government adopted a reward-based system that enables local authorities to increase their income through the business rates retention scheme and the new homes bonus. Councils that do good things such as building houses and securing economic growth will experience the benefits of that.
Stephen Mosley (City of Chester) (Con)
Like all local authorities, Cheshire West and Chester council has had to tighten its belt in recent years. By cutting waste and sharing services, it has managed to keep council tax increases down while improving local services. Does my hon. Friend agree that if a local authority makes itself more efficient, it can make itself more effective too?
Brandon Lewis
My hon. Friend makes a good point in naming one of the local authorities that has done great work in proving that the efficiencies deliver not only savings but, more importantly, better services for their residents. I encourage other authorities to look at those good councils and the great work that they are doing through the community budget programme and the transformation network to become more efficient and effective for their residents.
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Stephen Mosley and Brandon Lewis
Stephen Mosley (City of Chester) (Con)
14. What steps he has taken to help councils deliver sensible savings.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (Brandon Lewis)
We have published “50 ways to save”, an excellent practical guide to councils on how to make sensible savings. We have also provided £27 million through the transformation challenge award and the efficiency support grant to encourage and incentivise authorities to make efficiencies and improve services. That will increase to £100 million as a result of the spending review.
Stephen Mosley
Tory Cheshire West and Chester council and Labour Wirral metropolitan borough council have announced proposals to merge their back-office functions such as IT, legal services, human resources and finance, saving some £69 million. Do not such schemes show that it is possible to make huge savings in local government without impacting front-line services?
Brandon Lewis
My hon. Friend is right, and I was delighted to visit Cheshire West and Chester recently and see some of the plans. It is a really good example of how big authorities can do things. Just last week, I saw at the excellent Staffordshire Moorlands and High Peak councils, small authorities with £10 million budgets, that shared management is saving some 20%, according to the chief executives, so it can be done at all levels.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (Brandon Lewis)
I think the point I was making before the Select Committee was to clarify the fact that this Government will not be doing anything to allow for privatisation of the fire service, despite the claims of the hon. Gentleman’s shadow fire Minister, who is trying to scaremonger.
Stephen Mosley (City of Chester) (Con)
T3. Independent analysis by Ernst and Young of the four community budgets pilots show that savings of between £9 billion and £20 billion are possible over five years if the scheme is rolled out across the country. What plans does my hon. Friend have to do just that?
Brandon Lewis
My hon. Friend is quite right: the community budgets pilots have shown huge potential savings to this country and, as I said earlier, better services for residents. We are now rolling out the new network. Last week we announced the first nine authorities to take part. They are looking at bringing together the public sector not just to save money, important though that is, but to give better services in this country—something that the previous Government continually failed to do.
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Stephen Mosley and Brandon Lewis
Brandon Lewis
I am absolutely delighted to give those congratulations. It is superb to see Conservative county councils across the country, of which my hon. Friend’s is a particularly good example, working hard to deliver cost-effective services for their residents. It is also appropriate to say, while I am at the Dispatch Box, that his district council should be commended for the excellent work it is doing on freezing council tax. It is taking this financial settlement in the right way and looking to the future in terms of how it can deliver growth for its area and thereby create real benefit for its residents locally.
Stephen Mosley (City of Chester) (Con)
5. What steps he has taken to help pensioners with their council tax bills.