Finance Bill (Third sitting)

Wes Streeting Excerpts

Tuesday 13th October 2015 Public Bill Committees

[Wes Streeting (Ilford North) (Lab)]

How many councillors does the Minister anticipate will benefit from these changes?

[Mr Gauke]

I think the numbers are difficult to calculate because they will depend on the particular arrangements that councillors wish to pursue and whether they claim or not. We received representations from a large number of councils—particularly county councils—that said the change would be welcomed.

[Wes Streeting]

I should have said that I am still an elected member of the Redbridge London Borough Council, albeit an unpaid one. The reason I ask is that, although I agree with the Minister’s case about fairness to local councillors, I wonder how he squares that with, for example, the changes the Government made to local government pensions, which meant that such people—in particular, leaders, mayors and cabinet members, who often give up their full-time work—are no longer eligible for the local government pension scheme. Surely these changes, which I do not think will apply to many authorities because many do not reimburse councillors for any journeys, are pretty small beer compared with the previous Government’s changes.