Gareth Thomas
MP for Harrow West · Labour (Co-op) · United Kingdom
“Local councils such as Harrow need to invest more in youth facilities that divert young people away from crime. Some of the CCTV projects in my constituency that Harrow council has turned down—in Wealdstone, south Harrow and central Harrow—should get funding.”
“I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Pendle and Clitheroe (Jonathan Hinder) on securing the debate and on the way in which he approached the subject. I join him and my hon.”
“I also want to suggest that the Metropolitan police does not get recognition across the whole of the UK for its hugely important work in tackling national and international crime, and that perhaps more recognition of that is required in the funding formula.”
“In particular, in Harrow, we recently saw enforcement teams contracted out to an organisation called Kingdom. The responsibility for that contract was with Harrow council. There was widespread criticism of the way some of the staff employed by Kingdom tried to levy fines on a number of young people in south Harrow, in my constituency.”
“One way we can further support the Metropolitan police is by allowing it to keep more of the proceeds from successful operations, such as recovering stolen funds hidden in bitcoin assets. I congratulate my hon.”
“Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has done a huge amount to try to redirect funding from other parts of his budget to minimise the impact of that cut.”
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“Bearing in mind that the Minister and his officials cannot get round even to publishing the 400 submissions to last year’s consultation on the Bill, we cannot have much confidence that that assessment of need will be brought forward any time soon. We do know that the expectation is that, aside from business rates, local councils will have to depend even more not only on the fees and charges they can raise from different services they offer, but, crucially, on council tax. My hon. Friend the Member for Oldham West and Royton reminded the Committee of the Government’s own assessment that, over the lifetime of this Parliament, there will be a 25% increase in council tax.”
“Entirely discretionary, as my hon. Friend says from a sedentary position. One thinks of a situation where perhaps there is a large influx of refugees. I can foresee, sadly, another situation of flooding—the Conservative party has failed to properly protect our country from the impact of climate change—or coastal erosion, which I know the hon. Member for Waveney is particularly interested in. There will potentially be scope for discretionary section 31 grants to local authorities. There will be an assessment of need. We have no idea yet what that assessment of need for each English local authority will look like. We do not even have any sense of when it will be published. All we know is, mañana—it will be published at some distant point in the future, when the Minister and his officials can get around to it.”
“The local government finance settlement statement forced Ministers to know that they were going to have to come up with at least some semblance of an answer to that big question. Sadly, the response was dismal, and the Secretary of State has continued to be chided by Conservative council leaders, Labour council leaders and many Conservative Members of Parliament—one thinks of the contribution of the Chair of the Health Committee.”
“When the local government finance settlement statement was made in December, Ministers knew that they would face sustained media scrutiny and, crucially, parliamentary scrutiny of their performance on local government finance, particularly in so far as it related to social care, not least because a disagreement between the Prime Minister and the Chancellor of the Exchequer had meant that that issue was not addressed in the autumn statement. Even though the Secretary of State brought forward a dismal package, one has to acknowledge that there was at least an attempt to begin to answer the question that council leaders, the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services and social care professionals up and down the land were asking about how we would continue to finance the system.”
“I fear that will be lost if the current opportunities for parliamentary scrutiny of the local government finance settlement are, if not abolished, swept under the carpet, as the Minister seeks to do by sweeping away the principle of accountability to the House of Commons for local government finance decisions. It is surely important to air the big issues that affect local government. Social care is a classic example.”
“It makes them go through legislation with a fine-toothed comb and work hard late into the night trying to think of all the difficult questions they might be asked. In so doing, they ask their officials similarly difficult questions to try to move things forward if there is a concern that things are not moving forward in the right way, or to understand why things might have gone wrong. The leverage of a Minister having to stand in the Chamber and answer questions about local government finance up and down the land is hugely important in its own right and may help to ensure high-quality decision making.”
“I understand that Opposition Members often take delight in trying to catch Ministers who perhaps have not done the work off-guard. Fortunately, I was never caught off-guard or exposed for lack of information in the way that the Minister has been already during the passage of this Bill and his boss was over pay to stay during scrutiny of the Housing and Planning Bill. As a Minister, I recognised the benefit of parliamentary scrutiny. If a Minister knows that there are difficult, dedicated, serious Back Benchers like my hon. Friend the Member for Wolverhampton South West—I remember a case when he almost caught me off-guard with one of his questions—on a Committee, that keeps them honest in terms of the work that they have to do to prepare for debates.”
“I am very glad to hear that. My point simply is this: there are few safeguards on the Executive’s power, and one of those is the transparency, openness and scrutiny that Ministers and their officials are subject to through the work of this great House. I struggle to understand why Ministers propose to abolish any scope for further debate about local government finance. They almost want to rush things out quietly. The principles of allocation statement will no doubt come out on the last Friday before the summer or just before Christmas so there is not even a great opportunity for proper media scrutiny of local government finance. I had the privilege of serving as a Minister, and I have felt the fear of sitting where the Minister sits.”
“Member for Waveney does a very good job fighting for his constituents—not that a Labour Member of Parliament would not do it ever better, but in the meantime he does a good job. I gently suggest that he might relish the ongoing opportunity to question Ministers on the Floor of the House, either on the fact that a local government finance settlement and report is still to be approved by the House of Commons, or that a principles of allocation statement—the device that Ministers want in the new world—is yet to be approved by the House. He can challenge the Minister or the Secretary of State to think about the problem facing his constituents.”
“The council is worried about its very serious financial position, its financial viability and its ability to set a balanced budget as early as 2018-19. It said that reductions to revenue support grant “are now much larger and faster than previously forecast”. Revealingly, it added that “the Council is not well placed to generate additional localised funding from council tax and business rates–there is very limited potential for growth in the medium term to offset these huge reductions” in revenue support grant and new homes bonus. In the new Jerusalem of the hon. Member for North Swindon, everything will be all right in his constituency, but we know from those at the sharp end in Waveney that the situation will be much tougher. The hon.”
“We would know more if the Minister and his officials had got around to publishing the 400-plus responses to last year’s consultation document, which may include a contribution from Waveney District Council. However, he has not published the responses, so we do not know what the council thinks of it. All we know from the papers we have seen from Waveney District Council is that it is extremely concerned about the financial position it faces. In its report on the budget and council tax for 2016-17 on 24 February 2016—it was looking ahead—it said there is “potential to create an extremely serious financial position for the Council, with genuine issues regarding the Council’s financial viability and ability to set a balanced budget”.”
“Of course it needs to go hand in hand with the needs assessment. Not only that, it needs to go hand in hand with the fair funding review. It would be lovely to know what the needs assessment will be for each council and what the fair funding review will mean for each council, but the brutal truth is that we do not know. I suggest the hon. Gentleman looks at one of the last amendments on the amendment paper to be considered on Tuesday 21 February, which deals with commencement of the Bill. We should wait for the full picture before we allow the Bill to come into force. We do not know what that needs assessment will be or what that fair funding review will look like for Waveney.”
“I am always up for things that are radical and transformative, but I like to see the detail before I decide whether they are radical or transformative in a positive way. The hon. Member for Thirsk and Malton, of whom I am very fond—I am always keen to promote him to his Whips—made a series of interventions about the case for rural authorities in north Yorkshire. I gently suggest that his contributions were, sadly, slightly less impressive than those of the hon. Member for Waveney. The hon. Member for Thirsk and Malton sought to bash London at every opportunity, which I would gently suggest is par for the course for him.”
“I will give way in just a second to the hon. Gentleman. In his contributions to date—he might be about to recover the situation—he failed to mention any assessment of need in London, or indeed in any authority outside the particular ones in north Yorkshire that I suspect he cares about.”
“Of course I would support a fairer system. I think of the ways in which the system is not fair in relation Harrow council’s finances—£80 million plus of cuts in the last four years. I wonder how that is fair. The exchange that the hon. Gentleman and I have had about fairness is an entirely reasonable debate. I simply think it should be had on the Floor of the House on an annual basis on the local government finance settlement.”
“I will give way to the Minister. I have not forgotten him. I am trying to but not succeeding. We should have that debate on fairness in local government finance, and on how spending power is allocated across local authority areas, on a regular basis, and ideally on an annual basis, when we debate the local government finance settlement. I cannot understand why it should be abolished before the new system comes in. When there is a principles of allocation statement or an amending statement, surely that should provide the hook for a debate on the Floor of the House of Commons about fairness and a series of other issues related to local government finance. I will give way to the Minister before I come back to Suffolk, which I know will be of interest to the hon. Member for Waveney.”
“That is a part of my life that I will not get back. [ Interruption. ]”
“Those are all good things in their own right. However, his leverage as a Member of Parliament for his two authorities will be weakened by the provisions in the Bill and the loss of parliamentary accountability envisaged in it. I gently suggest to him that that is surely negative and that he might want to use his considerable influence and charm on the Secretary of State to persuade him to think again. I want to dwell briefly on another issue linked to parliamentary scrutiny—the mandate for the changes. There was no indication in the Conservative party manifesto. I hope the hon. Member for Torbay has learned the lesson of his experiences of intervening in debates so far—one should read what one’s opponents say before challenging them. I have read the Conservative manifesto—and what a dismal read it was.”
“Member for Waveney, who I know will be as concerned about the financial situation facing Suffolk County Council as he is about the one facing Waveney District Council. His leverage as a Member of Parliament will be weakened if Parliament does not have to approve the principles of allocation statement. If there is not an opportunity on the Floor of the House of Commons for a debate, he might be able to persuade Mr Speaker to grant a Back-Bench debate on the finances for Waveney or Suffolk councils or both. He might be able to persuade Opposition Members to come together to look at the local government finances facing the east of England for a Back-Bench debate. He might even be able, if he whispers in my ear, to persuade the Opposition on occasion to use one of our Supply days for a debate on local government finance.”
“Let us take an extract from the January 2017 cabinet meeting of Suffolk County Council on 24 January, where that Conservative council says: “The Council should be under no illusion that the future financial outlook continues to be extremely challenging and deep ‘cuts’ to services will be required to remain viable even with a future general council tax increase.” Among its proposals were cuts to libraries and archive services; culture, heritage and sport facilities in Suffolk; children and young people’s services; the travel support budget for children and young people; help for local schools with their budgets; public health; and housing. That is the scale of financial difficulty Suffolk County Council faces. I have a suggestion for the hon.”
“Suffolk County Council will clearly recognise that more responsibilities are coming its way in the brave new world of 100% business rates devolution. I suspect it will be sceptical that it, like Waveney, can generate significant additional business rates income. If it is getting only £9.3 million under 50% business rates devolution, it seems unlikely that it will be able to get anywhere close to the £73 million in revenue support grant that it has lost or is going to lose by the end of this Parliament.”
“I hope the Minister has some respect for local authorities and for the role that this great House plays in helping local government to ensure that there is a regular opportunity for scrutiny of local government finance. I was dwelling on the authorities of the hon. Member for Waveney as part of the case for such ongoing scrutiny. If the situation in Waveney is bad—this time last year, Waveney was extremely worried about its ability to survive and prosper—the situation for Suffolk is surely as dramatic. The local government finance settlement for Suffolk suggested that it was set to lose more than £73 million in revenue support grant between 2015-16 and 2019-20, and that it was gaining only just over £9.3 million under the system of 50% devolution of business rates.”
“Given the sorry state of local government finance, I would be up for a debate every three months if it was going to lead to action on social care. The point of the amendments, a couple of which are probing amendments, is to explore the issue of scrutiny by the House of Commons. The Minister—let me be generous to him for a second—in responding to an intervention by the Chair of the Communities and Local Government Committee on Second Reading appeared to hint that he might be willing to look at this question. I gently encourage him to do so. There is a long tradition of Members of Parliament raising the concerns of their local authorities, be they North Yorkshire, Thurrock, Torbay or wherever, on the Floor of the House when we debate the local government finance settlement.”
“I am grateful to you, Mr Gapes, for getting Conservative Members under control again. I return to the essential point: there was no mandate for what the Minister and the Secretary of State propose. There was no mention of a shift to 100% business rate retention in the 2015 Conservative party manifesto. There has been no Green Paper and no White Paper about the changes. There has, of course, been a great session of the Select Committee on Communities and Local Government, of which the hon. Member for Thirsk and Malton is an excellent member, but the only commitment I could see in the manifesto was to a pilot scheme for allowing councils to keep a higher proportion of business rates in Cambridgeshire, Greater Manchester and Cheshire.”
“The hon. Gentleman is in danger of suffering from the same disease as the hon. Member for Torbay, and of repeating his question. Of course I am in favour of the principle of 100% business rate devolution. Indeed, we had it in our manifesto as part of a much bigger package of devolution than anything envisaged by the Conservative party. Perhaps the hon. Member for Thirsk and Malton, who has a reputation for hard work, would like to dig out a copy of the Labour party manifesto, where he can check the section on local government. I will happily pay for him to have a cup of tea with the hon. Member for Torbay so he can point out to him the passage about the increased spending power that councils would have had if Labour had been in charge.”
“I am struggling. I thought that I had helped the hon. Member for Torbay not to make that mistake. Hearing the Minister make the same mistake as a Back-Bench Member is too much. A £30 billion increase in revenue spending power for councils was the centrepiece of our manifesto for local authorities, together with an English devolution Bill.”
““We will pilot” is somewhat different from “we will introduce”. One might have thought that the hon. Gentleman’s party would follow up with a Green Paper and a White Paper. Where is the Green Paper? [ Interruption. ]”
“We had an opportunity to debate those measures, and seized that opportunity, in terms of the local government finance settlement at the time, but they indicate the way in which the Treasury and the Executive more generally can interfere with local government finance—sometimes for the best of reasons, but nevertheless with a significant impact on local government finance. Surely there is, therefore, a need for ongoing scrutiny.”
“If that were not reason enough for Conservative Members to be further convinced of the case for change, it is worth pointing out that in the autumn statement and spending review in 2015 the then Chancellor of the Exchequer, before he was sacked for incompetence by the current Prime Minister, cut the funding for local government from central Government for a further five years. He also introduced a series of new reliefs. There was no consultation with local government on the cut in revenue support grant or on the impact on business rates income of introducing those new reliefs, even though both would have a significant impact.”
“According to published accounts, in 2015-16, the Secretary of State debited the account by £12.89 billion but only £9.34 billion of that was used to pay revenue support grant to local councils, leaving a surplus of some £3.5 billion. That surplus will grow by at least £2.4 billion in 2016 and at least a further £2.4 billion in the coming financial year. No decision has yet been made about what that £2.4 billion growth in 2017-18 will be spent on. There is an opportunity for the income generated by business rates to be spent on tackling the biggest crisis facing local government spending at the moment: social care. We will have fewer opportunities to debate that if the Minister has his way and parliamentary scrutiny is dramatically rejected.”
“That growing surplus releases resources for the Treasury to use for other purposes such as reducing corporation tax for Sports Direct or banks, reducing capital gains tax, increasing inheritance tax allowance or other things. In 2015-16, this so-called surplus from the central share alone was some £1.9 billion, rising to £4.2 billion this year as revenue support grant continues to be cut further. Crucially, the surplus will reach more than £10 billion in 2019-20. Here is a major source of income for local authorities that is, in effect, being top-sliced by the Government for a whole series of other purposes when it could be used to fund the spending pressures facing local councils.”
“As we all know, in 2013, the Government changed the system, allowing councils to keep 50% of business rates, with the remaining 50%—crucially—paid into a central Government account: the main non-domestic rate account. Councils then still needed £15 billion in funding from central Government on top of the 50% of business rates that were kept. That was called the revenue support grant. In the first two years of that 50% business rates devolution scheme, the Government’s share of business rates was less than the amount they paid out to councils in revenue support grant. However, in 2015-16, the account moved into surplus.”
“My hon. Friend is absolutely right, and not only that but we committed to the fair funding, which the hon. Member for Thirsk and Malton wanted to see. I was trying to move on, before being interrupted by interventions from Conservative Members, to explore one of the other concerns about the way in which business rates retention has worked to date and how it might work over the rest of this Parliament. We would not be able to explore that if the local government finance settlement report did not have to be voted on by the House of Commons. It has been gently pointed out to me that there is a surplus on the main non-domestic rate account.”
“There may well be further justification for further reliefs to business, or for further public services to benefit from reliefs. We will seek to explore that later. However, there should be an ongoing opportunity to explore the consequential impacts of decisions that the Chancellor or other parts of the Executive might make on local councils’ finances.”
“My point was not about whether one opposes particular reliefs, but about the impact on local government finance. There is a consequential impact for local government, which we are debating today—a consequential impact on the finances of the hon. Gentleman’s local authority, my local authority and, indeed, the local authorities of all members of the Committee—and surely those consequential changes need to be considered. My point is that, under the Minister’s proposals, which I suspect the hon. Gentleman has been told he has to support, come what may—that is the reason he has the privilege of serving on the Committee and being mentored by Opposition Members—parliamentary scrutiny is being weakened in relation to local government finance.”
“Over a decade, it is estimated that councils will lose over £3 billion. That is a £3 billion benefit to business, and there is a debate to be had outside this Committee on whether that is the right support to give to business. In the context of this debate, there must be an issue as to whether it is the right choice for local government finance and the public services such as social care that are being provided. How will Nuneaton, Warwickshire, Waveney, Suffolk, Torbay or North Yorkshire be able to provide public services if they are seeing their authorities hit by their share of that £3 billion cut in capital funding? Sadly, there was no consultation with local authorities about that switch from RPI to CPI. I want to dwell on that issue a little more as part of the clause 5 stand part debate, which I hope we will get on to soon.”
“I am referring to the decision by the then Chancellor to switch the indicator, in terms of business rates going up or not, from the retail prices index to the consumer prices index. That is likely to have a significant impact on local government finance. In the 2016 Budget, Ministers suggested that it would reduce business rates income by £370 million in 2020-21. In 2020-21, under the Minister’s plans, there will not necessarily be an opportunity for a debate on the Floor of the House on the principles of allocation statement or the local government finance settlement report, to see what the consequences of that change are in that year for local government finance. And that is just one year. Each year, that reduction in income generated by business rates for local authorities will continue.”
“My hon. Friend makes a very good point and one that I realise I have not dwelled on until now. Of course he is right to say that local government leaders and their councils should be properly consulted, but one suspects from the contributions that we sometimes see in private from Conservative-led local authorities that they sometimes look to the Opposition to make their case more vigorously in public than they feel they can make it to their own Ministers, and that opportunity will be reduced if there is not similarly a requirement to be answerable to Members of Parliament. I will offer up to the Committee one further example of a very significant change to local government finance. If something like this were done in the future, we might not have the opportunity fully to explore the consequences.”
“The council is surrounded by agricultural land, which is not rated in business rate terms, and has significant natural barriers to further economic growth—I am thinking of the wonderful lakes of Derwentwater, for example, and the wonderful mountains of Skiddaw. The council faces natural barriers to economic growth, with which the hon. Member for Waveney will sympathise. Surely we have a responsibility—even though we represent other authorities as individual Members of Parliament—to think about the impact on authorities such as Allerdale, whose financial means might otherwise be forgotten if there is not the ongoing opportunity for parliamentary scrutiny.”
“It was remiss of me not to provide members of the Committee with the opportunity to reflect a little further on one of my favourite areas of the country: Allerdale in the Lake district and the local authority there. After the post-tariff top-up was introduced, it benefited from just £3.64 million in 2013-14 under business rate retention. That went up slightly to £4.91 million in 2014-15. Then it went down to £4.63 million in 2015-16 and by 2016 it had gone up slightly again, to £4.7 million. That is not very much business rates income under the 50% scheme. One assumes that it will get a little more income under 100% business rates retention.”
“Shortly. But it is another example of the way in which the Executive can make significant changes that may have substantial merit in their own right in terms of the support they give to business—one could think of other such examples—but which nevertheless have a significant impact on local government finance. Surely it is the responsibility of this House to think about local government finance in detail and about all the complexities that are envisaged, and to worry about what those might mean in future. Amendments 24, 25 and 26 stand in my name. Two of those are, I suspect, amendments that we will continue to regard as probing amendments, but the principle of scrutiny by the House of Commons is something that we on the Labour Benches take extremely seriously.”
“I was not going to criticise the hon. Member for Harrow East (Bob Blackman), although the Minister almost provokes me to do so; I was merely suggesting that he might not want to criticise Harrow Council quite so much. I welcome the fact that he brought in the finance officer from Harrow Council. Indeed, I knew about that, and suggested that if I came along too I might upset the Minister inadvertently, so it was probably best for the finance officer to go in with just the hon. Gentleman. I deliberately stood back so as to try to ensure— [ Interruption. ]”
“According to its research, people in Lincolnshire, Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Somerset, Dorset, West Berkshire, Wiltshire, Oxfordshire, Hertfordshire, North Yorkshire and Lancashire will be among the worst affected by the cuts in funding to local authorities—cuts that they will have to pass on to bus services. Surely that is an issue that Members of Parliament want to debate. Certainly, Opposition Members regularly seek to raise it through Adjournment debates or in questions, but it is surely part of the broader picture of local government finance and should be considered properly.”
“You may not know this, Mr Gapes, as, like me, you are a London Member of Parliament—we are lucky to be north London Members of Parliament in particular—but around the country, local authorities that have direct responsibility for bus services say that those services face substantial cuts. That is a concern. There is obviously scope for that to be debated in part at Department for Transport questions, but given that those services are financed by local government, surely that should be part of the issues relating to local government finance considered by the House regularly. The Campaign for Better Transport says that reductions in local authority funding have already resulted in thousands of bus services being reduced or cancelled in recent years.”
“I am getting closer, Mr Gapes. I thought the Minister’s intervention did not do him justice. I fight for my local authority and I respect the contribution of the hon. Member for Harrow East, although I try to guide him to make better defences of the local authority. I hope that the Minister listened carefully and will act on what the finance officer from Harrow Council said. Sadly, one thing we have not touched on thus far is bus services—a small issue in the context of the state of local government finance, but it matters—and there will be even less scope to debate it if our amendments are not accepted.”
“Member for Thirsk and Malton that if he has been unable to support any amendment of mine up to now, and cannot be tempted—although I hope he will be—to put pressure on the Minister to give way on the issue of ongoing levels of parliamentary scrutiny, he might want to consider the matter of when the Bill should come into law. Should it do so when we know the details of the fair funding review and of the regulations, and when the Minister finally gets around to publishing the 400-plus responses to the consultation document? Should the Bill not take effect at that point, instead of in this financial year?”
“Over the course of our proceedings, I have been gently suggesting to the hon. Gentleman the need for a proper fair funding review—I strongly support that—but he is a little misguided in his assessment of the level of need in London. It is not an issue of rural and urban outside London against London—that would be a huge mistake to make—but an issue of the quantum of local government finance, and spending power being savagely reduced by the party of which he is a member, in the misguided belief that that will somehow lead to a substantial reduction in the national debt. We know how that played out: the previous Chancellor of the Exchequer got sacked. I therefore gently suggest to the hon.”
“The hon. Gentleman, in his usually charming way, is tempting me down a path that will get me into a lot of trouble with the shadow Chancellor. [ Interruption. ] “Be brave!” say Conservative Members, and I am, but nevertheless I will not use the Committee to announce future Labour party policy. It would feel like a missed opportunity if only a few party members were present to hear about the new direction that Labour will take when it returns to government.”
“Much of that wonderful county is taken up with agricultural land, so in the brave new world of 100% business rates retention, there are likely to be fewer opportunities for business rates growth there than in other areas. Again, those of us who can think strategically should be worried about the situation that Kent County Council faces. I offer those four examples of delayed transfers of care as a reason for concern, and I look forward to the Minister’s explanation of why local government finances should not be debated regularly on the Floor of the House and why the Secretary of State should not have to answer for what he plans to do.”
“Member may have some interest in, there were more than 5,400 delayed transfers of care in November; again, that suggests some difficulties with the authority’s social care funding. Surely it is our responsibility as Members of Parliament not just to focus on the authorities that we represent—on Harrow or Oldham—but to think about the citizens of Northamptonshire, and to worry and ask questions about what their local authorities’ finances look like. In Kent, there were 4,884 delayed transfers of care—the sixth highest number in the country—in November alone. What does that say about the state of Kent County Council’s finances?”