Local Government Finance

HC Deb 15 October 1975 vol 897 cc1344-6

8. Dr. Edmund Marshall

asked the Secretary of State for the Environment whether he has received any indication of the date when the report of the Layfield Committee of Inquiry into local government finance will be presented to him.

The Under-Secretary of State for the Environment (Mr. Gordon Oakes)

No, but I understand that the committee is working to the original target date of the end of this year.

Dr. Marshall

Does my hon. Friend appreciate that the general public is looking to the Layfield Committee to advocate a thorough radical reform of local government finance and that if the Committee merely recommends complicated tinkering with the present system it will be up to the Government to put forward proposals at an early date for an entirely new system?

Mr. Oakes

I cannot anticipate the recommendations of the committee, but it would be foolish to set up a completely independent body to look at the rating system and then tell it how to do it.

22. Mr. Durant

asked the Secretary of State for the Environment if cash limits were discussed at the last meeting of the consultative council on Local Government Finance.

Mr. Crosland

No, Sir, but I shall have such discussions before any cash limits come into operation.

Mr. Durant

I am disappointed that the right hon. Gentleman has not had this discussion. Does he agree that the only real way to deal with the whole question of local government expenditure is to put a moratorium on capital expenditure. Some authorities are still going ahead with expensive capital schemes, and these should be stopped.

Mr. Crosland

The Government's views about the future of local government expenditure have been made repeatedly and exceedingly clearly. The question of cash limits, as normally discussed, would tend to cover current rather than capital expenditure, but I hope that it will be only a comparatively short time before I am in a position to make a very detailed statement about our view of cash limits.

Mr. Molloy

Is my right hon. Friend aware of the discrimination which exists in local government finance against the Greater London area—discrimination which is causing great difficulties? Since there has been a promise that an attempt will be made to remove this unfair and unjust discrimination, may we be told when that is likely to happen?

Mr. Crosland

I cannot give details until we come to the actual rate support grant settlement, but I can repeat what I have said many times in public—that, on the whole, London had rather a rough deal in last year's settlement.

Mr. Raison

In his discussions with the consultative council has the right hon. Gentleman considered what he will do about local authorities which defy Government policy on expenditure, for example, the South Yorkshire Council, which is apparently to defy his policy on bus fares?

Mr. Crosland

We shall have to wait and see what the South Yorkshire total comes to. I have merely seen a report in the Press about one segment of that total expenditure. However, at the end of the day the Government is not in a position to impose legal sanctions on local authorities. Unless the hon. Member is suggesting that we should move over to the French type of prefectorial system, the Government must depend—and I depend willingly—on the sense of statesmanship and discretion in the local authority.