HC Deb 12 December 1979 vol 975 cc1298-9
16. Mr. Adley

asked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he is satisfied with the efforts of local authorities to control their expenditure; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Heseltine

I refer my hon. Friend to the reply which I gave on 14 November to the hon. Member for Birmingham, Perry Barr (Mr. Rooker), in which I welcomed the assurance I had received from the local authority associations about the co-operation of the vast majority of authorities.

Mr. Adley

In the light of the concern about local government waste and failure to trim unnecessary expenditure, will my right hon. Friend perhaps give his moral support to the creation of "fiscal vigilantes", comprised of local people, such as has been started in respect of the Birmingham housing corporation, to keep an eye on local government expenditure? Does he not consider that local ratepayers are perhaps the best people of all to point out what they consider to be misdemeanours in expenditure matters by their own local authorities?

Mr. Heseltine

My hon. Friend raises a crucial point. The answer that I would give him is simply that the powers that we shall seek from Parliament is the Local Government, Planning and Land Bill will enable us to ensure that a wide range of information about the performance of individual authorities is available, which will enable local people and the local press to make much more informed judgments upon such matters than they are currently able to do.

Mr. loan Evans

Does not the right hon. Gentleman realise that there is deep anxiety among county and borough councillors about the financial proposals in the Local Government, Planning and Land Bill that will shortly come before the House? Will he have serious consultations with the local authorities before that monstrous Bill is presented?

Mr. Heseltine

I think that it is now too late to promise further consultations with the local authorities, but we shall now have the widest possible consultation process, which is what the procedures of this House are all about.

Mr. Farr

Will my right hon. Friend offer his unqualified support to the anti-waste drives that have been launched by a number of newspapers, such as the Leicester Mercury, in areas where local government waste is apparent at the moment?

Mr. Heseltine

It adds to the strength of local democracy if local people and the local press become involved in the debate about the wide range of options for reducing public expenditure. I have no doubt whatever that there are a considerable number of areas where local authorities can reduce public expenditure on a scale that has not yet been requested.

Mr. Allen McKay

If the right hon. Gentleman believes that local people are the best people to decide what they want, why is he and the Government interfering with that right by imposing policies on those local authorities which the local people freely elected to do the things that they wanted to be done?

Mr. Heseltine

Because the policies that the Government were elected to carry through with regard to the sale of council houses carry the mandate of the whole of the people. What hon. Members must clearly understand is that this House has a right to prevail over the local authority view so long as there is a mandate to do so in a general election. That is exactly the claim that was made by Labour Members when they pushed the Education Act through this House.