DUTY TO KEEP LAND AND HIGHWAYS CLEAR OF LITTER ETC (Hansard, 2 May 1990)

§ Mr. Pike
I beg to move amendment No. 138, in page 82, line 30, after 'practicable', insert 'within the resources available'.

§ Madam Deputy Speaker (Miss Betty Boothroyd)
With this it will be convenient to take the following amendments: No. 139, in page 82, line 31, at end insert— '(1A) The Secretary of State shall in respect of each financial year satisfy himself that the resources available to each local authority or other body to which this section applies are adequate to secure the proper carrying out of the functions conferred by subsection (1) above.'. No. 145, in page 83, line 34, after 'prepared', insert 'or modified'.

§ Mr. Pike
Amendment No. 145 is a minor one, which makes a small improvement to the Bill. Although it is likely that the Minister will respond negatively to amendments Nos. 138 and 139, I hope that he will respond positively to that one.
Clause 76 deals with the duty of local authorities to keep highways and land free of litter. Amendment No. 138 provides that, where that is practicable, it should be carried out "within the resources available". This is the last option that we would want the Government to accept, because I believe that amendment No. 139 contains a better proposal. We tabled amendment No. 138 because we recognise that the Government are loth to make funds available to local government. If they are not prepared to meet the requirements in amendment No. 139, they should tackle the problem in the best possible way "within the resources available". That is an important distinction, going beyond the practicability referred to in clause 76.
We have seen the Government's proposals and seen how they categorise different types of streets, highways and land covered by the clause. We know about the powers they are giving the public to take action against local authorities. I know that you, Madam Deputy Speaker, always take a close interest in your local authority, Sandwell, and that you recognise the problems that the council will have in meeting the requirements of this part of the Bill. We all want litter to be eliminated.
The Government are all too fond of giving responsibilities and duties to local authorities without giving them the resources to carry them out. Councils were given the duty of calculating housing benefit after that duty was transferred from the Department of Health and Social Security, as it then was. Every local authority would claim that it has a net deficit because of that burden. The 1162 Government have a duty to ensure that local authorities have the cash resources available to carry out their responsibilities.

§ Mr. Trippier
We cannot have this. I must have told the hon. Member for Burnley (Mr. Pike) a hundred times in Committee that we will provide additional resources through the revenue support grant, as soon as we have ascertained from the consultants' study how much money will be required to provide for that new facility. It is not as easy as the hon. Gentleman makes it sound. A number of local authorities manage to do the job perfectly well within their existing resources. We are sitting in the middle of one—the City of Westminster. There is also Canterbury and, to name one that is not controlled by the Conservatives, the London borough of Sutton. It is under Liberal control, but it somehow manages miraculously to work well within its existing resources and keep the streets remarkably clean.
With the new duties imposed by this legislation, may right hon. Friend the Secretary of State and I have said many times that we are certainly prepared to consider providing additional resources as soon as the consultants' study is completed, which I hope will be within the next few months. We hope then to announce the formula that will be used for calculating those additional resources.

§ Mr. Pike
We have heard the same message from the Minister time after time. We judge the Government by their track record. They have failed to deliver in the past. We believe that they will again fail to do so. No doubt they will make additional resources available but they will not be sufficient. That is why we thought amendment No. 139 was essential to safeguard the position.
With the permission of the House, I beg to ask leave to withdraw the amendment.