HC Deb 06 November 1991 vol 198 cc440-1
10. Mrs. Mahon

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he has any plans to visit Halifax to discuss local government funding.

Mr. Portillo

I regret that my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State has no such plans, but I am sure that Ministers will wish to visit Halifax in force over the coming months.

Mrs. Mahon

Will the Minister join me in congratulating Labour-controlled Calderdale council, which was named recently in a report of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy as the second most efficient metropolitan council? Does not he think that that is a remarkable achievement as its standard spending assessment has, for some reason, been set lower than the metropolitan or national average? Does the Minister think that that is a good way to repay an efficient council which, if the same criteria are used this year for the SSA, will face £7 million of cuts? Is it not time that he abolished poll tax capping and allowed councils to get on with the job?

Mr. Portillo

I always find it puzzling, when the Government increase the standard spending assessments markedly year by year, to hear that that leads to cuts by local authorities. Calderdale's SSA increased by 18 per cent. last year. We do not yet have the figures for next year, but we know that the average increase in total standard spending will be 7.2 per cent. As the Government have increased the money ahead of inflation, I find such talk of cuts rather tiresome.

Mr. Batiste

When my hon. Friend takes the opportunity to visit Halifax to discuss local government funding, will he consider the future of the joint committees in West Yorkshire which were established following the abolition of the West Yorkshire metropolitan county council? Will he consider especially the police authority and the growing concern in West Yorkshire that there must be better ways to fund that important service?

Mr. Portillo

My hon. Friend raises important matters. However, he will know that in the Local Government Finance Bill which we published yesterday we have bitten off a considerable amount of possible change with the establishment of the local government commission. I think that the matters that we have laid—or intend to lay—before the commission are already sufficient and I think that some of my hon. Friend's concerns may have to wait for another day.