§ Mr. Nick Raynsford (Greenwich)I rise to present a petition signed by more than 2,000 residents of the London borough of Greenwich calling on the Government to revise their standard spending assessment formula to remedy the grave injustice which the present formula causes to Greenwich. For more than 2,000 people to sign a petition on a subject as arcane and technical as standard spending assessments shows the strength and depth of the feeling of the people in my constituency and the whole borough of Greenwich on that issue.
The system is unquestionably unfair, as it rates Greenwich substantially below all the other inner London boroughs and several outer London boroughs on a range of indicators, when there is clear and incontrovertible evidence that the needs of Greenwich compare with those of other inner London boroughs.
For example, the children's social service element in the standard spending assessment allows Greenwich just £308 per child, which is a staggering £147 below the next lowest inner London borough, yet Greenwich suffers from the highest incidence of infant mortality in London and has the fourth highest number of children on the child protection register and the third highest number of place of safety orders issued by magistrates.
Clearly, the current system is failing fundamentally, which has promoted the wave of justified anger among
Greenwich residents, who therefore requestthat the House of Commons does everything in its power to obtain a just standard spending assessment for the London borough of Greenwich. And your Petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray".
§ To lie upon the Table.