HC Deb 04 February 1997 vol 289 cc791-2
13. Mr. Jacques Arnold

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will make a statement on the 1997–98 financial settlement for Kent county council. [12513]

Sir Paul Beresford

Kent's overall standard spending assessment increased by 2.2 per cent.—just short of £22 million. Within that, the element relating to education increased by 3.5 per cent., and that relating to fire by 5 per cent. I think that my hon. Friend will agree that that is a very fair settlement.

Mr. Arnold

My hon. Friend will know that the people of Kent were delighted to receive an extra £22 million for this year—an increase that takes the spending of Kent county council beyond £1 billion. Does he share the dismay of people throughout Kent at the fact that the Labour-Liberal Democrat coalition proposes to cut massive sums from the budgets of our schools, our fire service and our social services, and to decimate adult education, the youth service and many other services in Kent?

Sir Paul Beresford

I should have thought that my hon. Friend would be used to that by now. It is what we call the bleeding stump syndrome—chop off something vital and wave it around to frighten the public.

Mr. Allen

Will the Minister point out to the outgoing hon. Member for Gravesham (Mr. Arnold), as well as to the hon. Members for Dartford (Mr. Dunn) and for Dover (Mr. Shaw), that all Kent's Tories trooped through the Lobby last night to impose the local government settlement on Kent? It is that settlement, not Kent county council, that will force council tax payers in Gravesham to find another 20 per cent. of the cost of their local services, and voters in Dartford to find another 30 per cent., while the Tories' cronies in Westminster pay only 10 per cent. Will the Minister urge Kent's Tory Members, in their few remaining weeks in this place, to do what Chris Pond will do in Gravesham, Howard Stoate will do in Dartford and Gwyn Prosser will do in Dover, and speak up for Kent in this place, instead of constantly denigrating it?

Sir Paul Beresford

That is a double-handed blow. On the one hand we have the bleeding stump, and on the other hand, the hon. Member is counting chickens long before they are hatched.

Sir Roger Moate

Does not the fact remain that Kent has received an extra £22 million, that Labour shadow Ministers are saying that there is no more money available anyway, and that it is Liberal and Labour councillors who are shutting our fire stations, cutting our library services and closing our youth services? The sooner we get them out on 1 May, the sooner we shall be able to ensure that those closures and cuts do not happen.

Sir Paul Beresford

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. If he had been in our shoes at the Department, he would have seen Labour authority after Labour authority coming to complain, wanting more central Government funding, more local funding and council tax, the transfer of the business rate into their hands, and the removal of the compulsory aspect of compulsory competitive tendering. This is not a new tax; it is the same council tax but many times greater.