§ 10. Dr. CableWhat plans he has to reduce local authorities' reliance on central Government funding. [30630]
§ Ms ArmstrongWe shall shortly be consulting on possible changes to the system of local government finance.
§ Dr. CableDoes the Minister recall that the Government have signed the European charter of local self-government? Is she willing to tell the vast majority of councils—of all parties—which are well run, what time scale the Government now envisage to allow councils to raise their own revenue to meet local needs free of central Government capping and other centralised controls?
§ Ms ArmstrongWe have said that we shall consult shortly. The consultation document will be going out in the next two to three weeks. Councils will then be able to respond. We shall be able to deal with the points that the hon. Gentleman has raised in that process. We then hope to bring a White Paper to the House. He will then see precisely how the Government intend to proceed.
§ Dr. LadymanWhen the Minister is looking into how to reduce local government reliance on central Government funding, will she also look into those ways in which local government is bailing out central Government? I am thinking of the burden of housing benefit payments on district councils. When the 844 Conservative party passed the responsibility for such payments to local government, it promised that not a penny of that expenditure would fall on the council tax payer. In my district of Thanet, £3 million out of £15 million goes on covering the cost of housing benefit payments. Will my hon. Friend take that into consideration when considering how local government finance is to be reorganised?
§ Ms ArmstrongThat is part of the present review of housing finance. I met the Local Government Association to discuss issues associated with that last week. It is one of the areas that we are reviewing and I look forward to reporting back on the results at some stage in the future.