§ Gregory BarkerTo ask the Deputy Prime Minister if he will meet an all party delegation from East Sussex County Council to discuss proposals for the reform of local government funding. [83914]
§ Mr. LeslieThe Office of the Deputy Prime Minister will shortly be consulting on the Government's proposals for the funding of local authorities revenue expenditure in 2003–04. It would probably be impossible to arrange a meeting with every individual authority which would ideally like one. The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has therefore suggested to authorities that it would be helpful if they could make any representations as part of broader delegations, for example on the basis of special interest groups. If particular authorities judge that their case cannot be made effectively in this way, requests for individual meetings will be considered.