§ Mr. Cartwrightasked the Secretary of State for the Environment whether he will make a statement about the Consultative Council on Local Government Finance.
§ Mr. CroslandThe council has been set up. I have already had a meeting 129W with members of the local authority associations. We have decided that the council should be a small group with senior Ministers and leading elected members of the local authority associations, together with officials, who will meet as often as necessary, but at least once a quarter.
The council will cover England and Wales, although there will be an additional council which will deal with matters of concern to Wales alone.
The council will consider all aspects of local authority problems which have financial implications. The council will be brought into central Government economic thinking and will provide a forum for seeing that the implications for local authorites of financial and economic decisions are fully considered.