§ Mr. Marlowasked the Secretary of State for the Environment what steps he proposes to take to prevent individual local authorities from organising their affairs in the short term in a manner such that in the long term their areas will become depressed and will require substantial support from public funds.
§ Mr. Heseltine[pursuant to his reply, 23 June 1980, c. 71]: As long as we preserve the independence of local government there must be a limit to the power of central Government over individual authorities, which are answerable to their own electorate. However, we are introducing in the Local Government, Planning and Land (No. 2) Bill a number of proposals to encourage responsible policies and enhance local accountability particularly block grant, capital control and declaration of management information.