§ The Minister for Local Government and the Regions (Mr. Nick Raynsford)In fulfilment of the commitment that we made in the December 2001 White Paper, "Strong Local Leadership—Quality Public Services", we are establishing a review to examine the balance of funding between locally raised and centrally provided sources of revenue for local government.
The review will consider what are the key issues associated with the balance of funding, review the evidence and look at reform options.
The Minister of State for Local Government and the Regions, will chair the review steering group. The first meeting of the steering group will be in April 2003. We will announce the membership of the steering group, which will include ministers, senior figures from local government and others able to make a strong personal contribution to the discussions, ahead of the first meeting.
We expect the review to last for about a year. We envisage that the final report of the review will summarise the main issues discussed by the steering group and will set out the pros and cons of a range of options for changing the balance of funding.
I am placing a copy of the review's terms of reference in the Library of the House of Commons.