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Local Government Finance - 23 April 2002 Mr. David Curry (Skipton and Ripon): When the Secretary of State looks at council tax levels, will he bear it in mind that one thing unites all the shire authorities, whether they are controlled by the Conservatives, the Liberal Democrats or, indeed, as in the case of Durham, Labour? What is common to shire authorities and other authorities, such as York, is that they have to respond to the chronic underfunding of social services. Is the Secretary of State comfortable with the Chancellor of the Exchequer's proposals to fine local authorities if they cannot meet obligations for which they have not been funded? Mr. Byers: When the right hon. Gentleman has the opportunity to
look in detail at the figures that were revealed in the Budget last week,
he will see that there is to be an increase in personal social services
spending of more than £1.1 billion next year. That is made up of
£766 million that had already been identified, which is an increase
well above the rate of inflation, and the additional sum of £360
million, which the Chancellor announced last week. There is thus a real-terms
increase of 6 per cent. for personal social services. In that context,
local authorities—county and unitary—should be able to meet
the demands that are being made on them by using the generous increase
in funding that is being made available. |
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David Curry MP | House of Commons, London SW1A 0AA | tel: 020 7219 6202 |
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