Clause 1 - Piloting conduct at European and local elections
European Parliamentary and Local Elections (Pilots) Bill
10:18 am
Mr Nick Hawkins (Surrey Heath, Conservative)
We have had an extraordinary start to the morning, with the first Government defeat that I have been involved in since the 2001 election. We look forward to many more, not only in this Committee but on future occasions.
As I said on Second Reading last Tuesday, Conservative Members feel strongly that all local authorities should be willing participants in experiments of this kind. There are already huge burdens on local authorities, and many of them have been imposed since May 1997 by the Labour Government. In elections, the returning officer—usually, in my experience, the chief executive of the relevant local authority—has many responsibilities already. However, the burdens on chief executives do not come from elections alone.
Perhaps many other local authorities are making the same complaint that is among those I receive from all the senior officers in the two local authorities in my constituency—I have certainly heard the hon. Member for Somerton and Frome (Mr. Heath) making similar points in other debates. The complaint is that, since 1997, the Government have loaded greater statutory obligations and burdens on to local authorities, but crucially without providing the funding necessary to enable them to carry out those obligations. The pattern is a common one. A Minister—this or another Minister—will stand up in the House and trumpet a great announcement that the Government are doing something. However, they are putting the burden on local authorities to do that something without providing the funding.
Our constituents often protest about the increases in council tax. It is easy for Ministers to try to blame local authorities for that, as they regularly do, and make threatening noises about capping. Indeed, I heard Ministers do that in the Chamber only yesterday. However, the Government are the real culprit; they are putting the burdens on local authorities without providing the necessary funding—and the local authorities have no choice but to obey the statute law imposed on them by the Government.
Councillors generally, but especially the senior councillors in my constituency, regularly raise this matter—and not only councillors of my party but councillors of all parties. They are concerned at the huge burdens being placed on them.