Clause 4 - Imposition of borrowing limits
Local Government Bill
5:00 pm
Mr Paul Marsden (Shrewsbury and Atcham, Liberal Democrat)
Will the Minister cast his mind back to 1997? I agree that Ministers may require some reserve powers to deal with rogue councils. However, in 1997, before the general election, Labour's position on local government was that:
''The government has taken such massive central control over local government that civil servants in Whitehall now effectively set the budget for every single council in the country. We do not think this is right or sensible. It assumes that civil servants in Whitehall know the needs and circumstances of each area better than councillors elected by local people.''
Should not the Minister be trusting local councillors and local people? He is the one living in cloud cuckoo land.