Clause 37 - Best value grant: communities
Local Government Bill
10:00 am

Mr Don Touhig (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Welsh Office; Islwyn, Labour/Co-operative)

Clause 37, which applies to Wales, provides for the National Assembly of Wales to pay a grant to best value community councils that are subject to any best value duties for expenditure that they incur. By virtue of the Local Government (Best Value) (Exemption) (Wales) Order 2000, at present no council meets the criteria for being subject to any of the best value duties in sections 3 to 6 of the Local Government Act 1999.

However, that may change. The Assembly has commissioned a research project to be carried out by the University of Wales at Aberystwyth into the role and responsibilities of community councils. It may result in some community councils taking part in the Wales programme for improvement, which is an in-depth assessment by each authority of its fitness to achieve continuous improvement across all its functions. The Wales programme for improvement is based on the best value duties in the 1999 Act.

Clause 37 permits the payment of grant to best value authorities, which are defined in subsection (1) as community councils that are subject to the best value duties set out in sections 3 to 6 of the 1999 Act. There is no requirement for Treasury consent, as the Assembly sets its own Budget.

Mr Andrew Turner (Isle of Wight, Conservative)

I should like to explore some of the types of information that the National Assembly for Wales might seek to obtain under the provisions of the clause. It may be difficult to envisage that in the context of a regime under which no best value requirements are placed on any parishes or communities in Wales. However, can the Under-Secretary indicate whether the information that a community council may be required to provide is limited to that which it has obtained in connection with best value purposes? Or might it extend beyond such purposes to information that it might perhaps have acquired for other purposes; or, indeed, that it might not have acquired had it not been for the desire to obtain the grant that is or might become available under the clause?

Let me give the Under-Secretary some examples. Is it the intention of the Assembly to obtain information about the linguistic make-up of communities in Wales, the languages spoken by people buying houses or the ethnic origin of people in Welsh communities? Is it intended that the Assembly can require community councils to use the grant in such a way as to either distort or maintain the ethnic or linguistic composition of particular communities in Wales? Is it within the power that will be conveyed by the clause for a community council to make grants to schools or rural post offices? For example, in Cardiganshire there is argument about whether new houses should be built in its communities because they may be purchased by incomers who being more likely to be English than Welsh, would distort the balance between Welsh and English speakers. The contrary arguments are that the houses should not be built, in which case the viability

of local services, such as post offices and schools, would be reduced, or that the houses should be built only on condition that they are occupied by people who speak Welsh. Is it within the powers of the clause for the National Assembly for Wales to require that the grant be spent in any of those ways?

Mr Don Touhig (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Welsh Office; Islwyn, Labour/Co-operative)

No.

Question put and agreed to.

Clause 37 ordered to stand part of the Bill.

Clause 38 ordered to stand part of the Bill.