New Clause 31 - Enforcement of planning controls
Planning and Compulsory Purchase (Re-committed) Bill
3:00 pm
Ms Yvette Cooper (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister; Pontefract and Castleford, Labour)
I must point out that Opposition Members' stance is not logical or consistent with other things that their party is calling for. They are asking
for further restriction of local authorities' discretion in decision making and in funding allocation. My experience of discussions with Conservative-led councils is that they, like Labour-led ones, often want more discretion over the way in which they use their resources. They would find it rather perverse to hear their Front-Bench spokespeople arguing for local councils to have less discretion in the way in which they allocate funds.
The second aspect implicit in what they are calling for is more ring-fenced resources. I wonder where they think that such resources will come from, given that their party is so keen to cut the resources allocated to many public services.