Clause 24
Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill
6:15 pm
Andrew Stunell (Shadow Secretary of State for the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (Communities and Local Government), Department for Communities and Local Government; Hazel Grove, Liberal Democrat)
I want to take the point made by the hon. Member for Poole a step further. As I understand it, one of the criteria that the Secretary of State will have in mind is the council tax levels that will arise in the combined authority. I think that I heard the Minister say that the Government would expect that not to exceed the lower of the levels that might be in force in the eight or more unitary authorities. Perhaps he could underline that or not, as the case may be. It is clearly relevant to the disposal of any reserves that might be held by one or other of the authorities. It might well be that, to achieve what has been described, the reserves held by one authority would of necessity be applied to reduce the charges in another authority or what was previously another authority area.
I may not be expressing myself clearly, but I hope that the Minister can understand the points that I am making. Clearly, that could be an aggravating feature, if I can put it that way, of the circumstances that arose post merger. I would be interested and grateful if the Minister gave us a response to that as well as to the issues raised by the hon. Member for Poole.