Clause 24
Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill
6:15 pm
Philip Dunne (Ludlow, Conservative)
I support the amendment moved by my hon. Friend the Member for Poole, which has my name attached to it. I would like to elaborate a little on the issue, as he was kind enough to refer to my neighbouring authority and it does illustrate the importance of the amendment and the difficulties posed by the clause as drafted.
As we all know, councils have assets of very variable amount and quality. That is not a criticism of any individual council administration. Those assets tend to have been built up, accumulated or spent over years, decades and, in some cases, probably even longer than that. That is a result of the practice and stewardship of successive councils and successive Government policies, so this is not a party political point at all; it is just a fact of life. Some councils are well run; some are not so well run. Some retain substantial assets deliberately for a rainy day, and those assets may be, as my hon. Friend said, large cash balances—for example, from the sale of housing stock where they have not as yet spent the receipts. I am sure that, had my hon. Friend the Member for Shrewsbury and Atcham been lucky enough to serve on the Committee, he would be making the point more forcefully in the case of Shrewsbury and Atcham than I could.