Orders of the Day — Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 16 April 1975.

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Photo of Mr Joel Barnett Mr Joel Barnett , Heywood and Royton 12:00, 16 April 1975

I find that intervention cheeky, coming as it does from a Conservative Member. I shall come to the questions of rent, subsidies, local government expenditure, and so on.

A large amount of the reductions will have to be found by local authorities cutting back the increases in their current expenditure, which in real terms has been far outstripping growth in national resources. This cannot continue, but I am only too well aware—and I hope that Conservative Members are—that it is easier said than done.

The right hon. and learned Member for Surrey, East poured scorn on the new consultative council. As my right hon. Friend said, it will provide a valuable new forum in which the Government and local authorities can consult on the development of local authority policies and expenditure and the constraints under which they will have to operate. But I am under no illusion as to what we are asking local authorities to do. The right hon. and learned Gentleman sneers at the new forum. If he knows a better way of dealing with the problem, whilst retaining local democracy, I am sure that the House will be delighted to hear it.

I hope the right hon. and learned Gentleman does not think that cash limits are an easy option. My right hon. Friend said yesterday that that is worth looking at, but that was the only alternative offered to the House by the right hon. and learned Gentleman. I hear a Conservative Member suggesting the Housing Finance Act as a means of dealing with the problem. If that is the view of the Opposition Front Bench I shall be interested to hear it.