Rate Support Grant (England)

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 8:35 pm on 20 January 1986.

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Photo of Mr Michael Carttiss Mr Michael Carttiss , Great Yarmouth 8:35, 20 January 1986

The expenditure of a district council is a small part of, for example, sub-committee expenditure in an education authority.

In Norfolk, six secondary schools were closed between 1980 and 1983. Four of those schools were in my constituency. I reveal those facts to illustrate to the House that no one has been more determined in 19 years service in local government to ensure strict economies in local public spending. I wish that there was the same determination at a national level to achieve the type of cuts that local services have had. My right hon. Friend the Member for Cambridgeshire, South-East (Mr. Pym) called it a Charlie Chaplin system. Norfolk will have to find £6 million this year to avoid penalty. There must be something wrong with the Department of the Environment's GRE figure of £266 million, because the authority has engaged in heavy cutting. Other Departments have recognised that.

Although my right hon. Friend has abolished targets, the Government's new figures are based on assumed levels of spending. We no longer ask local authorities to worry about targets, but the Government still have in mind a figure for each authority, which they call its assumed level of spending.

I rarely address the House, Mr. Deputy Speaker, and it is most unfortunate that tonight I have almost lost my voice when I am attacking a Government that I admire and respect so much in every other way. It is an illustration of the depth of emotion that I feel when I think that successive Conservative Administrations have repeatedly said that they are willing to recognise and to reward low-spending authorities, yet they are still unable to do so.

In Norfolk, there is a gap of £36 million between the GREA and the assumed level of spending. For every pound spent over that assumed level, Norfolk loses 57p of Government grant. Yet, on last year's system of distributing RSG, the Minister knows that for every pound spent below GRE, grant would have been gained. The problem for a loyal supporter of the Government who is 100 per cent. committed to the aims and objectives of his right hon. and hon. Friends on the Treasury Bench is at what point he says, "I must oppose the Government, not just in words but in deed."

I remind the House that I made my maiden speech on this subject two years ago. I concluded my remarks then by saying that next year's settlement would be better. This year, the average ratepayer in my constituency who owns a house with a rateable value of £175 will pay £5 a week in county council rates. As a result of this rate support grant settlement, he will pay £6 a week. I should be grateful if my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State—in his absence I expressed enormous admiration for him—will accompany me round the villages in my constituency and round Great Yarmouth to explain to each ratepayer in 40 seconds why this has happened to a Conservative-controlled local authority. Socialists and Liberals have never controlled Norfolk county council, and they never will, because I am confident that, recognising the strength of feeling among Conservative Members, the Government will introduce a more equitable system next year.

To encourage my right hon. and hon. Friends, I should tell them that, although I voted with them last year on the understanding that low-spending authorities such as Norfolk would get a better deal this year, that has not been the result of this year's settlement. Therefore, it would be dishonourable, after 19 years in local government service in Norfolk, to do anything other than join the Opposition in their Lobby tonight, confident, however, that the Government will produce a better system within the next two years to ensure that they will remain in office for a further five years.