Regarding today's written statement, does the Minister not accept that local authorities have been at the forefront of making efficiency savings-2% year on year-so to ask for a further 1% part way through the year, on top of the 2% to which they are already committed, will effectively mean cuts in local authority spending part way through the year of about 4% to 5%? Rather than being about efficiency savings, this is surely the first round of the savage cuts for local authorities that Ministers promised us.