Mr John Maxton: ..., and all the Conservative councillors will not be very happy about that. Therefore, there is a certain amount of low cunning in the provision. It is an attack on democracy. Indeed, the whole Bill is an attack on local democracy, and the clause takes it one stage further. It is an attack on the legislature's right to scrutinise Government action, and as such the Government are limiting...
Mr John Maxton: The hon. Member for Tayside, North shakes his head, so I shall give the figures for 1982–83. The average domestic rate bill in Angus was £225, in Dundee it was £296 and in Perth and in Kinross it was £239. Although Angus and Perth and Kinross have a much lower rate poundage, they ask their domestic ratepayers to pay nearly as much as Dundee. Dundee has to have a higher rate poundage to...
Mr Eldon Griffiths: .... The deterrent effect of part II will do more than anything else to ensure that the containment of local authority expenditure which we all seek is achieved. I could not have supported the Bill if my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State had not said earlier that he will bring forward an amendment in another place to ensure that local authorities that had been prudent and stayed...
Mr Jack Thompson: ...1981. It was a good job that it changed, and it did so because the controlling Conservative group of the ACC decided that it wanted to see such a change. That is probably part of the reason for the Bill. A far more responsible leadership took over—Conservatives with a better understanding of local Government than previously. I respect the attitude that has been taken since the change in...
Mr Teddy Taylor: .... However, I think that the Minister would accept that it could amount to perhaps £200 million to £250 million for local authorities, which is a lot of money. We have been discussing under the Bill the enormous problems of local authorities in making ends meet, and the Government are short of money. Not only would it ensure more revenue for local authorities but it would take some of...
Mr Patrick Jenkin: ...that was made by the hon. Member for Tyne Bridge (Mr. Cowans) and a number of hon. Members, including my hon. Friend the Member for Devizes (Mr. Morrison), saying that the decisions taken under the Bill would be taken by civil servants, and that Ministers would only be rubberstammps. I refute that strongly. In the Department of the Environment we have to deal with many local authorities....
Jack Straw: ...explained, for all hon. Members concerned about the general powers it is an important probing amendment to discover the Government's real intentions with regard to the specific powers. As the Bill is drafted, it would be open to the Secretary of State to use the selective powers to rate-cap almost every authority which exceeds the £10 million floor of grant-related expenditure. If he...
Mr Allan Roberts: ...from the local authority about the consequences of rate-capping and how the capping exercise is affecting the services and the people who live in the area. The new clause would improve the Bill by enabling the Government to demonstrate that their mind was not closed to representations from local authorities. In Committee, every amendment seeking more consultation or the right to make...
Mr Patrick Jenkin: ...requirements of the nationalised industries. That, broadly, is the definition. The hon. Gentleman has now acknowledged —perhaps we do not need to dwell on it—that it will be reduced by the Bill. He will remember that on Second Reading and in Committee I put forward the proposition that had there been rate capping in 1983–84, had no more than 18 authorities been chosen, and had we...
Mr Harry Cowans: ...of State gave the Newcastle city council something that it has never had before, under any Government—the ability to see into the future. He said that the council was already implementing the Bill, but he does not know what the Bill's principles are because he has not yet worked them out. It is true that he gave a list of 11 different principles and went through all 11 of them, but at...
Mr Allan Roberts: ...refers to grant-related expenditure—the target used for expenditure guidance referred to in the Local Government Finance Act 1982 — and to an expenditure limit determined in accordance with the Bill. That should not be used by the Government as justification for and means of assessment of rate capping. The new clause provides that the highest figure produced in those three...
Ordered,That it be an Instruction1. (a) that they amend the Bill by including a provision establishing a statutory advisory committee to assist the Trustees in fulfilling the Trusts and ensuring that no activities undertaken or permitted by the Trustees in Alexandra Park and Palace shall be a nuisance or annoyance or of detriment to the amenities of local residents;(b) that the statutory...
Mr Stan Orme: ...that we can more clearly assess the needs of both the community and individual households. Included in such sponsorship should be the Department of Health and Social Services, the Department of the Environment, the Welsh Office and, of course, the Department of Energy. The efforts of all these Departments should be pooled, as my hon. Friend the Member for Bradford, West (Mr. Madden)...
Mr Bill O'Brien: ...affected the principles behind and the work outlined in the report. The points made in the report can be influenced by various Secretaries of State. That is illustrated by the Department of the Environment. The Department of the Environment is responsible in the main for monitoring local government expenditure. A change in the level of government expenditure can influence joint financing...
Mr Jeff Rooker: ...in spite of the reduction in corporation tax simply because a lot more of the profit will become taxable. The estimates, which have not been refuted by the Government, show that on an extra £1·5 billion, only a third will come from the banks because of their peculiar arrangement. The rest will come from manufacturing industry. Where does that leave the Chancellor's Budget claim of a...
Jim Wallace: The hon. Gentleman makes a valid point. I believe that more research has been done on the continent. I understand that there is an annual maintenance bill of about £1,500,000 for Cologne cathedral due to corrosion, so it is clear that acid rain causes damage to buildings as well as to the natural environment. The Government's watchdog committee recently reported that the acidity of rainfall...
Mr John Fraser: .... There are 1·5 million non-traditional homes, not all of them defective, but the AMA, which is a responsible body, says that the total cost of repairs or demolition is likely to be about £10 billion. One commentator—not the AMA—put the cost of dealing with Bison blocks alone at £1·4 billion. To put it in context, the figures about which we are talking for curing the problems of...
Mr Philip Oppenheim: ...farms are not so absurdly small as farms on the continent. Small fanners tend to be better, more dedicated, more efficient, more skilled and, above all, better stewards of the land and of the environment. There is in Amber Valley a small number of farmers, most of them tenants of the National Coal Board, farming ex-opencast land under extremely difficult conditions. They are among the...
Michael Ancram: I hope that the hon. Gentleman will forgive me if I do not. I have not much time, and I want to cover as many of the Opposition's arguments as possible. If the Bill did not become law until after the summer it would in effect make such consultations impossible until the financial year 1985–86 and yet another year would have gone by before those paying more than half the rates in Scotland...
Mr Chris Smith: ...Government's new rate-capping proposals. So severe are the penalties imposed on the borough of Islington that, when any spending on capital occurs, the housing subsidy which the Department of the Environment pays is almost completely outweighed by the penalties imposed in the first two or three years. That cannot be a sensible way of conducting the building of new houses. Any person who...