Speeches by Rayner.

“We have published what we think is a way of capturing deprivation. One of the other challenges, particularly for inner London—you know this as a local MP—is that in some areas that are considered affluent, there are pockets of significant deprivation, which would be lost under previous calculations. In our consultation…”

“Absolutely. I would put them at the heart of what we do. I mean, I am a creature of local government: I represented local government workers and I have worked in there for decades. If a business in the private sector had had the reductions that local government have had, at the same time as the challenges that local go…”

“Sure, but if you look at some that were stuck in the system, as I have said, we have unlocked thousands of them with some of the other changes that we have made. There are a number of different indicators of data that can give an idea of where we are going. I have said to the Chancellor, the Prime Minister and every ot…”

“We gave additional funding, first of all. As I mentioned, we enlarged the emergency accommodation reduction pilots, which specifically targeted 20 local authorities with some of the highest levels of B&B use. We have put in additional funding and are trying to ensure that it reaches the areas that we want it to. The sp…”

“I think it is fair to say that your comment was that we have not given you enough detail, but one of the challenges when we were responding to some of the report was that we were trying to respond ahead of the spending review. It was, of course, a bit difficult to give you full details when we were in a live discussion…”

“Sure. The challenge with giving you a carte blanche “yes, yes, yes” is that the system at the moment does not support those children. If you cannot get an EHCP, or it takes you seven years to get one, many children at the moment are not getting the support that they need. My hesitation is not to try to say, “Those with…”

“We are absolutely clear that the legal right to additional support is absolutely the right thing to do, and that SEND children need that support. As somebody who has been through that system very recently, I understand why the EHCP is the holy grail, even though it has its limitations—I understand why parents are reall…”

“That is a fair point, and I will also let the permanent secretary respond to it because the civil service will probably give you a less political answer than I will. However, there is plenty of data out there. Being 6% up on planning applications is a really good start.”

“It will not be an airy-fairy, “Look, this is what we want—the moon on a stick”, but it will set the tone of where we want to get to and how we think we will deliver that. I suppose that is why at the spending review, not only did we announce the overall target—the £39 billion investment—but we announced a number of mea…”

“That is why we are investing in homes as well, and the NHS money—the health service money—has also had an impact on things like adult social care; more money is going into adult social care. There is cross-Government working to make sure that we deal with some of the challenges. The NHS is spending more money on keepin…”

“I think they do, because they have put significant funding in place for transformation. They recognise the challenges that are faced—that in particular around some of our frontline services, the pressures have increased post covid. You will see that in the NHS, for example. We had a target to have 2 million more appoin…”

“I think it depends on what you want by your granular detail.”

“In fairness, local authorities, in incredibly difficult circumstances, have already started to grasp some of this nettle, and there is some really good piloting that has gone on in particular areas. One thing that works for one area—which might be a coastal area or a rural area—might not work for another area, but ther…”

“I am acutely aware of what we inherited, the dedicated schools grant statutory override, the concerns that have been sent to me by local authorities in the run up to the spending review and the sheer cliff-edge that would leave them in, so it is a challenge. I recognise that not all local authorities can deal with that…”

“I am listening to what the market is saying. I meet regularly with developers and local authorities. I am tracking where we are at. As I said, planning applications are up by 6% in the same quarter. That is a first indicator. We will start to get more data as we get into the autumn around starts and whether or not that…”

“You will have seen that we have extended the phased transition towards a reformed SEND system. We have put at least £760 million of transformation fund allocation through the DFE to reform the current special educational needs and disabilities—SEND—system, and over £4.7 billion extra per year for schools through the DF…”

“In the first four years of this Government, Government-funded spending power, which does not include council tax, will rise by 8% in real terms, compared with minus 24% in the first four years of the 2015 Government. It is not fair to say that we are not putting more money into councils. We have also listened and are g…”

“I have just outlined the extra £5 billion of new grant funding that the Treasury gave. To be fair, one of the things that the Treasury, myself and this Government did was maintain the existing referendum principles from the previous Government. If you look at what has happened over the last decade or so, it is not a sh…”

“Yes, but what I would say—”

“First of all, the infrastructure in the Planning and Infrastructure Bill is things like nature recovery, nutrient neutrality and streamlining planning, so that planning applications can focus on the more contentious areas where you do need to thrash out the critical infrastructure that is needed as part of the planning…”