Speeches by McMahon.

“No, because that would be giving you the answer, which I am not allowed to do. We absolutely understand the pressures that councils are facing, and also that a cliff-edge approach does not work for central Government any more than it works for local government.”

“It is very difficult for central Government to make an absolute assessment of the cost of delivering services, given that councils’ delivery models are so different and their cost bases are so variable. That makes it difficult for Government to have a funding formula that can meet that, which is why we always take fund…”

“There are live conversations now about how we deal with that. I cannot go into detail about what the end will be, other than to say that we absolutely understand, first, the financial pressures that the DSG deficit is placing on local authorities, and that if that whole liability were to transfer to local government as…”

“Not in the way that you describe it, which is essentially the hypothecation of a local income tax model. It is not something that we are looking at.”

“I think it is a matter of fact that the localisation of the council tax support scheme for working-age households has led to a genuine postcode lottery. I usually avoid using that phrase, because it does not allow for local variations that are legitimate. But on this front, it is a matter of fact that you can be in a v…”

“In there is our starting point, with the work that we are doing on the funding formula, which is to accept—I have said this in this Committee—that it is a matter of fact that there are areas that have had to go to council tax in the absence of central Government funding, just to be able to keep up with demand. But even…”

“Agreed.”

“But my point is that we need to take that in the round. And as Nico said, there are so many different Government Departments that have a view on this, or even hold the ring on some of the regulations around it, and that needs to be worked through the system. We then need to have an eye on what it means for the fee-payi…”

“If it worked, there probably should be an overlay. The multi-year settlement will allow councils to plan for the medium term for the first time in a decade. In that planning and being able to step back from the immediacy of setting an annual budget that just holds, there will be councils that say, “Actually, over that …”

“I would consider that in the round, because what we cannot do is to have a sales, fees and charges policy that is about Milton Keynes car parking rates.”

“I will say for context that the settlement this year was £69 billion, and £5 billion of that was new money. There is new money going into the system, but that is not to say that the demand is not going up as well. It is going up, and in some places it is going up significantly. The response from Government cannot be th…”

“I will let Nico comment on how it features in the round.”

“I think we should be honest and say that even with the current ringfencing—there are more than 300 ringfences applying to more than £12 billion of money given to local government—many councils have been forced to make the decision to move money from the ringfence to prop up services in people areas like children’s and …”

“I would say that, a decade ago, councils were almost directed by the previous Government to be enterprising, to be entrepreneurial, and to go out and make their own luck in the world, but that has consequences. I should say that the relationship between central Government and local government is one of trust and respec…”

“Councils are all in different positions. There definitely will be examples of councils that have sold everything they can sell, by and large. The libraries have gone, the youth centres have gone, the Sure Start centres have gone. Any kind of low-hanging fruit in terms of operational premises, like depots, have been rat…”

“I am grateful to the hon. Member for Romford (Andrew Rosindell) for securing this important debate and raising the question of Havering borough’s place in relation to devolution in Essex. I pay tribute to the hon. Member for championing his area and for the very clear passion that he has for the place he represents. On…”

“In a way, that question shows a misunderstanding of why Birmingham is in the situation it is in. It makes no more sense to say that Birmingham’s problems are because of its size and scale than it would to say, “Look at the debt liabilities built up by some of the smallest councils in the country, which have borrowed ma…”

“I have already covered the value that the MOD has provided, and of course, we work in partnership. The offer of support was made to the council, which received that offer gratefully. However, the MOD, whose logistical planners have been on the ground in Birmingham, has been clear that the council is at a point at which…”

“I am usually a bit suspicious when somebody starts their question with “This is a genuine question”, but that was actually a proper question. Members could learn from it. [Interruption.] Calm down. On the added value that the MOD was able to provide, every council has rotas for getting bins collected from a given place…”

“I think I have covered this at least a couple of times. As I said, we are grateful to our colleagues in the Ministry of Defence for the logistical support they have provided. We had three members of staff on logistical planning; they have had a significant impact, and we and the council are grateful for that. There is …”