Speeches by McMahon.

“It was imperfect but unavoidable. If I can explain what I mean by that, we had a commitment to report to Parliament on the list in its entirety, but a list could not exist without the agreement of the local authorities in question. We had to go through a process, before we presented to Parliament, of having meetings wi…”

“Even if we wanted to, we would not have the time in terms of the SI. There is no intention at all to postpone any further elections other than those that have been announced. In fact, we were very clear that we had a significant number of areas that wanted postponement of elections that we could not approve because the…”

“There are a number of questions in there. I will maybe go backwards and Will can come in on the detail of the sequencing of how we are going to tackle the elections going forward. The decision on the Isle of Wight is trying to meet our legal obligation not to predetermine the final arrangements that we would approve. O…”

“We would be alive to any representations that we receive. There are two aspects really. One is departmental capacity and making sure that we have the expertise in the Department to deploy. That really was the driving force behind the priority programme. What I experienced very early on is that there were many conversat…”

“I can ask Will to come in on the detailed conversations that have been taking place. We have been in regular contact around this. If district councils or the unitaries within a county are used as building blocks, it is reasonably straightforward and the boundary commission’s responsibility at that point is to draw the …”

“That is very important. I have heard a lot of noise around the postponement of elections that there will not be councillors in place. The Committee will know this, but it is important to say that there will be councillors in place. The councillors who are in place have been elected. It is just that we have taken the de…”

“Our assumption is that elections will be taking place as scheduled for the following year. We want to move quickly to the shadow authorities as soon as possible. There are a number of different timetables that will run, with the soonest being Surrey, which is on the accelerated timetable to submit its proposals by May.…”

“That is definitely the plan and the direction that has been given by the Deputy Prime Minister. It is important to say because I know that election postponement, quite rightly, gets a lot of attention. Elections are important and it is very important that local people have the right to cast their judgment on how local …”

“I am Jim McMahon. I am the Minister of State covering local government, finance and devolution.”

“We are in violent agreement. We should not be running towards a figure that does not hold in the end, recognising the complexities that you mention. However, I would not overstate the significance of shared service models in the system today. There are significant savings and efficiencies that can go beyond that. You a…”

“We will take it in the round, in the way that the previous Government did their reorganisations. We will take assets and liabilities in the round. We do understand—it is fairly self-evident—that there are some councils that have debts that are somewhat in excess of their revenue. Those will need to be looked at. The st…”

“My hon. Friend makes a very good point. He is sat next to my hon. Friend the Member for Leigh and Atherton (Jo Platt); they are both Greater Manchester MPs, and we are all very proud of Greater Manchester. We all see the red dots on the skyline of Manchattan—as we call it, very proudly—and the booming city centre that …”

“Very briefly, please.”

“I thank all Members for a really thoughtful debate. When Members speak about their constituencies in the way they have today, we get a sense of the pride of place. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Newcastle-under-Lyme (Adam Jogee) on securing the debate, and I thank the Backbench Business Committee for agre…”

“We are absolutely committed to ensuring that every part of the country realises its full potential. Let us be clear: everybody in every part of the country has potential, but far too often, that potential is not met by opportunity. We will look at any projects and measures that aim to do what my hon. Friend has describ…”

“I cannot commit to that today. What I can do is to commit, from a political point of view, that the Government are willing to work cross-party and through APPGs to understand the weight of the issue and the potential solutions. I will be honest, though: we need to manage expectations on whether we can get consensus in …”

“The £515 million of investment from the Treasury to help councils with the increase in employer national insurance contributions has been distributed on the basis of their net service expenditure costs. We thought that that was the fairest way of establishing an evidence base that could be scrutinised. There have been …”

“I think that that is true up to a point, but we need to take a couple of factors into account. First, the payment relating to employer national insurance contributions goes straight to the council. Secondly, this needs to be taken in the round. For the right hon. Gentleman’s own council, the social care grant is £48 mi…”

“I take my hon. Friend’s points entirely. I credit him for much of the work that was done when he chaired the Select Committee, which he did for a long time, and I attribute to his intervention the credibility that it is due. We are focusing today on our immediate fiscal response to support councils over the current fin…”

“Just to be clear, even rural councils will receive a near 6% increase in their core spending power. It is correct that £600 million through the recovery grant is targeted at deprived communities, but we have followed an assessment of need right through the system, including that of rural authorities. The hon. Member mu…”