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Madam Deputy Speaker (Dame Janet Fookes): Order. The hour may be late, but I still expect certain standards of courtesy and we are falling below them.
Mr. Kynoch: If the hon. Gentleman will be a little more patient and listen, he will hear what I have to say about the north-east. There is absolutely no doubt that the difficulties that Aberdeenshire and the other new councils in the north-east have faced over their revenue budgets are a direct result of irresponsible action by Grampian regional council.
I suppose that one could suggest that we should have some sympathy for the new councils--and I concede that I might feel that way in certain circumstances. However, that is certainly not the case when--as with Aberdeenshire--the new administration comes from the same stable as the old. This is where the hon. Gentleman, as a Liberal Democrat, gets slightly embarrassed.
Grampian region was controlled by a Liberal Democrat alliance, and so is the new council. Senior officials in the new council also served in the Grampian region. Both councillors and officials knew that they were taking action last year that was bound to have an adverse impact on Aberdeenshire council--the phrase "chickens coming home to roost" springs to mind. That experience of extravagant prodigality by local authorities--
Mr. Kynoch:
No, I will not give way.
Extravagant prodigality by local authorities controlled by the Opposition parties is one of the reasons--
Mr. Bruce:
On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. The Minister is attacking officials who have no right of reply. Is that in order? Would he do it to his own civil servants?
Madam Deputy Speaker:
That is not a point of order for the Chair.
Mr. Kynoch:
Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker.
That experience of extravagant prodigality by local authorities controlled by the Opposition parties is one reason why we on Conservative Benches oppose a tax-raising Scottish Parliament. It would become a focus for the same high-taxing, high-spending aberrations as we have seen in local government--many of its members would almost certainly be drawn from the ranks of Opposition councillors. With a weapon such as the tartan tax at its disposal, it would wreak havoc upon Scottish taxpayers, jobs and the economy.
If the hon. Gentleman has complaints about the funding of the new councils--particularly Aberdeenshire--he should direct them not at the Government, but at the members of his party who were part of the administration of Grampian regional council that took totally irresponsible action last year in relation to current expenditure.
The hon. Gentleman referred to capital expenditure. As he will be aware, last year local authorities were entitled to make forward commitments totalling some 70 per cent. of the 1995-96 allocations. Authorities in the Grampian area made commitments far in excess of that, and now face a major problem in having to account for how they will recover from that over-allocation. Last year, they over-committed by 75 per cent. on the 70 per cent. allocation.
Mrs. Margaret Ewing (Moray):
Show us the figures.
Mr. Kynoch:
I shall give the hon. Lady the figures. At the end of last year, the new councils said that they would inherit commitments from Grampian of just under £16 million. Three or four months later, according to the new councils' figures, they had inherited commitments of £35 million. My right hon. Friend had guaranteed to meet £20 million. It is clear that, in the last few months of its existence, Grampian chose to place its successors in a position of having to meet commitments which it knew that my right hon. Friend could not meet. I do not think that that was responsible financial management by the outgoing councillors.
Underlying the debate on local government expenditure is a more fundamental issue. The Opposition parties have never come to terms with accountability for spending what they inaccurately call "public money". As we on Conservative Benches have often pointed out, and will continue to reiterate, there is no such thing as "public money". There is only taxpayers' money. The stewardship of taxpayers' money is a moral responsibility.
Unfortunately for taxpayers in Aberdeenshire and the rest of Scotland, the Opposition parties have not yet matured sufficiently to replace a propensity to squander with a culture of stewardship. Unless and until they embrace that culture of stewardship, they will remain unfit to govern locally or nationally. The Government will continue to fight for the taxpayers' and for Scotland's
interests by pursuing policies of responsible financial stewardship based on respect for the rights of our citizens, whose money we have a duty to manage with punctilious care.
The hon. Gentleman has shown that he totally misunderstands the situation in the north-east of Scotland. Central taxation funding, which comes through Government support, has been greater than ever before. The hon. Gentleman cannot accept that his party in the local authority of Aberdeenshire has, in the years when it was in Grampian region, been unable to budget and spend as much as it told the electorate it was budgeting for. It has overspent, used up resources, sold assets, sold the family silver, so that it could keep the council tax at such a level that his party could face its electorate.
Now chickens are coming home to roost. The Liberal Democrats have to account to their electorate, because they now control the new local authority, and they now have to make cuts from a wish list that they had in the
past. Had they had their house in order over the past few years, they would have been able to manage without making cuts. Had they got their priorities right and not frittered some of the expenses which they have, on issues such as cycle paths or new logos, I believe that they would have been able to open nurseries, or to maintain transport for pupils to learn to swim.
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