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Local Government Finance

11. Mrs. Helen Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what local authority delegations he has received concerning the 1997-98 revenue support grant settlement. [3128]

Sir Paul Beresford: I meet representatives of local authorities throughout the year to discuss a range of issues affecting local government. It is, of course, open to all authorities to request a meeting with Ministers during the formal consultation period that follows the provisional settlement announcement later this month.

Mrs. Jackson: Has the Minister read his Government's evidence to a House of Lords Select Committee in which they admit that it is policy that council tax levels should rise? Will he confirm today that the Government's policy is to hike up council tax, possibly by as much as 16 per cent. over the next two years? Does he recognise that that is the 23rd Tory tax rise since 1992 and that he cannot continue to blame Labour local councils for that?

Sir Paul Beresford: I am always sorry for the hon. Lady when it comes to defending her local council in Sheffield, which seems to get itself in straight difficulty. There is a thing called Supertram, which looks more like a black hole. The council's property services department is underselling properties by a huge degree, which is to the disadvantage of the local authority. In addition to that, the department seems to have lost 200 properties. Nevertheless, the authority has rewarded the managers of that service by giving them a £4,000 a year pay rise.

Sir Peter Fry: Does my hon. Friend remember that, among the delegations that came to his Department this year, was one that represented a number of counties and all the major political parties and that was concerned about the unfairnesses of the area cost adjustment? Does he accept that those unfairnesses exist; that they were highlighted in the report by Professor Elliott; and that, if nothing is done to implement the recommendations in that report, those profound injustices will continue to affect Northamptonshire and many other counties?

Sir Paul Beresford: I do recall my hon. Friend's visit with his delegation. As he will be aware, the report contained as many findings for as against, so before we implement the report's recommendations, we must be absolutely sure that they are well founded.

Mr. Dobson: Will the Minister confirm that, as part of the Budget to be announced next week, the Government plan to increase council tax way above the rate of inflation as part of their long-term plan to raise council tax by £3.5 billion--equivalent to adding 2p to the standard rate of income tax?

Sir Paul Beresford: The hon. Gentleman ought to know better. He has been here far longer than I have, and

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even I realise that that is a silly question, which I cannot answer; that will be left for the Chancellor of the Exchequer at the right time.

Mr. Bellingham: Has the Minister heard of an organisation called SPLAT, which stands for Sparsely Populated Local Authorities Team--[Interruption.]

Madam Speaker: Order. The hon. Gentleman's microphone is not on and no one can hear him.

Mr. Bellingham: I think that the Minister heard; I mentioned SPLAT, which stands for Sparsely Populated Local Authorities Team, headed by King's Lynn and West Norfolk borough council and its superb treasurer, David Tate. Can my hon. Friend confirm that representatives have visited his colleague, the Minister of State, and can he confirm that their views and representations will be listened to?

Sir Paul Beresford: I can confirm the point, and yes they are being taken on board and listened to carefully.

Capital Challenge

12. Mr. Pike: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what representations he has received from local authority leaders concerning capital challenge. [3129]

Mr. Curry: Progress with the pilot scheme is regularly discussed at ministerial bimonthly meetings with the local government associations.

Mr. Pike: Does the Minister recognise that council leaders everywhere are worried about the time taken in preparing bids for all those challenge-type schemes? They are fed up with the fact that no extra money is made available for them, they are fed up with the rules continually changing and they are fed up with those schemes not dealing with the urgent priorities of expenditure that exist in many parts of the country.

Mr. Curry: I was expecting the hon. Member to make that comment, because he firmly represents old Labour. Whenever we introduce a scheme, local authority leaders say, "This is terrible; it is new, it is innovative. We want to carry on as we always have," and when it works and it delivers they say, "That was a very good scheme indeed; you ought to continue it."

There is new money--the money we bring in from the private sector. That is what is so good about the challenge programme. It adds private sector money to public sector money, and very many Labour local authority leaders throughout the country will benefit from it and are beginning to appreciate the schemes greatly.

Mr. Ian Bruce: What sort of money is coming from the private sector? My right hon. Friend noted that local authority leaders always say that they cannot find matching funds and then promptly go off and do just that from completely new, non-public funds. Can he give us an idea of how much that has saved for the taxpayer?

Mr. Curry: In the capital challenge programme, according to the bids that we have received, for every

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£1 bid, £1.70 comes with it, of which 90p is from the private sector. Those are the bids; we expect better figures in the final acceptances.

Rents-to-mortgages Scheme

13. Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what estimate he has made of the take-up of the rents-to-mortgages scheme in 1996. [3130]

Mr. Clappison: Our Department has made no estimate of future sales.

Mr. Cunningham: Given that many people are experiencing mortgage repayment difficulties, would it not have been far better to introduce a scheme for mortgages to rents, instead of that Tory political dogma?

Mr. Clappison: No. I make no apology for a policy that was one of a range of options for enabling tenants to become home owners. As the hon. Gentleman knows, our policies have succeeded in enabling tenants to become home owners--more than 1.5 million have done so since 1979 and many more will have that opportunity under a Conservative Government in future.

Opencast Mining

15. Mr. Barnes: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what representations he has received in the last three months concerning opencast mining planning applications; and if he will make a statement. [3132]

Sir Paul Beresford: My Department has received representations from three members of the public, a firm of solicitors, the Ramblers Association and the hon. Member concerning opencast mining planning applications in the last three months.

Mr. Barnes: Why is the north-east corner of Derbyshire, involving the constituencies of Chesterfield, Bolsover and North-East Derbyshire, bottom of the league when it comes to standard spending assessment per head of population, bottom of the league when it comes to lottery grants, but top of the league when it comes to having its guts ripped out by opencast mining operations and current applications? Should not the rules be changed, so that there is a disposition against opencast mining, rather than the pressure for it from the Government?

Sir Paul Beresford: The hon. Gentleman had better read the changes that we introduced in MPG 3. I will send him a copy.

Mrs. Peacock: Is my hon. Friend aware that the Secretary of State recently visited the Windsor site in my constituency, and that that could shortly become the subject of an application to Kirklees council for opencast mining? Is he further aware that the hon. Member for Holborn and St. Pancras (Mr. Dobson) recently visited the constituency to tell local residents that he was the white knight on the charger who would refuse all such applications in the future?

Sir Paul Beresford: I hope that the hon. Member for Holborn and St. Pancras (Mr. Dobson) also told the nation how much it would cost to import coal, as we shall not have any.

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Public Services (Rotherham)

16. Mr. MacShane: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what estimate he has made of the level of Government funding from his Department for the provision of public services by Rotherham metropolitan borough council in 1996-97. [3133]

Mr. Curry: The main financial support from central Government is the revenue support grant and redistributed national non-domestic rates. Rotherham gets £159,894 million from those sources.

Mr. MacShane: Is it not a fact that if Rotherham and other northern and midlands boroughs got the same money as central Government give to sleaze-ridden Westminster, we would not have to put up council tax? When will the Government treat the rest of the country on a par with their friends in sleaze-ridden councils in London?

Mr. Curry: Westminster, of course, does not get anywhere near the amount of grant that Tower Hamlets receives. If Rotherham were to get the grant of Tower Hamlets, that would clearly be a massive injustice. I intend to see that grant goes where it is most needed, and the inner London authorities are uniformly where it is most needed.

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