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Mr. David Heath: The hon. Lady is right. No one will volunteer that, which is why it is so important to take the
opportunity of rising budgets within her Department to make that transition. If it does not happen now, it will never happen. That is what worries me about the fact that we appear to be stuck with those SSAs for the two or three-year period that has been suggested. If that is the case, there is no relief for people in Somerset and in similar authorities who are stuck with the poor spending patterns that they inherited from councils that are long forgotten.
Ms Morris: I accept that, and the hon. Gentleman has a valid point. I do not envisage that increased education budgets will stop in three years. We are part of a Government who are committed to expenditure on education and that commitment is not for the short-term, just for the length of this comprehensive spending review settlement. We have always said that we shall seek to increase education budgets year on year, and we shall be judged on that commitment. I accept that it is far easier to make the transition in times of increasing budgets--I dare say that it would be almost impossible at times of decreasing budgets--so I agree that we must seize the opportunity to do so while we have a Government who are committed to securing what resources they can from the Treasury and putting the money into education.
Somerset has not only been underfunded this year--the problem with its SSA is historic and has gone on for years--but the hon. Gentleman must realise that the huge change necessary must be seen in the context of all SSAs. Somerset's is not the only SSA that was up for review. Had changes to the education SSA been made alongside changes to the children's services SSA in the social services budget, the statistics show that certain authorities--London authorities, which suffer a fair degree of poverty--would have been clobbered twice. Although my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State and I are driven by our desire to get a fairer system of funding, neither of us, nor any of our colleagues at the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions, could justify pushing that agenda this year, given all the other changes taking place.
Mr. Heath:
Will the Minister give way?
Ms Morris:
Yes, but I suspect that it will have to be the last time.
Mr. Heath:
I am listening carefully and I am grateful to the Minister for what she has said. I hope that she will not consider it a cheap point, but it is one that parents will inevitably make, because their children are going through the system now. We have waited for years and the sense of impatience is causing desperation in many of our schools, which is why we want quick results. I do not expect her to be able to wave a magic wand, but I do expect the process to start and that is what I am asking her to ensure.
Ms Morris:
The hon. Gentleman is right, but the process has started and it will continue. As he will know, we have held extensive talks with local authorities over the past six to 12 months and we are hopeful that the change will be brought about. Only relatively recently did we realise that we could not secure that change and arrive at a reasonable state of affairs for all local authorities with which we felt at ease. However, we have asked local
The London authorities argue not that it is right that they are better funded than others, but that they would find it difficult to cope with reduced funding--not that they are entitled to be better funded, but that they are entitled to be funded at the level at which they are currently funded. The good news is that there is an acceptance that the conversation must continue. The issue crosses party boundaries and splits along parochial lines, and my hope is that those parochial lines will converge over the next two to three years.
The hon. Gentleman is right to say that there will be no change made to SSAs for another three years but, at the end of those three years, I shall be disappointed if, with our local authority partners, we have not managed to secure a fairer way of allocating resources from central Government to local authorities. I do not underestimate how difficult that task will be, but I have a clearer understanding of the difficulties ahead than I had 12 months ago.
My final point goes to parents in the hon. Gentleman's constituency. He can take the message back that I have heard what their Member of Parliament has to say; I accept that, historically, they have not been fairly funded and that they have a right to secure from any Government a promise that all children be treated, not equally, but as individuals of equal worth who have a right to a similar standard of education and to the resources necessary to achieve that. We shall continue to work on the formula in the hope of securing a better one soon.
Meanwhile, we are delighted to have been able to secure for the hon. Gentleman's constituents an increase in funding that is probably the largest increase that Somerset has received for a considerable time and an increase in standards funding that will benefit students in his constituency. That is our notion of partnership. We can contribute to the hard work that teachers, pupils and parents in Somerset are already doing to drive our common agenda and to make sure that all children receive a standard of education of which they and we can be proud.
Question put and agreed to.
Adjourned accordingly at five minutes to Eleven o'clock.
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