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3.15 pm
Ms Jackie Lawrence (Preseli Pembrokeshire): I was somewhat surprised to hear the hon. Member for Ceredigion (Mr. Dafis) saying that it would be good news if the Government did not keep their pledges to the British people. There is a tremendous amount of disillusion with politics in my constituency because people have been led to believe over recent years that Governments do not keep their pledges, and that is precisely why it is absolutely vital that the Government do so. This is a debate of only two hours, and the hon. Gentleman took 25 minutes of that. Perhaps because he is the only Plaid Cymru Member present, he has taken all his party's share. In a true spirit of egalitarianism, I shall be as quick as I can.
Because this is the last time that it will be the task of the House to consider this settlement, I am especially pleased that it is so generous. I was stunned to hear the few and limited comments of the hon. Member for Woodspring (Dr. Fox) on behalf of the Conservative party. Those comments demonstrate to those of us with Welsh constituencies how out of touch that party continues to be.
It was suggested that gross domestic product per head in Wales was 83 per cent. of the national average, but, in my constituency, the figure is about 72 per cent. My area is desperate for investment, which it was starved of during the 18 Tory years.
The settlement contrasts with the actions of the former Secretary of State, the right hon. Member for Wokingham (Mr. Redwood), who, at a conservative estimate, returned £100 million that could have been invested in Wales. People in my constituency who were desperate for dualling of the A40 and improved infrastructure remember that well, but the hon. Member for Woodspring seems to have some selective amnesia.
In my past life as leader of the Labour group on Pembrokeshire county council and a member of the former Dyfed county council, I saw at first hand the damage done by the previous Government as they squeezed local government funding in pursuance of their market forces dogma. They could not control local government in Wales, even with well-known Tories standing as so-called independent councillors to try to fool the public. Their ploy was to squeeze local government funding to force cuts in services, coupled with compulsory competitive tendering to privatise the remaining services.
That cynical ploy took no account of the effect on the lives of ordinary people who depended on those services for a decent quality of life. The new settlement is further progress in correcting the damage caused by those years of Tory dogma.
Our schools were starved of cash for two decades. I well recall when the parent-teacher association of the school attended by my two youngest children had to raise
funds to purchase books for an essential maths scheme so that the children would not be disadvantaged. Capital finance for schools and local education authorities was practically non-existent.
In one school in Neyland in my constituency, a classroom ceiling fell down. Fortunately, no one was hurt. Leaking roofs, crumbling plaster and flaking paintwork were a common sight in Pembrokeshire schools in the Tory years. That shows the human consequences of Tory neglect of our education service in pursuance of dogma.
We should not be surprised. Unlike Labour Members--one must say at this point that that includes my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister--Tory Members do not have a history of using state education for their children. The previous Government shed services through squeezing finances, forcing councils to privatise remaining services so that local authorities would exist simply to award contracts, and little else.
Government policy means nothing if it does not improve people's day-to-day lives. The Government's belief in supporting local government in providing services in partnership with communities, together with the settlement, will improve the lives of people in Wales; but I want to reinforce concerns about the capital allocation for 1999-2000 and the need to give ample notice of the results of bids for housing grants. That is an issue of concern in my area.
The extra funding for education provided by the Government has already filtered down to schools in my constituency. For the first time in decades, there are plans to build new schools and to repair old ones. I welcome the £70 million for education and the fact that it is to be monitored to ensure that local authorities do indeed spend it on education. It is a scandal that, in this day and age, there are still schools in my constituency that have outside toilets with no heating or lighting in winter. The overall settlement for Pembrokeshire--which, at 5.3 per cent., is twice the rate of inflation and the best that it has ever received--will enable the county council to tackle the backlog and to build for the future if there is the political will in the authority to do so.
I welcome the announcement by the Secretary of State that he will not set capping criteria for 1999-2000. The crude across-the-board mechanism of capping was another central Government sledgehammer employed indiscriminately by the previous Government. Local authorities should be allowed to determine the needs of their particular area in partnership and consultation with local communities in a responsible way, and without undue diktat from central Government.
If there are increases where local councils behave irresponsibly, powers can be used selectively to protect the public from the undue burden of cost resulting from such irresponsible behaviour. We must not forget that it was the previous Government who changed the system by which local government funding was apportioned between Government and the council tax payer. The Conservatives' system, with its increased gearing effect on council tax payers, is driving up council tax bills throughout the United Kingdom even now.
The settlement is good news for Wales. It means record increases in spending on essential services, such as education and social services. I particularly welcome the
announcement of £5 million in the settlement to modernise and improve children's services, as proposed in the Government's response to the report by Sir William Utting. Our children are our future, and we must ensure that their needs are met, whatever their circumstances. Before becoming a councillor and then a Member of Parliament, I fostered children for Dyfed county council. Undertaking that work opened my eyes to the need to support children who do not have the security that many take for granted.
On a different note--and as a former member of Dyfed-Powys police authority--I was initially concerned by the level of the settlement for this efficient and forward-looking force. In last week's debate on the police grant, I pursued the issue of sparsity--which I am aware my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State initiated during his time at the Home Office. Rural police forces such as Dyfed-Powys await the publication of research with interest, as they believe that it will support their claims that there are significant extra costs in policing rural areas. However, I am pleased to note that having heard the general concerns of police forces in Wales, my right hon. Friend has decided to alter the capital charges element of the formula for the police, which will mean an increase of £1.8 million for police authorities in Wales.
Ms Julie Morgan (Cardiff, North):
Time is short, so I will quickly cover some aspects of the settlement for my authority, Cardiff. I will then speak specifically about the grant for traveller education in Wales. The settlement is welcomed in Cardiff, where we see it as a real sign of the advent of a Labour Government. It will make a significant difference. The growth in population in the Cardiff area has increased the SSA for Cardiff and the council tax will now be one of the lowest in Wales. During the final two years that the Tories were in control, the council tax went up by 25 per cent in the first year and 15 per cent in the second. Last year, it went up by 12 per cent. and this year it will be 3.6 per cent.
The settlement shows that the Labour Government are committed to working in partnership with local authorities and are committed to local authorities in a way that we have not seen for the past 18 years. The extra money for education is strongly welcomed and is filtering down to schools. However, we have a huge task in the Cardiff area, because the old South Glamorgan authority--made up of Cardiff and the vale--was the lowest spender on education in Wales. The local authority is planning to try to bring up its spending gradually to the level of authorities such as Swansea, Newport and others. This year, the authority is putting in an extra £500,000 and is trying to reach the general spending level.
The local authority's tremendous drive to increase the number of nursery places and nursery units is a result of our pledge to provide a nursery place for all four-year-olds. That is causing a problem in my area of Cardiff, North. I strongly welcome the commitment to nursery education, and I fought hard for it when I was a local councillor. However, due to the lack of education provision in Cardiff, North, a whole network of local voluntary playgroups and nurseries were started by parents--usually the mothers.
It has been a great struggle to keep the playgroups going, and they often represent the best in child care--parental involvement and support for children with special needs. The Welsh language playgroups are involved. However, because of our commitment to state education, some four-year-olds are taking up places in the local authority nurseries and are leaving those groups floundering. Last year, the Welsh Office gave £60,000 to the playgroups to see them through this period of transition--because it is only a period of transition.
We are committed to working in partnership, and we want to make sure that LEA nurseries and the nurseries in the voluntary sector--which, on the whole, are not run for profit--can work together in a true partnership to make sure that every child has a place in good-quality child care. That is an issue in my constituency, and throughout Wales. We must save the pre-school playgroup movement because those playgroups provide some of the best child care.
I am concerned at the slight reduction in the three-year capital allocation, as it will cause problems in relation to unfit housing. I am worried also at the length of time that residents in my area--and in others, I am sure--have to wait for disabled facilities grants. It is unacceptable that disabled people or the elderly must struggle when we know that, sometimes, a small amount of money can make their lives easier. Cardiff is bidding for an extra £15 million to tackle unfit houses and disabled facilities grants, and I hope that that bid is successful. That is why we are here--those are the issues that the Labour Government must tackle.
I welcome the fact that the Welsh Office has increased the grant for the traveller education service in Wales from £150,000 to £300,000 for next year. That is a tremendous step forward. However, I wish to draw the attention of Ministers to certain issues regarding traveller education. A Welsh Office-funded report by Laura Morgan of Save the Children Fund in December 1998 showed that the number of traveller children in Wales was twice the number estimated by the gipsy count which used to be carried out by the Department of the Environment. There are about 2,000 traveller children in Wales. Although the grant has been doubled, we are really keeping the status quo because the original grant was based on a lower number of children.
The grant is for only one year, and I am sure that that is because the National Assembly will take over funding for traveller education. However, a one-year grant is not enough: it is causing havoc in planning and in recruiting pupils and teachers. I hope that the Welsh Office will pass on the message to the National Assembly that the project needs to be funded for another two years.
The development of traveller education in Walesis patchy. Cardiff has the only established and comprehensive traveller education service, and has more
traveller children--270--in mainstream schools than anywhere else in Wales, although hardly any of them are in secondary school. The problem is huge and more money and resources are needed to tackle it.
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