House of Commons
Wednesday 2 April 2003
The House met at half-past Eleven o'clock
PRAYERS
[Mr. Speaker in the Chair]
PRIVATE BUSINESS
Transas Group Bill (By Order)
Order for Second Reading read.
To be read a Second time on Wednesday 9 April.
Oral Answers to Questions
OFFICE OF THE DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER
The Deputy Prime Minister was asked—
Internet Access
1. Michael Fabricant (Lichfield): What steps he is taking to enable the socially excluded to gain access to the internet; and if he will make a statement. [106159]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (Mr. Christopher Leslie): The Government are committed to ensuring that all who want access to the internet can have it by 2005, including those in areas of greater disadvantage. As services improve, it is important for everyone to have a chance to access those services in as convenient a way as possible, which includes electronic means.
Michael Fabricant : As the Minister knows, access to the internet is one thing but access to broadband is something else. He will be aware that, compared with the United Kingdom, in the socialist countries of Scandinavia, 10 times as many people per head of population have access to broadband. Given that the Minister's boss, the Deputy Prime Minister, has decided to forget that he is a socialist, how can we ensure that more people, especially in socially deprived areas, have access to broadband? Without such access they will not have full access to the internet as the Minister and I understand it.
Mr. Leslie: The hon. Gentleman's new commitment to tackling social exclusion is most welcome, if somewhat unexpected. There are now nearly 6,000 UK Online centres around the country, enabling all people from all corners of society to access the internet. Broadband is extremely important, and we are working not just with the Cabinet Office but with the Department
of Trade and Industry to ensure that broadband can roll out across the United Kingdom, more than is possible in most other developed countries.
David Cairns (Greenock and Inverclyde): Will my hon. Friend join me in welcoming the arrival this week of ADSL broadband in Wemyss Bay in Inverkip in my constituency?
In future, the ability to access interactive services will be provided by digital television. Will my hon. Friend ensure that when the digital action plan is published in the coming months it sets ambitious targets for broadcasters, so that maximum and speedy availability of digital services is possible throughout the United Kingdom?
Mr. Leslie: My hon. Friend is right: broadband offers new opportunities for swift and always-on internet access. The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister is primarily concerned with local government service provision, and one of the national projects that we seek to support is digital television access, which enables local people to apply for benefits or council services online.
Mr. Nicholas Soames (Mid-Sussex): Is the Minister aware that yesterday I spoke at the Country Land and Business Association conference on rural tourism? One of the most important points emerging from the CLA's excellent paper on the subject concerned the role of broadband in the marketing of rural tourism, and in helping people in the countryside whose lives are not all that easy and who may find it difficult to reach the larger markets that they deserve. Will the Minister assure us that, in line with Members on both sides of the House who are keen for more broadband access to be available in rural areas, he will urge British Telecom to pull its finger out?
Mr. Leslie: I will give British Telecom a call—and I will look up the hon. Gentleman's speech when I next have a chance to view the CLA's website.
We must indeed ensure that those in all parts of the country, including rural areas, have the same opportunity to access the internet, and broadband is extremely important in that regard. If I may say so, the hon. Gentleman is the very embodiment of the word "broadband".
Regeneration (Nottingham, North)
2. Mr. Graham Allen (Nottingham, North): If he will visit Nottingham, North to discuss regeneration in the constituency. [106160]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (Mr. Tony McNulty): I had the opportunity last September to visit Nottingham as part of a wider visit to the east midlands, and was encouraged to see the excellent regeneration work carried out by local partners. I understand that my
noble Friend Lord Rooker has agreed to visit Nottingham later this year, and hopes to visit a number of regeneration projects in the city area.
Mr. Allen : I thank my hon. Friend for both his answer and his personal commitment on the question of travellers, which has been very well received in my constituency and, I know, in many others.
Nottingham, North has some nine wards, all of which are in the bottom 150 in the list of the 8,500 most deprived wards in terms of education, training and skills. There are many Government schemes, grants and programmes, but local people sometimes feel that they are not sufficiently co-ordinated. Will my hon. Friend consider that next time he visits Nottingham, North, when he will be most welcome?
Mr. McNulty: My hon. Friend should know that when I was in Nottingham, I discussed those matters with, among others, representatives of the chamber of commerce, the Greater Nottingham partnership and the One City partnership, which is the local strategic partnership. I conscientiously keep in touch with my hon. Friend the Member for Nottingham, East (Mr. Heppell) about developments in the Radford and Hyson Green new deal for communities.
Council Tax
3. Mr. Hugo Swire (East Devon): If he will make a statement on the level of council taxes in England for the 2003–04 financial year. [106161]
The Minister for Local Government and the Regions (Mr. Nick Raynsford): The average council tax in England will increase by 12.9 per cent. in 2003–04. This average conceals very marked differences between councils and we are looking further at those councils whose council tax increase is exceptionally high. Increases on that scale are very difficult to justify in a year when every council received an above-inflation grant increase from Government. Councils must understand that continued year-on-year increases on that scale will not be acceptable.
Mr. Swire: I am grateful to the Minister for that answer. He will know that the council tax for an average band D property in the Deputy Prime Minister's own area of Kingston upon Hull has risen by 10.4 per cent. this year, but that compares with a 17.95 per cent. rise for an equivalent property in Devon. It is clear that there has been a transfer of funding from the shire counties to the Labour heartlands. Devon's population has a high proportion of pensioners, and many of them are on low incomes. They have seen their pension rise by the equivalent of 4.1 per cent. this year. Will the Minister explain clearly, succinctly and shorn of spin why they are being penalised by having to pay to shore up the Labour heartlands in the north?
Mr. Raynsford: There is no truth whatever in the hon. Gentleman's allegation. Devon county council will have to justify the large council tax increase that it is proposing to the pensioners whom he described because they will have great difficulty coping with a large increase. Those people will look at the contrast with
councils such as East Devon district council and Labour-controlled Exeter city council, in which there are modest council tax increases despite their receiving relatively modest grant increases, and ask why Devon county council, which received a 4.2 per cent. increase in its Government grant, has increased their council tax by so much.
Martin Linton (Battersea): Is my right hon. Friend aware that the highest council tax increase is being levied by a Conservative-controlled council? Wandsworth borough council is not only increasing its council tax by 57.3 per cent.—33 per cent. of that is on its own account—but it is underspending on education by £3 million and making petty-minded cuts to funding for a children's zoo and a nature studies centre.
Mr. Raynsford: My hon. Friend is right to point out that his local authority, Wandsworth borough council, has imposed the largest council tax increase of any authority in the country this year. He did not point out, although he might well have done, that the council chose last year—an election year—to cut its council tax by 25 per cent. There was a 25 per cent. cut in an election year and a 57.3 per cent. increase the following year. The people of Wandsworth will see through such a crude attempt to bribe the electorate.
Mr. Edward Davey (Kingston and Surbiton): Will the Minister confirm that the poorest 20 per cent. of households in England pay more than three times as much council tax, as a proportion of their income, as the richest 20 per cent.? Given that this year's record council tax rises will make that unfair situation even worse, when will this Labour Government act against the most unfair tax in Britain today? Why is the Labour party supporting an unfair Tory tax?
Mr. Raynsford: People who face large council tax rises will have to ask very searching questions of their councils, whether they are Conservative-controlled councils, which have imposed the largest council tax increases of any councils this year, or councils controlled by others. Although the hon. Gentleman might be critical of some aspects of the council tax, alternative proposals, which often come from his party, would have nightmarish consequences. If he favours a local income tax, he will have to explain how poorer areas will survive on substantially less revenue than rich areas in which wealthy people would pay more income tax.
Mr. David Watts (St. Helens, North): I congratulate my right hon. Friend on introducing a system of local government funding that is much fairer than that of the previous Tory Government. Will he assure me that he will end the system of floors and ceilings as soon as possible so that local authorities such as mine can get the resources to which they are entitled and councils such as Westminster and Wandsworth will not receive millions more than their entitlement under the new system?
Mr. Raynsford: I am grateful for my hon. Friend's thanks for our changes. We are committed to creating a fairer distribution system. His authority, which has received an increase of more than 8 per cent.,
appreciates that. However, local government welcomes floors and ceilings because they provide an element of certainty. That is especially important when many variables, including changes in population, can unexpectedly result in a significant fall in entitlement to grant. Floors provide protection against that, and we do not intend to withdraw that component in the grant distribution scheme.
Mr. Eric Pickles (Brentwood and Ongar): In the past few weeks, the right hon. Gentleman has threatened local authorities with capping. In his answer to my hon. Friend the Member for East Devon (Mr. Swire) today, he suggested that he was still considering authorities. Last week, the Department made it clear that it had decided not to cap. Does the Minister's reply to my hon. Friend therefore relate to this year or next year? Will he confirm that councils that are being forced to increase their council tax are doing nothing more than passing on the Labour Government's stealth tax? Is he reluctant to cap because he knows that if he does so, the spotlight will shine on his fiddled and discredited financial settlement?
Mr. Raynsford: I am afraid that the hon. Gentleman is wrong on almost every count. That is not uncommon. Like any prudent Government, we are continuing to examine those authorities that have introduced very large council tax increases. I have made it clear that we shall do that next year, too. It is simply not sustainable for local authorities to impose increases of that order on their electorate. However, our policy is to give local government greater freedom and flexibility and not to intervene in the same way as the Conservative party when it was in power by crudely capping authorities and forcing them to make highly disruptive in-year changes.
The overriding message of this year's council tax increases is that Tory councils cost people more. Tory councils are increasing their council tax by 16 per cent. and have the highest average council tax. The hon. Gentleman should deal with his party.
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