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Huw Irranca-Davies: Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
Mr. Goodman: I should be happy to give way to the hon. Gentleman, whose loquacious although sometimes wandering speech I very much enjoyed.
Huw Irranca-Davies: I promise not to wander too much. The hon. Gentleman has twice referred to the absence of hon. Members from particular debates. In my contribution, I studiously avoided referring to the absence of nationalist Members or any Opposition Member representing Wales because I felt that that would not be worthy of me.
Mr. Goodman: I am glad to have given the hon. Gentleman a chance to display his sensitivities to the House. I should now like to refer to what David Hart said about the school funding crisis, which is no laughing matter. He said that 70 redundancy notices have already gone out in Essex, and that more are likely in Devon, Gloucestershire and Bournemouth; between 50 and 55 according to "This is Dorset". I thought that I heard the hon. Member for South Dorset (Jim Knight) dismiss talk of redundancies among teachers in Dorset as Tory propaganda, but that is not the case according to "This is Dorset". David Hart added to the list Poole, Torbay, Plymouth and Barnet. It is clear that this shift of money from the south-east to the north is already causing acute problems.
These problems are not merely short term. The Government are storing up considerable long-term problems for the south-east. As my hon. Friend the Member for Eastbourne said, the idea that the south-east is leafy, prosperous and green in its entirety is completely mistaken. Constituencies such as mine contain pockets of serious deprivation, social exclusion and poverty. My worry about the Government's policies and the shift of resources from the south-east to the north is that it will make life worse in those pockets of deprivation.
On the Government's own index of deprivation covering more than 8,000 wards in Britain, Marsh and Micklefield ward in my constituency stands at 2,659, Oakridge and Tinkers Wood at 2,178, and Booker and Castlefield at 1,669. When the figures are broken down, the index of deprivation for education puts Booker and Castlefield at 886 in the top 1,000, and at 1,006—just outside the top 1,000—for child poverty. On the index for housing, Cressex and Frogmoor ward stands at 929, Green Hill and Totteridge at 772, Bowerdean and Daws Hill at 573 and Oakridge and Tinkers Wood at 256; it is almost among the 200 most deprived wards in the country.
If Labour Members are tempted to believe that there are no pockets of deprivation in the south-east, they should think again and revise the view, which is sometimes put about, that the south-east is private sector-rich and public sector-poor. We shall have to see how private sector-rich the south-east remains after the Chancellor's tax rises, especially his national insurance increase, work their way through.
What particularly worries my constituents who work in the public sector or depend on the public sector in the south-east—the hon. Member for Croydon, Central (Geraint Davies) put this very well—is the effect of house prices on public sector workers' ability to live and work in such constituencies. My right hon. Friend the Member for North-West Hampshire (Sir George Young) spoke ably about the problems of housing in the south-east, and I want to develop some of the points that he made. We know that the Government's solution is a continuation of the cycle, involving the building of more houses in the area, thus encouraging more demand for housing places, which will in turn encourage further the population drift from north to south. That is the Government's way of doing business; it certainly is not our way.
Let me tentatively explore another possible solution, which would help my constituents greatly. London weighting should be looked at again. Public sector workers in my constituency—teachers, firefighters, health service workers and, above all, members of the police force—tell me that other public sector workers who have lived and worked in my constituency, and constituencies like it, have been dragged into London by the sheer volume of London weighting. I am told that that has caused, in particular, a drift of male teachers into London.
When I visited firefighters in High Wycombe recently they made the same point; believe me, although the strike continues, they are by no means Tory voters. They said that the terms offered to their London colleagues were more attractive than their own. When I last spoke to the division commander of the Chiltern Vale police force in High Wycombe, he told me that he had lost 10 officers to other forces since last April, that they were attracted in particular by the considerable pay in the Met and that the experienced ones tended to go.
Mr. Edward Davey: Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
Mr. Goodman: I am sorry, but I want to leave time for my hon. Friends.
I am worried not about the possibility that Ministers do not care, but about the complacency and backward looking, as described by Conservative speeches today, with regard to the problems faced by those of us in the south-east in constituencies such as mine. I believe that those problems will only get worse if Ministers continue to transfer resources as they are doing now.
5.57 pm
Jeff Ennis (Barnsley, East and Mexborough): I am afraid that some of my hon. Friends have scoffed at the Tories for calling today's debate. I consider that unfortunate: I think that it is an encouraging sign. For many years, councils thought that the Tories had abandoned local government completely, especially in the 1980s and 1990s.
I am pleased that my hon. Friend the Member for St. Helens, North (Mr. Watts) is present. When I was deputy leader of Barnsley council in the mid-to-late 1980s, just as many Tory as Labour councillors were
members of that august body, the Association of Metropolitan Authorities. We were neck and neck: one year Labour would be in control, the next it would be the Tories. Now the Tories have been wiped out in local government, which is entirely due to the policies that they implemented throughout 18 years of misrule. The main reason the Tories were wiped out during those 18 years can be summed up in two small words: poll tax. What was the slogan that they used? It was something like, "The duke will pay the same as the dustman."In May of the 1989-90 financial year, when I was deputy leader of Barnsley council, we went out to the electorate to raise Barnsley's first-ever poll tax—£329 per head. We went to the electorate in May, and we fought and won all 22 of the council seats that were up for election, on a poll tax of £329 per person. What did the then Government do? They capped us, making us reduce our poll tax from £329 to £270 per person. We had the backing of the people of Barnsley, and ever since then we have been trying to catch up in terms of local government finance. That is one reason why the Tories are now in disarray on local government issues.
To compound the felony, between 1990 and 1996, a further £50 million of grant aid was wiped out in respect of council services in Barnsley. A similar sum was wiped out in respect of the other council that I represented, Doncaster metropolitan borough council. I found it a touch hypocritical of the hon. Member for Mole Valley (Sir Paul Beresford)—I am glad that he is now back in his place—as a former local government Minister, to say that we ought to employ a light touch and leave local government to get on with its own business. That principle did not apply when the Conservatives were in power.
As I have said, since we came to power local authorities have been playing catch-up from the Tory years, despite the fact that local government funding has increased by 25 per cent. in real terms, and that, for the first time ever, every local authority in this country has received an above-inflation settlement to help councils to deliver high-quality services. As a result, some council tax increases are still above inflation, and we will all agree that the sooner this catch-up ends, the better.
I want to deal briefly with education spending, which, as an ex-teacher, is an issue close to my heart. Labour stood at the last general election on a platform of improving hospitals and schools, and that is exactly what the Government are getting on with. By 2005–06, education funding per pupil will have increased by £1,000 since 1997. That equates approximately to an extra 20,000 teachers and an extra 80,000 support staff. To anyone who says that Labour is not making a difference in our schools, I put forward a simple case study, but first, I should like to give some background on my constituency, as certain Members have done on theirs.
My constituency has the lowest gross domestic product per capita in Britain, at 62 per cent. of the European average. It also has the highest level of disability, with one in three households containing at least one disabled person—a direct legacy of the mining industry that Barnsley and Doncaster are famous for. It goes without saying that it is an objective 1 area. However, three years ago, Willowgarth high school in
Grimethorpe—on whose board of governors I am proud to have served since 1979—became part of the Barnsley education action zone. The zone takes in a secondary school pyramid, consisting of Willowgarth, in my constituency; Priory high school in Lundwood, in the constituency of my hon. Friend the Member for Barnsley, Central (Mr. Illsley); and Elmhurst school in Worsbrough, in the constituency of my hon. Friend the Member for Barnsley, West and Penistone (Mr. Clapham).Since Willowgarth high school became part of the education action zone, its success rate in achieving five GCSE passes has risen. Three years ago, the figure was an admittedly lowly 16 per cent.; now, it is 35 per cent. In three years, its success rate has more than doubled as a direct consequence of education action zone funding. In fact, in terms of its success rate for five GCSE passes, Willowgarth had never ranked higher than 10th out of the 12 secondary schools in Barnsley. Now it is fifth, and stands at about the authority average. That is a reflection of the Government's excellent work in education. When I spoke to the head teacher, Roger Beswick, last week, he informed me that he anticipates record GCSE results once again this year. I would also like to recommend—I know that the Minister for School Standards is present—Willowgarth high school's bid for special school status next year. Wombwell high school in my constituency is also seeking special status.
I admit that not everything in the garden is rosy and that schools certainly face funding pressures, particularly as a result of increases in national insurance contributions and teachers' superannuation. The loss of standard fund resources is also significant and has impacted severely on deprived areas such as my own, but Labour is still making a big difference to such communities.
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