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6.30 pm

Mr. Graham Brady (Altrincham and Sale, West): I am delighted to follow my hon. Friend the Member for Witney (Mr. Cameron), especially on that last note.

We have had a wide-ranging debate and heard a litany of problems that are causing real worry and difficulty for communities throughout the country. Taken together, it begins to look like the hallmark of a Government who have taken their eye off the ball of domestic policy. Too much tax, too much regulation, too much centralisation and too much bureaucracy are leading to a funding crisis in our schools, the closure of police stations and courts and threats to community pharmacies and to post offices, urban as well as rural.

We have heard the nonsense of regional assemblies and of the danger of the destruction of the county councils that are much loved across the country. We have heard about the failure of the Government's housing policy, a criticism that has been backed up

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today by the publication of the report of the Select Committee on the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. It describes the Deputy Prime Minister's plan for 200,000 new homes across the south-east as being a £20 billion scheme that is of "questionable" benefit and that gives no thought to providing new communities with schools, hospitals and transport. Again, that is an indication of the way in which the Government fail to understand what really makes our communities tick and the reason why so many problems have been caused.

We have heard from Labour Members about massive amounts of spending. We have no quibbles with that; we know that is happening because we are paying the taxes. We have heard about massive urban sprawls and, at the same time, no sustainable communities.

At the outset of the debate, the Minister for Local Government and the Regions set out a long list of additional expenditure. What he missed was the fact that that makes our case for us most eloquently. The problem that we face is precisely that the Government are very good at taxing and at spending, but are not able to achieve results or avoid the waste and bureaucracy that means that so much taxpayers' money goes straight down the drain.

Mr. Tom Harris: Conservative Members have made several complaints about the financial problems suffered by local authorities, so does the hon. Gentleman agree that now would be a good time for the Conservatives finally to state whether a local government settlement under a Conservative Government would be less than, the same as or more than this settlement?

Mr. Brady: The hon. Gentleman needs to understand that the Government are burdening local government with extra taxes, extra regulations and extra costs. That is what is causing the problems in local government finance. That is why people are perplexed. They are paying more taxes nationally and locally but, at the same time, they are seeing cuts and problems and difficulties in their communities.

The Minister for Local Government and the Regions also employed bogus figures for comparisons of council tax, using the average rather than the more valid band D comparison. He also made a spurious attack on the splendid Solihull council, which offers, as he well knows, by far the best value of the metropolitan authorities in that part of the country.

My right hon. Friend the Member for North-West Hampshire (Sir George Young) spoke of the importance of affordable housing and the difficulties caused by the halving of the programme of affordable housing in Test valley, which is directly attributable to the Government's policies. My hon. Friend the Member for Mole Valley (Sir Paul Beresford) spoke about Liberal Democrat duplicity in Surrey and the outstanding record of Conservative-controlled Wandsworth borough council over many years. The extra burden that is being loaded on to Mole Valley is causing real problems for his constituents.

Such problems featured in the speech made by my hon. Friend the Member for Eastbourne (Mr. Waterson) who told us how the Government have skewed the financial settlement against his constituents in East Sussex. That also affects my hon. Friend the

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Member for Wealden (Mr. Hendry) who spoke cogently about the world of denial that is inhabited by Ministers. They do not seem to appreciate the realities that face the people whom we represent or to understand the terrible worry experienced by pensioners whose incomes rise by 3 per cent. but who face council tax rises of 18 per cent., which my hon. Friend the Member for Wealden described.

My hon. Friend the Member for Huntingdon (Mr. Djanogly) talked about the failure of joined-up government and the massive lack of demand for regional assemblies in his region. That was underlined by the hon. Member for City of Chester (Ms Russell) who, during a rare contribution in the Chamber, made it clear that there is no demand for regional government in Chester either.

The hon. Member for Ogmore (Huw Irranca-Davies) made a lengthy yet enjoyable contribution in which he spoke about job losses in his constituency during the 1980s. However, he neglected to notice or mention, as did the hon. Member for Workington (Tony Cunningham), that manufacturing jobs are currently being lost in this country at a rate that is faster than at any time since 1981, which is a real problem for communities throughout the country.

Huw Irranca-Davies: I briefly note the favourable forecast for manufacturing, especially for Wales. Does the hon. Gentleman share my regret that the only mentions of Wales during the whole debate have been in my contribution and his response? Has his party forgotten about Wales?

Mr. Brady: That was a savage attack on the hon. Gentleman's numerous colleagues who represent Welsh constituencies and have not taken the opportunity to speak up for their areas.

The hon. Member for South Dorset (Jim Knight) made a memorable contribution in which he called for his constituents who live in council houses to be deprived of the right to buy. They will have noted that as we approach the local elections.

An important issue came up in my constituency this weekend that is a clear indication of what is wrong with the Government's policies and their failure to deliver on what they say that they will do. Representatives of my local stroke association visited me and told me that the Trafford dysphasia support group is about to suffer a 40 per cent. cut in funding from the local primary care trust. We are paying massive amounts more through local and national taxes but we are getting less in return. My specific example shows how that is undermining precisely those voluntary and charitable activities that we should encourage in communities throughout the country.

I know that the Minister for School Standards would be disappointed if I did not turn my attention to schools. The funding crisis of the Government's making is the grossest betrayal of everything that they stood for in 1997 when they promised that "education, education, education" would be their three priorities. The reality is that throughout the country our children are coming home from school with letters from heads and governors in their satchels warning of massive cash shortfalls—[Hon. Members: "Satchels?"] Apparently some hon.

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Members do not provide their children with the appropriate equipment in which to carry their school books, although I am pleased to say that Conservative Members do.

The letters warn of massive cash shortfalls, cuts and redundancies. In Essex, we know that 70 redundancy notices had been issued by the end of March. Up to 90 teachers and teaching assistants face the sack in Bournemouth and Poole. Ten teachers face redundancy in south-west Bedfordshire alone. The situation is worse in London and the south-east. Schools in Barnet are suffering shortfalls of up to £450,000 for the next year. One head in Barnet recently told me:

"It's breaking my heart. We run a good school here, but we are struggling to find every penny."

Since then, in anger and frustration, more and more schools have spoken out. St. Marylebone school in London, which might have to shed six teachers, is asking parents to pay £100 each to avert a crisis, as reported in the Evening Standard on 14 April.

The Minister of State, Department of Health (Jacqui Smith): It must be true if it is in the Evening Standard.

Mr. Brady: I suggest that the hon. Lady contacts the school to discover whether it has been reduced to asking parents to fund it. I think she will find that it is an accurate report.

Paul O'Shea, the headmaster of Christ's college in Barnet, was reported as saying that his school was £450,000 short of what he needed for a standstill budget. He said:

"I have never known it as bad as this. The Government is in denial, saying that there is nothing wrong with the formula. There must be something wrong".

That concern was picked up by the Westminster head teachers consultative committee, which wrote to me to say:

"We, the Headteachers of all Westminster schools wish to make it clear that we will be unable to provide the effective full-time education for pupils with the funds allocated in the financial year 2003/4. Consequently the targets set in the recent target setting round will no longer be valid and standards will inevitably suffer."

My hon. Friend the Member for Witney made it clear that the average deficit in his constituency and across Oxfordshire is £114,000 for secondary schools. He quoted a head teacher as saying that it was the worst funding settlement that he had ever known in his career.

Who is to blame for the problems that face our schools?

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