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Mr. Deputy Speaker: Order. If those hon. Members who remain to speak in the debate confine their remarks to about seven minutes, it should be possible to accommodate them all.
3.15 pm
Mr. Andrew Rosindell (Romford): I commend the hon. Member for Mitcham and Morden (Siobhain McDonagh) for her remarks. She said that Government funds are not always being spent in the most effective way. I agree. Indeed, it is often the case that when the Government or other public bodies spend money, nationally or locally, those funds are used inappropriately and squandered.
That is why I believe that the best way forward for local communities is to have low taxes, including council tax, and more power for individuals and organisations to make their own decisions, as free from local government as possible. I served as a local councillor for 12 years prior to becoming a Member of Parliament. I also spent four years as a community area forum chairman. During my years on the London borough of Havering, I learned one thing very clearly—local democracy must be truly local. I am afraid to say that our current system does not help us.
I should like to focus on the meaning of what we are talking about when we discuss communities. I heard the Minister refer to neighbourhoods, communities, wards and parishes, and others have spoken of districts. What do we mean by all those different units? We have not defined a true local community. One of the basic problems is that we have not looked at boundaries. For local government and Parliament, the boundary commissions often create anomalies. In my constituency we have communities that are completely divided between boroughs and wards, just to make up numbers. Such anomalies create divisions in communities by splitting up natural neighbourhoods. I say to the Minister that we have to get right the boundaries before
we can get down to restoring pride to communities. I could give many examples from my own borough in which anomalies give rise to difficulties that could be avoided.We need to encourage people to take pride in their communities. That means involving not only local councils and those of us who are elected to serve but people who are truly engaged at a local level. That means involving churches, local sports organisations, schools and a range of other groups. I visit such groups every week, and since becoming an MP I have visited between 300 and 400 local community organisations that cover a multitude of interests. They have a genuine interest in what goes on locally, and we should involve and support them.
I have always objected to the fact that in my constituency, on the outskirts of Greater London, we pay so much for services, yet the money is drained towards central London. We contribute an enormous amount towards the costs of the Greater London Assembly, we pay for all kinds of quangos and central London organisations, and we do not benefit from that. If we are to improve communities, we need to ensure that the funding, and its organisation, is directed to where it is needed. That means ending the current mess in local government finance. It also means ending the explosion of partnerships, agencies, working parties, forums, taskforces, committees, boards, panels and a multitude of other quangos that constantly justify their existence by producing a stream of paper, including reports, strategies, consultation documents and so on. I am fed up with receiving those things in the post and hearing what all those bodies are supposed to be doing. I agree with the hon. Member for Mitcham and Morden that those Government bodies and institutions are not spending our money or our constituents' money in the most effective way.
We must therefore oppose more government, which is why my party and I oppose regional government. The sooner that we can have a referendum to get rid of the London Assembly the better. The sooner that we can restore power to local communities by getting rid of the power that we have foolishly handed over to institutions such as the European Union the better. Those bodies affect what goes on in local communities, because all kinds of rules and directives are flooding in. Local government is hamstrung in its goal of serving its communities and instead must bow to Government and EU directives. All those documents must be put on a huge bonfire, and I do not doubt that a future Conservative Government would have the courage to do so.
I am not going to talk for much longer because I know that other hon. Members wish to speak. However, housing is vital—we must restore the right to buy and give local housing association tenants the right to purchase their home. We must ensure that the police are given the respect that they deserve and power to do their job, which is important to local communities. The police have lost confidence in their ability to do their job—a job that, as we know, needs to be done. We need to restore discipline in schools and society in general. We
need to support local shops, libraries and other community facilities, as has been mentioned, as well as post offices and pharmacies, all of which are vital.Ten years ago, I was among those Conservatives who were sceptical of the policy of ending the tradition of keeping Sunday as a special day; a policy that has led to many local community shops having to close, particularly in rural towns and villages. I supported the Keep Sunday Special campaign because, although I believe strongly that we should have as much freedom and choice as possible, a balance has to be struck. It is important that Members from all parties learn such lessons. We must ensure that parks are places where families and children can feel safe and happy, because that is not the case in many parts of the country. We must support the youth service in local authorities, which has been underfunded for too long. We must clamp down on antisocial behaviour, including graffiti, vandalism and the yob culture. We must also tackle general decay. I hope that the Minister will take note of many things that have been raised today, and that that will translate into positive action. It is very well for us to talk about these things, but our constituents want action that will result in genuine progress and make our communities better for everyone. I hope that the Government will take all those points on board.
3.23 pm
Ian Lucas (Wrexham): I should like to thank the hon. Member for Isle of Wight (Mr. Turner) for reminding me of the reason why he is a Conservative and I am a socialist. He believes that government can do bad things, but I believe that it can do good things. Government, both nationally and locally, can achieve great things in our communities. Our role as Members of Parliament is to become involved and facilitate achievement and progress in our local communities.
I accept, however, that Governments can do bad things, and some of the things that they did in the past 20 to 30 years have led to long-term problems, with which we are still dealing, caused by the breakdown of communities. For example, in my constituency in 1983, one in five of the adult population was unemployed. That figure has fallen to 3 per cent, but the fact that 20 per cent. of people were unemployed in 1983 is still having consequences today. I heard the litany of complaint from the hon. Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr. Hammond), but I have a litany of complaint about the Government who ran the country between 1979 and 1997, as what happened then has had a profound effect on my community, and on society.
The present Government are trying to confront and deal with those problems, but we must accept that they are profound and long-term and that there are no instant solutions. There has been much praise from Members on both sides of the House for the sure start scheme, which we all support. That scheme is designed for the long term—we are only beginning to see its good effects—and in 10 years' time, we will see its beneficial consequences and those of similar schemes. Similarly, people who lost out at school are coming into education through lifelong learning programmes. Their lives are being changed, so they form stronger bonds within their families and create the type of family unit and small community that leads to co-operation rather than
conflict. Consequently, in such cases, we no longer have to deal with the antisocial behaviour that we have heard so much about.Although tackling the problems is a long-term project, their consequences are immediate. It may not be true in Ludlow but it is certainly true in Wrexham that instability in a small number of families and communities has resulted in a lack of discipline and respect, and is having a disproportionate effect on the lives of others in the community. The structures of local government do not reflect the demands and wishes of the people whom I represent. Local government is still geared towards the departmental provision of services such as schools and social services, and has not woken up to the fact that the main demand is for security and stability. The Crime and Disorder Act 1998 was a tremendous piece of legislation, but local government has still not fully taken it on board. I learned from my hon. Friend the Member for Mitcham and Morden (Siobhain McDonagh) about the good things that are being done in her local community, but in Wrexham we have a lot to learn and a lot of progress to make in achieving co-operation between different agencies in the town and ensuring that the security that my constituents want is delivered.
The hon. Member for Romford (Mr. Rosindell) referred to the danger of too many organisations dealing with similar issues. The all-party regeneration group recently discussed the problem of various organisations in a small geographical area pursuing similar agendas and applying for money from similar sources. That leads to a situation in which groups effectively compete with each other. People in such groups often attend the same meetings to discuss similar topics, but end up making similar funding applications to the same organisations. There is a sense of meeting and organisation exhaustion among such people.
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