"The reason for my perplexed state is that during the period of consultation with Members of this House, I met 140 Members of Parliament on the settlement. I am sorry if the hon. Member has had the message that I will not meet her, because my office door has literally …..." Alison McGovern - View Speech
"We set out that flexibility when we made the provisional statement, and there will be more details of that in the Chamber tomorrow. I am at the slight disadvantage of speaking between the publication of the settlement and the full debate in the House of Commons tomorrow. There will be …..." Alison McGovern - View Speech
"It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Dr Murrison. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Dulwich and West Norwood (Helen Hayes) for securing the debate, in which hon. Members have raised some important issues. She posed some questions that I will come to in my response. …..." Alison McGovern - View Speech
"I will make some progress. Yesterday’s announcement keeps our promise of a multi-year settlement, because local communities in London and elsewhere deserved better than the out-of-date funding allocations not aligned with need, which meant poorer public services and slower growth, particularly for those dealing with the consequences of poverty.
"This Government are committed to taking the action necessary to fix the foundations of local government. Today, I am updating the House on the steps we are taking to support two councils to recover and reform: Bedford borough council and Spelthorne borough council.
"Today I am pleased to publish statutory guidance under Section 2 of the Supported Housing (Regulatory Oversight) Act 2023, which sets out the framework for local housing authorities in England to formulate and publish local supported housing strategies.
"On 5 February I made a written statement on local government reorganisation. There was a minor error in the statement. In outlining the proposals received from the invitation area of Kent and Medway, it said:
“Dartford Borough Council and Gravesham Borough Council submitted a proposal for four unitary councils…
"This time last year, this Government committed to delivering long-overdue reforms to local government funding, through the first multi-year local government finance settlement in a decade. Today we have delivered on that promise.
The previous Government’s funding system was not fit for purpose. It meant that cuts hit our most …..." Alison McGovern - View Speech
"This Government are undertaking one of the biggest reforms to local government in a generation; not only have we overhauled how we fund local government, but we are ending the current two-tier system and replacing it with new single-tier unitary councils.
"This Government are committed to taking the action necessary to fix the foundations of local government. Today, I am updating the House on the steps we are taking to support Nottingham city council recover and reform.
Nottingham city council has been under intervention since January 2021. New directions were placed …..." Alison McGovern - View Speech