Andrew Murrison
Main Page: Andrew Murrison (Conservative - South West Wiltshire)
Greg Clark
The figures that I have published today include an extra £800,000 from the new homes bonus for Birmingham that was not included in the provisional settlement. I should have thought that that was a cause of some pleasure in Birmingham, rather than the opposite.
Dr Andrew Murrison (South West Wiltshire) (Con)
Really well done to the Secretary of State on the statement, the uplift in the rural services delivery grant and the review that he has announced. However, what assumptions has he made about the uplift in parish and town council precepts, given the assertion he made a few moments ago about the proportion of local government spend that would be consumed by the revenue support grant by the end of the decade? He will know that those precepts have gone up as the RSG has gone down, as in many places the council tax has been frozen.
Greg Clark
My hon. Friend makes an important point. There have been representations in the past to include parish and town councils in the referendum principles. We have not done that, but we keep it under review so that there is economy in those councils, which is important, because their residents are also council tax payers who pay council tax to his county council.