1 Clive Jones debates involving the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government

Oral Answers to Questions

Clive Jones Excerpts
Monday 2nd September 2024

(3 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Alison Bennett Portrait Alison Bennett (Mid Sussex) (LD)
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10. What recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of council funding.

Clive Jones Portrait Clive Jones (Wokingham) (LD)
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15. What recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of council funding.

Natasha Irons Portrait Natasha Irons (Croydon East) (Lab)
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16. What steps she is taking with local authorities to help ensure that they have adequate resources to fund local services.

--- Later in debate ---
Jim McMahon Portrait Jim McMahon
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The English devolution Bill is a landmark piece of legislation that will finally address the imbalance of power between this place and communities up and down the country, but it is not in itself the answer. We know that the financial foundations on which it rests are local authorities, which are struggling. That is why we are committed to multi-year funding settlements and fair funding.

Clive Jones Portrait Clive Jones
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I understand that there will be a major review of local government funding next year. I represent Wokingham, whose council is the lowest-funded unitary authority per head in the country. Will the review look at the actual needs and costs faced by local authorities, as opposed to the current methodology of allocating funding, which is based on historical data and is disproportionately skewed by simplistic measures of deprivation?

Jim McMahon Portrait Jim McMahon
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Any fair funding formula of course has to address the range of challenges that local authorities face, whether that is their local tax base, and how much they can realistically generate from their local communities and businesses, or the cost of service delivery and the demand within a local community. We will ensure that the fair funding formula, of which multi-year settlements are a part, is done with that rigour.