Christmas Adjournment

I wish you, Madam Deputy Speaker, and Mr. Heal a very happy Christmas, and I extend the season’s greetings to all Members and all servants of the House. The local government pension scheme is close to the heart of many of my constituents, and because I want to be certain to get what I have to say about it absolutely right I shall be very dull and read out my speech. Previous difficulties regarding the well-being of the individual local government pension schemes were in large part due to employers of all political complexions, but particularly Tories, taking ““contribution holidays””. In many cases, those pension contribution holidays meant that for long periods—10 years or more in some instances—many local government employers paid little or nothing into their local pension fund. Those contribution holidays, together with the downturn in the markets several years ago, have directly led to the fund deficits that have caused problems in recent times. The local government pension scheme needs to be improved and brought into line with other public service pension schemes, not downgraded to the extent that employees pay more for a worse scheme to pay for their employers’ past mistakes, while their employers share neither the responsibility nor the pain of remedying matters. The employers and the recognised trade unions are currently engaged in detailed negotiations and they need to be allowed a reasonable period of time to reach agreement on the terms of any revised scheme. If those negotiations fail to lead to an agreement being reached, the Government will need to amend the current draft regulations so that the trade unions can consult their membership on the revised proposals that they have at least a possibility of being able to recommend.