Local Government Finance

To be fair to my hon. Friend's council, I cannot judge whether its proposals for new civic buildings are the right thing for the town. However, I can tell the council—she may wish to say this to it herself—that if it takes the steps that we support, and which we expect it to take, to do what it does more efficiently, to cut out waste and to do things in new ways, it will free up significant extra resources next year and each year during the spending review period, which it can then invest in the services that my hon. Friend rightly wants to see.