Local Government Finance

I thank the Minister for the usual courtesy that he showed in making the statement. I welcome one or two aspects of the statement. The first is the straight face with which the Minister managed to deliver it, which is always welcome. Secondly, I welcome his announcement that the Government are going to look at migration figures. As he will know, hon. Members from all parts of the House have repeatedly raised the issue in the Chamber, but have been repeatedly ignored. I therefore hope that his arrival in the Department will presage a genuine change of heart. I hope, too, that when he responds to this debate he will say that not only will the process be internal, but that senior representatives of local government will be involved in all the discussions and working parties from the beginning, because local government has thus far done far more work on the issue than any Government agency. I welcome, too, the optimistic way the Minister dealt with the Government's retreat in the LABGI fiasco. The simple truth is that the Government have had to back down because legal challenge by local authorities in the courts demonstrated that they had got it wrong. On the basis of welcoming the sinner who repenteth, I take the Minister's comments in the spirit in which they were meant. We hope to have a better scheme in future. I could not help but smile at the way the Minister presented the settlement as freeing up local government from the dead hand of ring-fencing, when ring-fencing as a percentage of expenditure has increased from one fifth to two thirds under this Government. The Minister's imitation of the grand old Duke of York is therefore immensely welcome. Finally, I thought that the Minister looked extremely cheerful on the pages of Local Government Chronicle Plus, in the image of him smiling, standing before a weather map of the grant settlement. The hon. Member for Tyne Bridge (Mr. Clelland) raised a concern previously, so I am sorry that he is not with us, because a glance at that photograph would have shown a black cloud over Gateshead, a lot of black clouds over London—that will come as no surprise—and cheerful sunshine somewhere in the direction of Rotherham. I am sure that that is pure coincidence—or, as the right hon. Lady, the Minister of State, Department for Transport is here, perhaps there was a good result at Doncaster races. Having said that and having welcomed the fact that there is a three-year settlement, which gives certainty—that is one thing that local government has wanted—I remind the Minister that when I was practising as a barrister, I would sometimes sit in the cells with clients who would say, ““What I want most of all, Mr. Neill, is to know where I stand.”” The Minister has ensured that local government knows that; indeed, he has given ““three years' hard labour”” a whole new meaning. Now that we have heard all the warm words about greater consultation, I hope that it will be carried forward, because the other serious point raised by Government Members—this is about migration, but the concern runs through the piece—is that if we are to have three-year settlements, to which there are benefits, it is all the more important that the methodology is accurate, robust and transparent. However, huge concerns remain on all those fronts. The Minister brushed over another significant anniversary this year that has a consequence on the settlement. This year, after 10 years of a Labour Government, is the year that statistics will officially confirm that council tax has doubled, with band D now at £1,374. Now I understand why the Secretary of State is not with us to support the Minister in making the announcement—there is a rumour abroad that she is away tonight modelling for the image that will replace Britannia on the back of the 50p piece, in celebration of Labour's achievement in doubling council tax. To move on to some elements of the—