Local Government Finance

Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker. My hon. Friend's point brings me to an issue that I was going to address anyway, namely, the question of getting a transparent methodology. The hon. Member for Wigan (Mr. Turner) also referred to this. What we have now is not transparent. Some of us have spent years grappling with damping and double-damping. Before that, we had various other kinds of massaging, all of which is virtually incomprehensible to the average council tax payer. The present situation is coming rather close to a local government version of the Schleswig-Holstein question, and with similar consequences. Of the three people who understand it, one is dead, one is mad and perhaps the other is sitting in the officials' box; I do not know. The reality has a similar impact in other places. Comparisons that ought to be readily achievable on a like-for-like basis are not. We have just heard of an example in Berkshire. The Department has made it clear that emphasis is being placed on the relative needs and relative resources formula this year, and the Minister has said that particular advantage was given under the formula to authorities responsible for social services and waste disposal. Against that background, however, 29 out of the 33 London boroughs—all of which have such responsibilities—now find themselves on the floor. Tower Hamlets, Hackney, Lambeth and Southwark all now find themselves receiving about three times less support than that going to Rotherham, and about five times less than that going to Blackburn.