Local Government Finance

I am sure that the hon. Gentleman will wish to applaud the steps taken by the current Conservative council—which has been able to reduce council tax by 3 per cent. in fulfilment of its election commitment—and to condemn his party's Government for having increased the floors by what is, by any measure, less than the rate of inflation, thereby imposing a real-terms cut in support for social care and waste services in authorities such as his own. He cannot have it both ways. My third and final point is this. We must view the settlement in the context of the broader picture of the burdens placed on hard-working families throughout the United Kingdom. All the surveys regularly show that council tax figures are among the top three or four issues identified by people who are concerned about the cost of living. As we know, disposable incomes are being squeezed more and more under this Government. Data produced today demonstrate that they have been reduced by some £1,300 over the last four years. If we take into account not just the household costs of mortgages and council tax, but the increasing number of charges being imposed for what were once core local government services—of which the Minister insists there should be more rather than less—we see yet more squeeze on people who, in most parts of the country, are hard-pressed already. The settlement does nothing to help that. It will not, I am sorry to say, assist hard-pressed local authorities; it will keep them in a straitjacket. More to the point, it will force householders and families throughout the country to fork out yet again, paying more and getting less. That will be the Government's epitaph, and whether it is written on the back of a 50p bit or on the back of their redundancy notice does not much matter.