Shropshire (Structural Change) Order 2008

These are important questions and I am grateful that they have been raised. On the question raised by the noble Lord, Lord Dixon-Smith, I can do no better than to quote what my honourable friend said in the other place. He was asked a very similar question and gave a very clear answer, as expected. The question was whether there can be an assurance that, "““any efficiency savings will not be top-sliced off any subsequent revenue support grant in 2009, if the order is passed””." The answer was: "““Yes, if that is the hon. Gentleman’s concern I can say that over the next three years—a period for which we have made decisions about the distribution of the core grant from central Government to local authorities—efficiency savings, which we expect from all councils, will be entirely available to those councils that make them. Nothing will be clawed back to the centre and there will be no penalty incurred in any reduction of the core revenue support grant for councils that make efficiency savings. Those savings will be available for councils to use to improve services or to keep council tax pressures down””.—[Official Report, Commons, 19/2/08; col. 302.]" I think that covers the range of references. On capping, we always anticipated that there would be short-term costs which would lead to long-term gains. It is interesting that the gains range from £9 million to £18 million in those councils. The invitation made it clear that councils should ensure that all costs incurred were to be met locally without increasing council tax. That was always central to the entire analytical work that they had done and on which we evaluated them. We have also said that we cannot bail out councils if they go beyond that, if they find that their initial costings were not quite accurate. I am confident, having regard to the rigour put in by everyone, that they should find themselves within the scope of the savings that they have anticipated.