Local Government Finance

I think that my hon. Friend's point was that the situation is a bit similar to that of the council tax revaluation. The longer the period over which we try to deal with such issues, the more out of kilter they get. That makes it more painful for areas waiting to get up to their target funding, and more painful for areas that are a long way above their target to get back down to it. Because the problem has not been addressed over a shorter period, it has become even more of a problem to deal with.