Welfare Reform Bill

The noble Lord was talking about the importance of localism and how you could make local decisions about balancing costs here and savings there. That is right; this is not only a question of local authorities having the power to make those decisions. However, is it not also right that they can do that effectively only if they are properly resourced overall in the first place? If they are not, the Government are imposing impossible judgments on local authorities. In a sense, they are moving away from making these decisions and leaving them to local councils, thereby putting them in an impossible position.